davethelefty

I have a Canyon Endurace carbon bike that recently started making clicking noises. I was able to eliminate drive train and seat post/saddle as a source. The noise was coming from the front of the bike, only when I leaned my weight on the handlebars. Oddly enough only in motion, riding over bumps in the road...


Long story short a Velofix tech could recreate the sound and went over the bike top to bottom. That's when he discovered a 2+ in. crack in the carbon steerer tube.


I'm puzzled by this -- the bike was assembled by Velofix, all stem bolts tightened (and confirmed) at 5 Nm spec. The only work I've done on the bike is different saddle and adding Shimano pedals. The bike has not been wrecked or abused, and it has about 2000 miles on it. Rider (me) is within weight spec and probably not capable of generating extreme forces that would torque handlebars, stem, or frame.


I have a claim in with Canyon, awaiting their review. Is it a product defect? The Velofix guy (who also rides a Canyon) had heard about Canyon fork issues but he thought they were cracks in the fork itself, not up at the steerer tube.


Any info you have, and/or thoughts and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Litespud

what’s to say? Sounds like a relatively new bike, professionally assembled and not abused. Canyon will either agree or disagree

Andrew R Stewart 

Forks are considered components, not a frame, by some companies. So many warranties stop their coverage on their forks after the first year. Now what actually happens can be rather different then what a warranty says. I hope Canyon makes good on this and that we hear back after the verdict. Andy

SoSmellyAir

How old is your Canyon Endurace? I have been also considering this bike (plus a couple of others), and came across this thread in my research:

Out of the Loop: Canyon bikes and Headsets? : cycling (******.com)

Apparently, according to the above post, older model years of Endurace do not have an expander plug within the steerer tube, which makes it easier to crack when the stem is installed.

Geepig

What is there to be puzzled about? Take away the techs, the specs and the research and it is just a product, and products sometimes fail.

Without a picture then even if someone else had the same model with a crack in the steerer tube we cannot be certain that the crack is in any way related.

So, pretty please, can we have a picture?

Crankycrank

Agree that there is not much to say about your fork at this point. You've taken the proper steps so see what happens. You can always report it to the govt safety site. (can't think of the name of the agency at the moment) and if they get enough reports a recall may be deemed necessary. Could just be a bad one that passed QC, could be someone feckered it up and didn't know or fess up to it, etc., etc. No absolute guarantees with anything in the bike world but hopefully Canyon will replace the fork and all will be good again.

shelbyfv

Yep, let us know the outcome. Hopefully they will replace it or if it isn't covered by warranty, offer a discount on a new fork.

davethelefty

For those who asked, this is a 2019 Canyon Endurace CF SL 7.0 Disc.

Here are several photos showing the crack. Waiting for Canyon's response. Their website states that the 6-year limited warranty includes forks. So we'll see...

Really my point of posting was to see if anybody had had similar scenarios with Canyons or any other carbon bike. Thank you all for your responses.

SoSmellyAir

Does this bike come with an expander plug inside the steerer tube? (One is not shown in your photos.) Also, does the crack pretty much run along where the stem clamps on?

Crankycrank

+1, that looks exactly like the deformity you would get from where the stem clamps. It could have been clamped with too much torque or the bung wasn't positioned at the right height or just a defective steerer or who knows.

Andrew R Stewart 

One would hope that even if the bike came without a pressure plug the assembling shop would have installed one. If not shame on them.

We've assembled a few Canyon bikes over the last year. Our big issue is the sometimes specific to Canyon aspects. We tell our customers that we can't consistently source some parts for them. Otherwise they are just one more bike out there. Andy

Redbullet

Not just for curiosity... what is the total height of spacers below the stem, that were used in that setup?

davethelefty

As configured/shipped by Canyon, the spacers total 4cm of height from headset to stem.

Litespud

4 cm is a lot IMO - the rule of thumb I always heard was no more than the steerer diam for carbon steerers - so no more than ~30 mm of spacers for a 1 1/8” steerer. However, I have no actual basis for this “rule” - just something I’ve always followed.
But that’s a separate issue not relevant to what’s happening with your steerer - it really looks to me like the steerer was crushed by the stem. Was there an expander plug installed?

