Snapped crank spindle.

[Angus McCoatup]

Anyone else experienced this. Riding on the flat, at a moderate pace on my 9 yo Giant Defy 1 with the FSA cranks which have been on it from new.

For a split second I realised that the left pedal was slightly wobbly, then bang! My head hit the tarmac. Spindle was sheared clean off at the bracket.

Thank goodness for helmets, see photo. I was a bit shaken but thankfully only a mile or so from home. And had a very badly bruised left arm. Didn't have chance to slow up or put a hand out to break my fall. Scary stuff.

 

[Drago]

Not unheard of on various types of hollow spindle. Disciplined pre-ride checks pick this up and potentially save the unwary from injury or worse.

Glad you survived unscathed.

 

[T4tomo]

Ouch, glad no lasting damage.

I once pedalled the crank away from the chainring on the other side on my Brompton, that just resulted in a lack of any forward momentum as it came away slowly.

 

[nickyboy]

Yeah, had a failed Shimano Hollowtech a few weeks ago. Mine was righ in the middle of the bottom bracket so luckily the cranks stayed attached and I stayed upright

It happens. Short of x-raying the crank spindle before every ride I doubt there's much you can do. Put it down to your epic watts and move on.

 

[Angus McCoatup]

What got me was I had no time to react. I have had a crank come loose before due to it not being properly tightened, and had chance to stop. But this time, wallop. Straight off.

 

[I like Skol]

Disciplined pre-ride checks pick this up and potentially save the unwary from injury or worse.

Not sure how you've worked that out as this won't be visible until it is too late?

I will agree that the hollow spindle design in general seems to be a weak point, I fully expected to open the thread and read about a Shimano Hollow tech spindle snapping. Recently experienced by @nickyboy

 

[Cycleops]

Sorry, glad you’re okay. Seen this before. Enough to put you off using two piece cranksets again. Go back to square taper?

 

[fossyant]

Rolls out the 'you don't get that with square taper' bottom brackets !

Glad you are OK, could have been nasty.

 

[MichaelW2]

Rolls out the 'you don't get that with square taper' bottom brackets !

Glad you are OK, could have been nasty.

Even Phil Woods square taper have been known to fail. The bog standard Shimano cartridge ones seem impervious to breakage.

 

[ColinJ]

I will agree that the hollow spindle design in general seems to be a weak point, I fully expected to open the thread and read about a Shimano Hollow tech spindle snapping. Recently experienced by @nickyboy

And @Svendo.

Rolls out the 'you don't get that with square taper' bottom brackets !

No, but you can still break the cranks!

Here's one I caught in time BEFORE it had the chance to break...

I actually snapped one about a decade before that. Fortunately, I wasn't putting a big effort in at the time and managed to stop without crashing, and checked out what the problem was. The one-legged ride home was a wee bit tiring!

 

[the snail]

Rolls out the 'you don't get that with square taper' bottom brackets !

Glad you are OK, could have been nasty.

It's pretty much true though. Anything made of aluminium alloy which is under load is going to fail sooner or later, probably sooner if it's lightweight and corroded from salt etc. There will always be a risk of failure with alu cranks, spindles, handlebars, seatposts etc. With hollowtech, it's a good idea to take the crankset out once a year say, give it a clean, check for wear/damage and smear a bit of grease on it. Pretty easy/quick to do.

 

[Angus McCoatup]

@ColinJ I was doing the 1 legged ride home after the incident, when 2 cyclists came passed and asked if everything was ok. I mean, does THIS look normal 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

 

[Drago]

Not sure how you've worked that out as this won't be visible until it is too late?

I will agree that the hollow spindle design in general seems to be a weak point, I fully expected to open the thread and read about a Shimano Hollow tech spindle snapping. Recently experienced by @nickyboy

It's not zero clearance at the crank/bearing interface. Certainly as Mickeyboy describes above, a failure further in would not be visible, bit this would have been...just.

A definite safety case for fairly frequent periodic removal and inspection, or even swapping for a more robust system.

 

[weareHKR]

Yeah before every ride, always give your cranks a good old tug before you put your feet on them, or better still get them x-ray'd & if you've got any doubts, swap them for a more robust system...

 

[Svendo]

It's pretty much true though. Anything made of aluminium alloy which is under load is going to fail sooner or later, probably sooner if it's lightweight and corroded from salt etc. There will always be a risk of failure with alu cranks, spindles, handlebars, seatposts etc. With hollowtech, it's a good idea to take the crankset out once a year say, give it a clean, check for wear/damage and smear a bit of grease on it. Pretty easy/quick to do.

I think all Hollowtech II spindles are steel, certainly my broken Dura Ace 7900 one was. Although that doesn’t actually detract from the advice given.