TREK Handlebar Recall 

This industry is so shiny and glossy when it comes to marketing, but when it comes to basic stuff like this, it's a joke. Why only in Australia? I'm guessing some bean-counter did the maths and their public liability insurance vs sales numbers vs probability of failure in other countries is fine even if someone dies. Whereas for whatever reason the maths worked out differently for Australia. I used to say "Don't be scared of the company with recalls, be scared of the company with NO recalls." ... but... now I think a company that only recalls in certain territories is even scarier. Keep fighting the good fight Raoul, glad you're over COVID.

If I did something like this, they would strip me of my engineering registration. Yet this happens on an almost monthly basis.

I work at a bike shop in Japan and can confirm that the recall has been released here too.

“Less than ideal” it sure is. Handlebars breaking could definitely kill you. First time I have heard of this Trek recall, thanks for the heads up. 👍

So I was in the trade as a mechanic, I found 3rd party carbon bars say Deda Enve Fizik 3T etc always appeared to well made and their QC meant what ended up in store was of a high standard, but as bikes started bringing in house the production of their own proprietary stems seat posts bars etc the quality of the products and their durability seems to nose dive!

Cutting a major artery is "less than ideal"...An understatement made in the way only you could make it! I am giving gram chasing. Glad you are better, keep up the good work.

Workshop manager/Head Mechanic here of a reputable North London Bike local bike shop. I had these bars fail on me departing from the traffic lights, I heard a distinctive click the first time and then the second my right side of the bar failed and went spongy. It was held intact enough by the hydro hose, bar tape and remaining fibers enough to get me home and allow me to still use my Di2 but I was far from happy. Called my boss and he had just received the recall notice that very hour. We are no longer a Trek dealer as they've withdrawn from our small scale store to go direct to consumer we assume. The problem isn't Australia only it's being rolled out the same discreet way here where every customer is to be contacted, taking up our store time to tell valued customers to stop riding their bike and replace the cockpit with a much lesser spec until trek get the replacements produced. When I get my RSL version 2 I'm selling them the second they arrive.

Touching the road surface with your face moving at 40 km/h is less than ideal.

Just use aluminum bars and be done with it. A few extra grams ain’t gonna slow any of you down, LOL.

Good to have you back on our screens...

Great to see you back. Looking forward to future videos

Good to see you back. Missing the yellow pencil.

Welcome back, great to have you asking those important questions. Just don't hold your breath waiting for answers!

Never use carbon handlebar. Just alloy.

Good to have you back Raoul! Nice to have some reasoned counterpoint to Hambini's antics.

Thanks! Luescher

You mention two things that have actually happened to me. First, a product recall of a product I had bought used. I bought a windsurfing board from a friend, and sailed it once before she called me and said that the manufacturer had issued a recall and wanted prof of destruction of the product. She offered me to get the board she had planned to race on that season instead, which I happily accepted. Second, a handlebar snapped. I don't even think it was aluminium, it was probably some steel or so. I was riding on a bike path that had a thick hard snow cover, and lots of deep puddles filled with icy meltwater, and did some bunny hopping over them. Suddenly as I pulled the front up while going over one of them, the right end of the handlebar broke off completely. I actually landed the jump without crashing, but after that I of course stopped and contemplated what to do. I don't remember if I rode or walked home, I think it was in the 80s or early 90s. My guess is that I was too lazy to do the safe thing and walk home.

You should do a superstrata bike follow up video. Now that backers have started receiving their bikes it’s even worse than predicted

Raoul NO.1 as always! Thanks mate.

Saw this recall come through a couple weeks ago, obviously its public now- thats New Zealand

Thank you for your video. I think I stick keep using aluminium bars. And start saving for a Time frame. Question. Have you ever reviewed a Wilier?

Good work, CALL THEM OUT!

i really enjoyed ur last wheel review the man knows what hes talking about i dream of smooth pavement

Tbh it’s not very clear the damage to the bike in the video is due to the trek bar being faulty. Could have been in an accident or so. There’s more footage needed, more cases. One occurence isn’t enough. I had a alu bar snapping while riding many years ago, didn’t crash luckily. Most stupid thing i remember from back than is only being able to brake on the front wheel which felt scary, lol. I just rode home like always. Only afterwards i realized this could have been very very bad, i was lucky that day. As far as i know trek has a good name in costumer service (i don’t own a trek btw), and i hope for trekkies they solve this the right way. Thx raoul.

I was selling a particular model of full suspension electric mountain bike, aluminium frame. A whole batch had badly reamed seatubes that cracked right through, just above the gusset for the 4-bar rocker linkage to the rear shock. The company knew there was a problem, and their response was that they were aware of the problem and that the only thing reported to happen when the seat tubes failed was that the bike "wobbled a bit". Some of my customers were commuting on these bikes (wrong bike for the job, I know), so what if they were to have a seat tube fail and "wobble a bit" into the path of much heavier traffic? There was no product recall, the company were gambling their future because they couldn't afford to announce a recall and replace every potentially bad frame sold. They're a small brand, effectively a design studio with a factory in China and a local distributor to take care of nationwide support. My boss at the time told them "replacing those frames immediately will cost you a lot less than any serious injuries or deaths should you be liable." They were nice guys, but they were stuck between a rock and a hard place financially, being a relatively new company still figuring out how to be successful. Their inaction was far less malicious than that of some larger companies like Trek or Cannondale though.

A big part of the problem is how the consumer evaluates a product based upon its weight and perhaps aerodynamics. This leads marketing departments to pressure engineers to design the lightest components possible. The public evaluates E-bikes on their power and cost. Not whether the remaining components are serviceable or even have a brand name that the service manager and search for on the net, to determine what kind of brake fluid it uses. China Cycling is right, the ratio of profits to litigation is often the deciding factor for executives outside of the engineering department.

