One year on from Shimano announcing a voluntary inspection and replacement recall of Hollowtech cranks, a UK-based bike shop has claimed it has been "banned" from the inspection programme after the components giant’s main UK distributor took issue with its policy of sending all cranks back to the manufacturer due to safety concerns.
Few were surprised when Shimano finally acknowledged the issue last September, cyclists having reported cracks and delamination on 11-speed road cranksets for years. However, in Europe and the UK, to the frustration of many, including one lawyer from Leigh Day that we spoke to, Shimano opted for issuing an "inspection and replacement program" rather than a full product recall. This meant bike shops were tasked with inspecting customers’ cranks, documenting any issues and, if found, sending concerning cranksets back to Shimano for replacement. There have been numerous issues with this process cited in the past 12 months, from legal fears over liability in case of incidents, through to questioning whether Shimano should instead be recalling all relevant cranksets regardless of present damage.
> Investigating Shimano’s snapping cranksets: What happened, unanswered questions and an engineer’s report
Now, however, another talking point has been raised as Mapdec Cycle Works, a Lake District-based bike shop that also uploads to its YouTube channel, has claimed it was "banned" from the inspection programme after revealing it is sending all cranks back to Shimano. The shop’s owner and founder Paul Vousden posted a video last week in which he suggested that for […]
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