Continued Failure of components on Ultegra Di2 component set

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Roaders

Über Member
Hi All

I am starting to get pretty annoyed with my bike. I am getting failures of components far too frequently in my opinion.
I've had my bike (an Enigma) about 2.5 years ago and I have done just over 12,000 miles on it. I am a heavy guy and have been between about 210 and 250lb during this time. I consider myself pretty strong and am regularly pulling over 1,000 watts when pulling away.
99% of my riding is commuting 36 miles a day through London and that involves a lot of stopping and starting at traffic lights.

In this 2.5 years I've had to replace my frame, my crankset, and both Di2 derailleurs twice.

First off in April 2016 my crankset sheared:
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Then not long later my derailleur broke:

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In June my frame developed a crack and I luckily managed to get it replaced on insurance (the frame manufacturer refused to replace)

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My rear derailleur needed replacing in October 2016 as the springs had worn out I think.

In November my rear hub disintegrated:

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In January this year I got a gold service done on the bike hoping that my bad luck would turn and that the bike would start to feel better. It had not felt right for a while with issues with the gears not feeling as good as usual.
Surprisingly not much was replaced.
A few weeks later (about 500 miles I think) I took the bike back to the shop as the chain was still slipping off the front ring.
This time they replaced:
  • rear hangar
  • rear derailleur (700 miles old)
  • rear brake pads
  • rear brake rotor
  • both chainrings
  • cassette/chain
The reason given was that the hangar had been bent and had worn out the derailleur. Also the brake pads had work through and damaged the rotor.
A few weeks and 500 miles later this happened to the small ring:
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One of the bolts had come loose and the chainring then sheared and bent round so much that I could not turn the pedals without the ring scraping on the frame.

Today my second front derailleur broke in the same way that my first one did. This was 3,000 miles old.
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I don't know what to do!
Some of these issues could be blamed on poor maintenance but I take my bike to shop for servicing a LOT. I clean the drivetrain pretty much every weekend.
The front derailleur shearing doesn't seem to be a maintenance issue.
I am sure that people will blame the bike shop but I have tried 3 different shops at my work and I really believe that this shop is the best and I trust the guy that looks after my bike.
For the crankset he tightened all the bolts to the specialised specified torque and applied lock tight so what else can he do?
I consider Specialised Ultegra to be a pretty premium product and I expect it to last better than this.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Has anyone seen failures like this before?

I love my bike, it really does feel fantastic but these failures are far too time consuming, frustrating and costly.
 

Drago

Legendary Member
You're lighter than me and I've never suffered failures like that, but then I ride quite light on the contact points.

That crank spindle failure looks horrific. Hope you weren't hurt.
 
Ultegra isn't designed for the life you're giving it. Stop/start every day urban commuting is very hard on equipment.

It's the equivalent of driving to work every day in a Ferrari. It's the wrong tool for the job.

And maybe you could practice not being such a masher. Raising your rpm will reduce the number torques that are demolishing your fancy lightweight parts.
 

S-Express

Guest
Raising your rpm will reduce the number torques that are demolishing your fancy lightweight parts.

You're saying Ultegra kit cannot cope with someone pedalling hard?
 
OP
OP
R

Roaders

Über Member
Ultegra isn't designed for the life you're giving it. Stop/start every day urban commuting is very hard on equipment.

It's the equivalent of driving to work every day in a Ferrari. It's the wrong tool for the job.

And maybe you could practice not being such a masher. Raising your rpm will reduce the number torques that are demolishing your fancy lightweight parts.

Are you saying that cheaper equipment will cope better with the tough job of commuting?
I realise that my usage of the bike is tough.
 
OP
OP
R

Roaders

Über Member
Why didn't the manufacturer replace the frame under warranty?
They said that the failure was due to a front collision. The only collision I'd had with the bike was nearly 2 years and 10,000 miles previously.
It was minor and I went into the back of another cyclist who stopped suddenly.
Not a collision that I would expect to ruin an expensive frame.
 
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