"Banned" bike shop claims Shimano won't let it inspect Hollowtech cranksets as part of "inspection and replacement" programme due to failing 100% of them

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 all Shimano cranks included in the recall which are brought in by customers, "We don't bother inspecting them, we just ship them back, it seems to be the industry norm on all the bike and mechanic forums that we follow, they all just say just ship them back, get a new set."

This seemingly did not go down well, Shimano's UK distributor Madison contacting the bike shop to say they are now on a 'banned list' and will not be paid the £35 that shops are given for each crank inspection. 

"Shimano took a little bit of offence to that," Vousden said in a subsequent video uploaded to YouTube. "We got a phone call from Madison who had apparently spoken to Shimano and they asked us to take the video down, which we haven't done, and they said that we are adding you to the banned list, which means that we can no longer administer their crank inspection and replacement programme."

The Mapdec owner also clarified that, despite his comments in the previous video, the shop was inspecting cranks as per Shimano's requirements, and confirmed his business will still be supplied with Shimano stock, the 'ban' relating to them not being able to receive the £35 reimbursement for crank inspections that the components giant is offering to bike shops.

"The interesting thing for me was there is a list of banned shops, I didn't realise that," Vousden said. "The guy was like 'we are adding you to the list of banned shops'... how many people are on this list? The reason I'm concerned about that is that they are judging shops on their pass and fail rate. Because we had a one hundred per cent fail rate we've been banned."

Vousden told us he had not been given the names of any other 'banned' bike shops, while Shimano and Madison also opted against commenting when approached ahead of this story's publication.

Mapdec's owner continued: "We do inspect them, even though I said we don't inspect them. We do, we have to because in order to send them away to Shimano we have to take them apart, we have to clean them, we have to fill in this form, and on this form we have to take pictures at the back, the side, the front etc and show that we have actually cleaned it and done the inspection.

"But, it asks us, inspection passed or failed? There's no in between. It's a pass or a fail, so our policy has always been if it's clearly failed, it's obvious, it's a fail. But we would never write the word 'pass', we would always write something like 'customer reports creaking, customer not happy with the pass, unsure, please check'. So we thought that we'd send them off to Shimano and Shimano would then offer a second opinion.

"They didn't do that apparently, according to the guy at Shimano. We were just shipping them, we naturally thought that surely if we put some comment they have got to do some extra checks that we're not capable of doing or they have some more insights and processes, but the process clearly has been they've just been sending them [replacements] out. 

"Shimano never ever sent one of these [inspected customers' cranks] back to us [...] it never happened, they always sent out a replacement, so that's what we did, that was our policy. I've always always put our customers first and I've never thought I'm going to be on the side of Shimano here."

As per the 36-page dealer's manual for the crankset inspection method, mechanics are required to undertake a process of inspecting and cleaning. The recall of last September is for 11-speed Hollowtech II road cranksets that were produced between 1 June 2012 and 30 June 2019, and covers the model numbers: Ultegra FC-6800 and FC-R8000, and Dura-Ace FC-9000, FC-R9100, and FC-R9100-P.

Once a relevant crankset has been identified, bike shops are asked to complete an inspection with the crank arm installed, looking for "cracks or gaps" in the indicated area or listening out for "abnormal noise".

With the crankset and chainrings now removed from the bike, mechanics are asked to clean it by following multiple pages of instructions included in the manual.

Then, an inspection of the removed crankset is required, again, bike shops told to look for "issues such as cracks or gaps in the crank arm" and areas indicated in the manual. If found, "immediately stop use and replace the target product", it concludes, suggesting that if no issues are found the chainrings and crankset can be reinstalled and continue to be used.

One concern that has been raised by the inspection process is the fear of riders whose cranks may appear fine at the time of inspection, but eventually fail. This is a topic that has been widely discussed online, one forum post on the topic asking: "As a local bike shop, is there any benefit in 'passing' a Shimano crank that's being inspected under recall?

"We're not material experts and even if we're sure it's okay it could fail in a short space of time. I doubt there would be any liability on the shop, but there could still be reputational impacts with some customers (you said it was fine but it still broke). Surely it's better just to send it back, the customer gets a new part with fitting and the shop doesn't have any negatives? Worst case Shimano examine it and send it back, in that case you have followed their guidance and if it fails then the emphasis is all on Shimano and their checker."

Likewise, in Mapdec's video, the second speaker explains that exact scenario happened to him, his crankset passed at the beginning of the recall only to fail during an effort not long after.

"We see comments now on our videos on this point, basically saying: 'Okay, you've checked it, what's to say it's not going to fail tomorrow or next week? What gives me the confidence to keep riding knowing that this will hold up and not fail on?'," they asked.

Madison did not comment on why Mapdec will no longer be paid for inspections, but the bike shop's video suggests it believes it was its 100 per cent fail rate that caused it. 

A quick look on online forums suggests the fail rate experienced in inspections at other bike shops varies, especially between climates. Hotter, drier locations seemingly fail fewer cranks than wetter locations like the UK. 

Echoing Mapdec's stance, one comment on a relevant thread says: "My shop wants no liability for this, so customers can send it in when they want, but we are warning all of them that unless Shimano says they are safe, they are unsafe. We've sent 12 cranks in, saying all have failed. All 12 have been replaced."

Incidentally, Mapdec says it will continue to inspect and document crank inspections if requested by customers, doing the work and completing the form, but will ask riders to take it to another shop to send back to Shimano.

> Shimano lost £93 million in sales from its crank inspection programme and total sales down 30% on previous year

"Our policy was always we don't want to be the one that says this is a pass, we always thought that, even though Shimano gave a liability release, that liability release in our mind wasn't strong enough," Vousden said. "Also we had customers coming up to us and saying: 'Well how do I know it's safe?' They'd come back the week later and say: 'Can you inspect it again it's still creaking? I'm not convinced this is not going to fail... I want a new one, I'm just going to keep coming back every week until you fail it'.

"The way I've played through it in my mind is let's say you weren't a director of the business and you had a nasty accident and broke your pelvis or something like that and you couldn't work, you would call a solicitor and try to seek compensation. I think that solicitor would very quickly identify there are two places to source compensation, from Mapdec — we inspected it, we said it was safe and we would be the last person to have touched — and Shimano.

"That claim would come into me, I would say: 'Hey, I've got a liability release from Shimano, this is part of a crank recall'. But even if that played out, it is still a load of time and effort and stress and I've got better things to do than fight out a case... we're busy enough as it is, I don't need to be in communication with insurance companies and solicitors and doing this, even if it turned out I could just shift everything to Shimano.

"I'm really proud of our stance, I will always put my customers first and I always think so long as I have customers I'll have suppliers. We've not been banned from supplying Shimano, they were absolutely clear on that. We can still do inspections, we are just not going to be paid for it."

On the legal concerns, last year we spoke to Leigh Day partner Thomas Jervis in an episode of the road.cc podcast, the solicitor telling us the whole recall is "a mess".

"I personally don't understand why it's still acceptable in the eyes of Shimano for consumers to be using this component as part of their bike until it basically fails," he said. "It's lose-lose for cyclists. Shimano can't have it both ways.

"The number one priority for Shimano should be that no more riders are harmed. I think the focus should be on preventing these accidents happening before they do, I see too many of them in my job."

Do you work at a bike shop inspecting Shimano cranks as part of the recall? We'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments, or email us at info [at] road.cc