Got my temporary bar/stem already here in PH

Perhaps the manufacturers are more inclined to roll the dice and live on projected probability of failure and insurance coverage, as their business model, vs. proper design, manufacturing, and acceptance testing per unit.

Both my emondas have had these bars snap and I thought it was just my luck, last one I didn’t get so lucky saving the bike from crashing. 1st bike no problem replaced last year from warranty, 2nd time on other emonda was sprinting and bars snapped turning into a crash. including an injury and urgent care bills. Let’s say the rest of the conversation to Trek was back and forth. You spend a small fortune on a bicycle for what to put aluminum bar and stem on? Cmon!😂 hopefully the redesigned one comes out soon! All honesty though maybe they need to worry more on quality control more than there paint jobs.

No one wants to admit that an American big name brand like trek can have issues. Canyon has also recently had a major seat post issue. People always want to knock down good cheap unknown brands when the expensive brands are also having problems. 90% of bikes are made in China it’s time to admit that everyone is drinking the kool aid with or without ice.

I don't think this kind of breakage would necessarily lead to a fall (unless you're pedalling out of saddle or hard braking at the moment). The reflexes will likely save you, as you have the mode of riding one-handed in your "muscle memory" already, and if you react quick enough, you're good. That said, this is absolutely unacceptable. Bicycles didn't use to break catastrophically when they were priced reasonably. Only after it became the norm that they cost an arm and a leg because of the "engineering" put into producing them, that the engineering went to the dogs. Forget 0.1% gains in aerodynamics, weight, stiffness, compliance or whatever buzzword is all the rage nowadays, my primary requirement for my bicycle is NOT TO KILL ME. Bicycles almost a 100 years old don't typically just break under you, and now that's the norm? We should have advanced. I believe the marketing-driven development cycle is to blame. In the olden days, you had the brazed lugged construction. It was how bikes were made for decades, and you knew what to expect of them. The lugs and tubes were on the market for decades as well, and you knew what to expect. Not suggesting that we should return to that, but there is a definite advantage to not re-inventing the wheel every season. Today, you get a new model bike every couple of years. Offering marginal gains, but enough for MAMILs like me to believe that they MUST have the new one. Meanwhile, you're swapping the insufficiently tested previous model for an insufficiently tested brand new-one. Your current model is just being beta-tested by the crash-test dummies (i.e. paying customers), and you're paying premium for the privilege to sacrifice your bones, health or life, so you can do the manufacturers' work for them. There is absolutely no justification for things like this happening. At this price point, you are fully entitled to expect a bullet-proof product. But with all these (sorry) fools piling up to buy the latest-and-greatest at ever higher prices, the industry is incentivised to produce shiny new products to drool over, and safety is not even an afterthought. ESPECIALLY since the reports of dangerous quality issues and resulting defects will be drowned out by armies of fooled defending "their" bike against criticism. We get the bikes we deserve. And, unfortunately, we deserved bikes that are out to kill us.

Now, should we initiate a recall? Take the number of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one. - Edward Norton in Fight Club

I could see this recall on the horizon when Canyon recalled their handlebars. Treks are mad in the same factory so thought this might happen. I would say this though Trek have been shipping temporary alloy bars and stems to the dealers free of charge so that consumers can still safely ride their bikes... I dont think you'd see that from specialized or other major brands .

I'm curious what you think of Cycle Inspect, the startup that's training bike shops to do carbon ultrasound inspections. Maybe the industry will have to clean up its act the tools to inspect carbon frames are widely distributed.

They're mimicking the Canyon 3 piece bars. How's the seatpost?

A new car built by my company leaves somewhere traveling at 60 mph. The rear differential locks up. The car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside. Now, should we initiate a recall? Take the number of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don’t do one.

Keep up the content

Glad you beat Covid!

Trek have been incredibly pro active with this recall. Reached out to everyone to let them know and have been amazing with their communication. These things happen, in all industries. At least they have gotten ahead of this before someone has a major accident. They haven't tried to hide it. This commentary is purely speculation.

I don't think anyone is pretending or hiding anything. I have been a part of recalls and the companies hands are tied until the government gives the green light. There are fines if those guidelines are not followed.

I wonder what the use cases were on the failures. Maybe it’s from using carbon bars indoors on a trainer? Seems odd that they would fail like that for casual cyclists. Wasn’t it until very recently that Trek recommended against using their frames on direct drive trainers?

Look to what serious measures the manufacturers had to turn only to make you post videos!

Better to admit to the fact that someone get killed.

How often should I be checking my shifter bolt torque so this doesn't happen?

Oh…you think these over priced POS bikes are meant to be ridden….Well…there’s your mistake. Riding an unsafe bike is certainly “Less than ideal”. The trick is finding a safe one…..Anyone?…Bueller?…..Keep educating us Raoul! Glad to hear you are feeling better.

exceptional bike handling skills you say? good thing then i won't get in trouble. i don't ride an emonda.

Too much interest in saving a few grams than making sure things are strong enough

Trek really are a load of rubbish,all the people i know who have a Trek Emonda have had terrible bottom bracket problems,creaking and wearing out etc Hambini called them out ages ago,for a company as big as Trek to have handlebar problems as well is less than ideal.....

carbon bars are such a bad idea. pros don't use them for a reason.

This plane only has one engine working, but it's ok because no one has died yet

There is no 'cycling media' tbh there is only the cycling advertising complex and they're not going to bite the hand that feeds

All the Bike companies are as bad as each other not just Trek.

Is the poor outreach because the media receive so much $ from advertising? Shouldn't be a surprise 🙂