Shimano (US) Ultegra & Dura Ace crank recall

Shimano US have issued a recall for 760000 Ultegra R6800 R8000 and Dura Ace 900, 9100 & 9100p cranks that are at risk of delamination.

https://www.bikeradar.com/news/shimano-crankset-recall/

I’ve spoken to Madison (UK distributor) and they’re expecting a communication from Shimano Europe tomorrow, Friday 22nd September, so keep your eyes peeled.

Ouch – 0.7% failure rate. My Dura Ace 9000 have a scratch tat would be nice to swap, my Ultegra 6800 are worn from shoe rub. I wonder if it is cheaper to supply with new chainrings, or swap the existing ones?

Only owners of cranksets showing signs of “bonding separation or delamination during the inspection will be provided a free replacement crankset and installation”.

Maybe I should not get my hopes up just yet!

That’s going to cost a fortune

My ultegra cranks were bought in 2021 and don’t have those product codes. I have always noticed that the join between the two halves of the cranks is not perfectly aligned, no movement or creaks though.

Blimey, I’d heard of issues on the 6800 cranksets going back ~5+ years ago, but not the newer ones.

“Only owners of cranksets showing signs of “bonding separation or delamination during the inspection will be provided a free replacement crankset and installation”.”

So it’s pretty much a warranty extension then.

Still, big news and FINALLY they’ve acknowledged the problem that everyone knew about.

good news hopefully we will get this  in uk, mine started to debond  in 2021 and chain reaction wouldn’t do anything as they were older than 2 years

so bought 105 to replace

Kept the cranks though – so will be nice if iwe can get replacements

I remember seeing something about this being geographical, certain areas of the world with similar climates have had the most failures.

When I needed new chain rings for my 6800 I found a new 105 crankset for £10 more than the rings. I now have a 6800 crank in the spares box. I’ll double check their condition and hope for a swap… maybe to some XT 😜

My 6800s are in an affected batch. Can’t see any issues yet but I have a new bike with 12s 105, I love the look of the 12s Ultegra cranks though!

noeffsgiven
Free Member
I remember seeing something about this being geographical, certain areas of the world with similar climates have had the most failures.

Never heard something like that before. Does 20C and x% humidity make that much difference?

Mine did this long binned them though wisj I’d kept them now

https://bike.shimano.com/en-EU/information/customer-services/corrective-actions/important-safety-notice-11-speed-hollowtech-road-cranksets-inspection-program.html

now if only raceface would do the same for all the carbon next cranks with loose pedal inserts 😎

At last Shimano acknowledge it.

Not the quality of Dura Ace 7400 that I still ride on, or 1986 Shimano 600 cranks.

As a manufacturing engineer, gluing stuff together is filed alongside voodo magic and hopes and prayers.

We’ve never had any issues over various sets. Just checked and we do have one set of the effected cranks, it looks fine though

How do you actually tell if the cranks are de-laminating or de-bonding, outside of catastrophic failure? Is it possible?

I have an affected set of Ultegra 8000….

Mine split along the crank arm on the drive side, if you look along the inside of the arm you can see the join where it’s bonded.

Only noticed at the start of a ride as it felt like the bottom bracket was twisting, I thought my frame was cracked or the sole of my shoe had split.
<p style=”text-align: left;”>The bike was 3 or 4 years old at this point and after a quick Google it was a well known problem then but Shimano refused to honour any kind or warranty replacement so I purchased a new 6800 crank with odd chainring sizes that was cheap at the time. I sold the odd chain rings along with the non-drive sized crank from my broken one to recoup my costs</p>
Just checked the garage and I still have the faulty crank but no longer have the non-driveside arm. I wonder if Shimano will honour the warranty without it?

My R8000s aren’t on the recall list.

Do you get replacement chainrings as well? In the FAQ in explains how long it will take and possible delays due to chainrings and crank arm lengths?

Yes you get a new 12 speed chai set with 11speed chainrings if your unit is delaminating

Seems my drive side crank is in the recall batch but the NDS was swapped when I got a power meter and isn’t on the list. So am I OK to keep riding if I only pedal with my left leg?

Just checked my Ultegra 6800 crankset and its on the list, quick inspection and it looks like the crank isnt sitting flush around where the cranks 5 arm section meets the chainrings which is on the what to look for section on the recall video

Kinda glad i havent used that bike much this summer and spent the summer on my Campag bike instead!

So im guessing if Madison warranty my crank im gonna end up with a Ultregra R8100 crank which wont match the rest of my 6800 DI2 groupset and play havoc with my OCD!

I have an R8000 chainset with a 6800 groupset and it looked weird for about 2 minutes.  Then I rode my bike and forgot about it, don’t even notice it’s not “correct” now.