MinnMan

Interesting. I have a 2020 Ultimate that I assembled myself. (Well, you know, they come mostlyl assemblled, but you do have to select how many spacers go above and below, and then tighten the cockpit.) After about 1000 miles, It developed a creak in the headset and also had some noticeable give when I really put a lot of force on the bars (for example when my weight shifted as I went from sitting to standing on the pedals). I posted about this a while back, but ending up taking it in to the LBS and they adjusted the tightness of the expander plug and now it's all good. No indication of a tube crack, which was a concern I had before bringing it to the shop. So I wonder if things had been just a little different (slightly greater assembler error, greater weight of rider, etc.), I might have ended up with a cracked tube.

davethelefty

Yes there was an expander plug, which makes me wonder how over-torquing the stem would have cracked the tube…

veganbikes

The expander plug isn't there to allow you to just crank on stem bolts it is to help pre-load the bearings and does provide some reinforcement. However you still need to use proper torque.

I would hope that you did install your stem and fork properly because if so they should provide you with warranty as long as it is within the warranty period. If not take it as a good (and expensive) lesson that a quality torque wrench and following the instructions provided and checking things once a while is super important.

davethelefty

All work was done by a mobile bike shop/mechanic that Canyon recommends for assembly. This is my first carbon bike so the plan was to have the mechanic do the initial setup, then over time I would acquire a torque wrench and do my own fitting adjustments as necessary.

So if indeed this is not a product defect but an installation problem, then the expensive lesson learned will be to find a good LBS instead (or maybe go back to aluminum???).

Mad Honk 

Davetl,
The picture of the inside of the tube show what is called a delamination of the CF. The cause is not enough matrix in the layer between the CF plies, and maybe not enough matrix in the prepreg of the CF itself. It may be a production issue or an issue with the manufacturing process that used a lesser quality prepreg than needed for the strength of the CF. I would hope the manufacturer will make good on this failure. Smiles, MH

davethelefty

Thank you for that info!!! I'm hoping Canyon sees that as a delamination issue also.

Nessism

Good on you for using a Canyon recommended tech. Even of the stem was over tightened I don't see how they could deny a warranty claim.

Personally, I build all my own bikes, but in a case like this someone like me would be screwed. Hopefully you aren't.

veganbikes

The LBS is a good way to go but if you did have an actual mechanic they recommended do all the work and you didn't touch it after that but have brought it to a mechanic for its first check in then probably a warranty issue. Some people do get a bike built (or buy a bike already built) and then never get it tuned and have issues because it wasn't checked over after a bit of riding. However most tend to come back to get service. I don't know if Canyon offers to pay for that service as most shops will do at least one check over/tune up after you buy a bike?

Camilo

I've always followed the fork manufacturer's spec. What I've seen in my limited experience (4 or 5 different cf steerer tube forks) is either 35 or 40 mm maximum between the top of the headset and the bottom of the stem. I've never seen 30… but again, limited experience. Actually, I recently installed a 1" full carbon fork (Columbus Minimal) that specified 40mm max which is far beyond the rule of thumb, thank goodness for my fit! . I've never seen a documented rule of thumb -where haven't your seen it? (Honest question). Personally, i would never guess, but would look at what the spec actually is. If I couldn't find it, I'd go with 35mm. I wonder if there's any forks that specific as little as 30?

Interesting

davethelefty

Two weeks ago I submitted a claim on the cracked steerer tube. So far no word from Canyon. I called and they said they’re swamped.

i guess the new normal in the era of COVID is don’t be in a hurry for anything. It looks like Canyon is not shipping any Endurace bikes in my size for a month so they may not even have a replacement fork. Maybe one day. Meanwhile I’m riding a hybrid bike that is okay, but it’s not my Canyon.

CliffordK

Do you have a photo straight down from the top to help orient the crack with the fork legs?

Do you know if the assembly tech used a torque wrench for installing the stem?