Shimano – Massive Recall of Ultegra and Dura Ace cranksets

Rumours, stories and outright accusations have plagued some Shimano cranksets for several years.

So it’s perhaps surprising that Shimano has now effectively recalled the following cranksets sold in North America from 2012 until this year.

• Dura-Ace FC – R9100
• Dura-Ace FC – R9100P
• Dura-Ace FC – 9000
• Ultegra FC – 6800
• Ultegra FC – R8000

This is being announced as an Inspection Program

Owners in the EU/UK are also affected and details of that Inspection Program will be made available in due course. Bike Radar reports that over three-quarters of a million cranks are potentially involved in North America. My guess would be that once the EU is added, that figure will rise to a million.

what is the problem exactly?

Simplistically the crank breaks along one or more of its bonded edges. You will read some reports calling this delamination, I don’t think that’s the right term.

Going back to my studies of Chemistry in my later teenage years, I’d make a small wager that the fundamental problem is Galvanic Corrosion. In a nutshell: two different metals plus a bit of water create a small battery effect that corrodes one of the metals over time. Snap! Shimano Hollowtech uses two metals.

what’s the solution?

Shimano says,

if your crankset shows bonding separation, you will be provided with a free replacement crankset.

You can check the other criteria here, all of which seem reasonable to me.

but…what if you have a Stages or 4iiii crankset?

This will be extremely messy. I’ve reached out to 4iiii, Stages, etc for comment. pic.twitter.com/6gv1cdjxTq

— Shane Miller ???? (@gplama) September 21, 2023

Am I affected?

A: No, not me personally

I have several of the affected cranksets but have never experienced failure. One of my regular cycling buddies was affected a few years back, suffering a broken crank.

Check the two-letter code near where is says your crank length on the inside of the crank. If it’s one of these you could get a new crank:  KF, KG, KH, KI, KJ, KK, KL, LA, LB, LC, LD, LE, LF, LG, LH, LI, LJ, LK, LL, MA, MB, MC, MD, ME, MF, MG, MH, MI, MJ, MK, ML, NA, NB, NC, ND, NE, NF, NG, NH, NI, NJ, NK, NL, OA, OB, OC, OD, OE, OF, OG, OH, OI, OJ, OK, OL, PA, PB, PC, PD, PE, PF, PG, PH, PI, PJ, PK, PL, QA, QB, QC, QD, QE, QF, QG, QH, QI, QJ, QK, QL, RA, RB, RC, RD, RE, and RF.

Remember it’s North America only right now. But these are the phone numbers given by Shimano

• International: +31792077017
• The Netherlands: +31792077018
• United Kingdom: +441174094110
• Germany: +4923129295084
• Belgium: +3233187827
• Spain: +34936096836
• France: +33173071925