Not had a chance to ring the shimano number yet, any else done that yet

From shimano website

“Do I have to go to the retailer? Can I send this straight to Shimano?
Please work with your local retailer to submit. Shimano will be working with our retail partners to execute this process and that will allow for the most consistent tracking and overall levels of service.”

does this mean you can just go to any shimano dealer ? i.e somewhere you didnt buy cranks from in the first place ?

Never heard something like that before. Does 20C and x% humidity make that much difference?

Two sets of Ultegra here, haven’t checked if they are in the affected batches though.

I got the impression if moisture got inside or sat inside the crank it could eventually affect the bonding from the inside.

As my bikes live inside a reasonably warm dry garage I had sort of lazily assumed I wouldn’t have any issues, I got the impression people with affected cranks tended to ride them year round and possibly also leave them stored outside or in damp sheds or something.

As on the other thread about this – I only kept the delaminated arms. Sold the rest on, so not sure if they’d warranty me.
But was bloody annoying to have 2 go like this

I got the impression people with affected cranks tended to ride them year round and possibly also leave them stored outside or in damp sheds or something.

Mine definitely used all year round, not only road grime, but sweat maybe could’ve affected them too. But, you know, they are bike cranks!

Mine definitely used all year round, not only road grime, but sweat maybe could’ve affected them too. But, you know, they are bike cranks!

Oh yeah, absolutely, not blaming people for getting their expensive cranks wet! 😂

I’m just lucky that I still do the whole summer bike/winter bike thing, the bike that sees most rain and salt has either solid aluminium Alivio square taper cranks or Tiagra. I doubt I sweat enough on the trainer to delaminate cranks though, obviously not trying hard enough!

I’ve got three sets of R8000 cranks, codes PE, UE, and QA.
Seems like the ‘UE’ ones are not considered an affected model – which makes sense as I believe those were manufactured after 2019.
I haven’t had any debonding issues with mine – mine are relatively low mileage as my commuting/training bike usually has 105 cranks installed.
I know a bunch of people who debonded their cranks though, mostly DA ones and higher mileage. Some managed to get a warranty replacement, others were out of warranty.
Will be interesting to see whether the inspection and replace procedure gets rolled out beyond USA.

Those Dura Ace 9000 series chainsets were the last nice looking road chainset Shimano did, not that I could ever afford them.

Quite like the looks of my 6800 chainset so tbh if there are no signs of debonding I won’t be too worried about keeping them, reckon they can stand up to my 300W peak power. I’ve also just replaced the chainrings with FC6800, don’t think the big rings are foward compatible.

2 pairs of affected 6800 cranks. I understand why shimano won’t make the inspection criteria public but with no obvious signs of an issue I’m not sure I’ll bother to take them off and travel to a shop.

does this mean you can just go to any shimano dealer ? i.e somewhere you didnt buy cranks from in the first place ?

Mrs anagallis took her bike into the lbs today, cranks were not bought from them. Inspected, all fine! Although we do use the local bike shop regularly and the bike was bought from them originally but with other cranks and wheels.

I just realized I have two sets of 8000 series cranks and both are affected batches but no sign of delamination or bonding to my layman’s eyes.

They’ve also got 2-sided power meters bonded on so I’d be very pissed off if they have to be replaced (even off settings the potential benefit of getting shiny new cranks with no wear on the horrendously expensive chain rings…)

Hmmm… let’s think about this.

– inspect today, VISUALLY (nothing clever like UT) it’s not debonding.

– how about in 6 months or a year or two ? Especially if I’ve hardly used the bike with the cranks on since I put them on (a tri bike… and we had 2 years of sod-all races because of covid, so I didn’t ride the bike much. So unlikely to have made them start to fail.  But that will change going into 2024.

Annoying as I put the Ultegra cranks on because the SRAM cranks and BB thst came on the bike were shiiite for shifting and chain drop etc,  and too long too.

Shimano have published a self-inspect video in the USA, ON YOUTUBE

Local bike shop hasn’t had any details from Shimano yet, surprisingly they said I was the first caller but they were aware of the recall.

They thought I was calling for the general inspection and seemed surprised when I have a crank that has debonded. They asked me to email pics over and my details and they’ll be in touch.

I now wonder if this is the source of creaking on my Giant Propel (Ultegra 11 speed), rather than the obviously smooth BB. Will swap to a spare 105 crankset and see if the noise goes away. I like my Dura Ace cranks, the last decent looking groupset they made with black and shiny for all tastes.

I’ve self inspected mine. Both are fine so won’t bother with hassle of shop inspection.

Before I either embarrass myself at the LBS or kill myself by continuing to ride, would a more experienced rider cast their eye over these photos of my chainrings? They’re in the recall batch, but I can’t tell if I’m just looking at the normal interface between the two chainrings, or whether this is a crack.

• Looks buggered to me!

I’ve got two sets and both look fine to me but I’m just a rough arsed chippy and not an engineer.😀

Although I definitely would say that set ^^^ is in need of a replacement!!