Bald Paul

Safety Notices | Specialized.com

Badger6

Everyone who has an SL7 that is registered with Specialized received notice via email and should also have been contacted by the retailer that sold them the bike. Having already gotten mine corrected here is what I discovered.

Somewhere in the middle of the 2021 production, Specialized changed the design of the compression ring to the 2-piece design. For owners of those bikes only the expander plug must be replaced. For those who had a bike produced before the change to the 2-piece design, the fix is a bit more involved. I fell into the latter category and my bike was in the shop for 2 days, as opposed to a few hours.

Assuming your bike has not suffered a "harsh frontal impact" resulting in damage to the steerer tube, it's a relatively straightforward. If your bikes steerer is damaged, they will also replace the fork.

aclinjury

So, the solution is to use a longer expansion plug, and put an aluminum sleeve to protect the carbon steerer from the compression ring.

Question: Why wasn't this thought out? I mean, a company like Specialized should have multiple design engineers and QA engineers who are supposed to catch all this before production.
Looking at the solution and simple it is, one has to wonder why this issue was not caught during prototyping and QA'ing.

Badger6

Bench testing and practical testing programs don't always match up perfectly to real world use.

mstateglfr 

I am pretty sure that engineers at bike companies are, on the whole, the bottom of the class. They are still smarter than me, but good lord.

Yelbom15

I believe there’s another recall for their Specialized Roll series as well. They went really cheap on the stem this year.

TiHabanero

My guess is that Specialized has minimal involvement with actual engineering duties. That is likely left to the manufacturer of the component, ie frame and fork because that is their area of expertise. When I visited Specialized some 12 years ago, their engineering facility was off limits due to product development being kept secret which had me realize they don't "engineer" stuff themselves, but come up with ideas and designs, then have it built by a company under contract. That company provides the "engineering" such as material specs, design specs for durability and safety, etc.
Of course I could be full of it since I really don't know what goes on behind closed doors. Or it could be that Specialized employs incompetent engineers. Regardless this kind of stuff happens all the time in industry.

PeteHski

Engineers sometimes make mistakes. Like everyone else does. Mistakes even happen with automobile, aircraft and rocket engineering, so hardly surprising they happen with bicycles!

PeteHski

I'm not so sure about that. Bikes are fairly interesting compared to say engineering washing machines, flat-pack furniture, domestic hardware etc. I would imagine there are some pretty good engineers in the high-end bike industry and the products tend to suggest this is in fact the case. For example an ex-colleague of mine moved from F1 aerodynamic engineering to working on bike aerodynamics simply because he was a very keen amateur TT rider. He finished up working with the likes of ENVE on their aero wheels. I'm not saying the very best engineers in the world are going to be working in the bike industry, but I think it's fairly professional these days at the top end.

base2 

Uh-oh. This isn't going to affect my digital Tarmac SL7 in Zwift is it?

PeteHski

Yeah, I guess we didn't have that particular issue in F1. Still had plenty of engineering mishaps though!

PeteHski

Oh I'm fully aware of that. It's the main reason I left Ford Motor Co after I graduated in the early 90s. The idea of being a Ford product engineer with some bean-counter as my boss didn't appeal. F1 is very much engineering led when it comes to the actual cars. Obviously there are budgets in place, but the engineers get to decide how it gets spent.

As for F1 drivers trusting their lives with the engineering, they certainly do. But they are also fully aware that there is often pressure to achieve ultimate performance at the expense of safety margins etc. Maybe there is a little bit of that in race bike design too, but probably a lot more conservative.

Iride01 

Seems like another example of the safety and inspection process working correctly. Specialized certainly didn't ignore this an hope it went away quietly.

Badger6

They don't and it does...in every industry.

Badger6

Perhaps, but the liability issues are a strong incentive against what you describe. Go read what the fix constitutes. Hint: it's a simple matter of a part that turned out to be under engineered for it's intended use. As I said, the real world is a very different place than a test bench.

hose

These frames are marked up atleast 800% lmao - look at trifox - $650!

Atlas Shrugged

The best part is, there has never been a recall on a Trifox frame.

GhostRider62

I was reluctant to comment. I started in Quality Control in the 70's and have worked in development, manufactucturing, quality assurance with increasing levels of responsibility, finishing out as a consultant where I have done many failure investigations for really large companies. I guess was an an overpaid expert. Also an engineer. I first encountered outsourcing to China in the middle 90's and other Asian rim countries slightly before that time. There are a lot of challenges doing so and I disagree with those who say the quality from China is the same as what you would get with a product made domestically. The beancounters make sure it is cheaper, that is a given. That is not to say Spesh cuts corners, the fact is......none of us have any idea of their approach to design assurance. We have no idea. In this day and age, I do find it really odd that I cannot find any material on their website concerning their approach, strategy, or policy for quality. Even dinky firms tout their bought and paid for ISO cert. I have looked in the past because I find the topic interesting. How do they manage quality?