Crank inspections back in the spotlight as cyclists despair at Shimano's approach... but not everyone has sympathy for bike shop "banned" from inspection programme; BBC admits 15,000mph tailwind error...before we all go KOM-hunting + more on the live blog

You might have seen, crank inspections and Shimano are back in the news. That's because yesterday we shared this piece on a Lake District-based bike shop that claimed in an online video that it had been "banned" by the components giant due to failing 100% of them.

> "Banned" bike shop claims Shimano won't let it inspect Hollowtech cranksets as part of "inspection and replacement" programme due to failing 100% of them

Very YouTube-friendly language of course, the "ban" relating to Mapdec Cycle Works no longer being paid the £35 Shimano is giving bike shops for each time they look at customers' cranks as part of the "inspection and replacement" programme. Why? Well, Mapdec believes it is due to its 'fail rate', or at least its 'not pass rate' being 100 per cent (the bike shop refusing to pass any and sending them all back to Shimano for a second opinion).

Some added context to all this is that a few days before Shimano's UK distributor Madison got in touch to reveal the news, Mapdec had uploaded another video, in which owner and founder Paul Vousden said: "We don't bother inspecting them, we just ship them back, it seems to be the industry norm on all the bike and mechanic forums that we follow, they all just say just ship them back, get a new set."

It's this additional detail that left some reacting to our story with little sympathy for the bike shop, even if many accept the moral argument to Mapdec's stance — and almost all believe Shimano should have simply ordered a full recall last September and replaced everyone's cranks, not just asked customers to keep riding and get a mechanic to inspect them when they suspect something has gone wrong.

john_smith: "Doesn't Shimano issue instructions on how the inspections are supposed to be done and what constitutes a pass or fail? If Shimano pays shops to do given checks in a given way and fail/pass the parts in accordance with given criteria, then a shopkeeper can hardly complain if he gets 'banned' for doing something different (which I presume is what is happening here)."

That sentiment was echoed by other comments too. Yes, Shimano does issue instructions, a summarised version of the scintillating 36-page dealer's manual in the original story. 

From Mapdec's perspective, Vousden admitted they do inspect them properly, filling in the form, doing all the checks, cleaning the cranks, and taking the photos required. But, they won't 'pass' any...

> Investigating Shimano's snapping cranksets: What happened, unanswered questions and an engineer's report

"It asks us, inspection passed or failed?" he continued. "There's no in between. It's a pass or a fail, so our policy has always been if it's clearly failed, it's obvious, it's a fail. But we would never write the word 'pass', we would always write something like 'customer reports creaking, customer not happy with the pass, unsure, please check'. So we thought that we'd send them off to Shimano and Shimano would then offer a second opinion.

"Our policy was always we don't want to be the one that says this is a pass, we always thought that, even though Shimano gave a liability release, that liability release in our mind wasn't strong enough. Also we had customers coming up to us and saying: 'Well how do I know it's safe?' They'd come back the week later and say: 'Can you inspect it again it's still creaking? I'm not convinced this is not going to fail... I want a new one, I'm just going to keep coming back every week until you fail it'.

"I've always always put our customers first and I've never thought I'm going to be on the side of Shimano here."

And while some comments under our piece have little sympathy for the "ban" considering the context of what was claimed previously, it's fair to say the underlying feeling is that all this would have been avoided if Shimano had simply ordered a full recall last year...

NickSprink: "I watched the vid when Mapdec released it, and I completely agree with their approach. They are not materials engineers, they don't have the ultrasound and X-ray equipment to establish this sort of issue (like the airline industry uses). A visual inspection and listening for 'creaks' cannot be sufficient. If I had one of the cranks listed, I would expect a full replacement.  Anything else I would consider a fob off, and be very disillusioned."

EK Spinner:  "[Quoting the story] mechanics are required to undertake a process of inspecting and cleaning. The recall of last September is for 11-speed Hollowtech II road cranksets that were produced between 1 June 2012 and 30 June 2019, and covers the model numbers: Ultegra FC-6800 and FC-R8000, and Dura-Ace FC-9000, FC-R9100, and FC-R9100-P."

 "That should be the end of the process for the bike shop, the next line should be 'Once a relevant crankset has been identified, bike shops are asked to return the chainset to Shimano'."

> "It's a bit of a mess": A solicitor's take on Shimano crankgate on our latest Podcast

Legin: "You may agree or disagree with the approach of Shimano to this issue. However this Bike Shop publicised that they were not following the process that they were taking the money for."

Mr Anderson: "The clear and important issue is that, a crank may pass one inspection, but that does not guarantee that crank is defect free, it can still fail sometime in the future. As the video pointed out, the shareholder had this very experience. Mapdec is putting the customer first. All cranks should be shipped back to Shimano for them to inspect, and issue a warranty they are safe to use."

If only there was a way this whole inspection programme could have been avoided... 

EF Education Easy-Post have beefed up their classics line-up, adding Kasper Asgreen to the ranks for next season. The Dane hasn't enjoyed a vintage 2024 but hopes to be revitalised by a move to "really cool" EF after seven seasons with Soudal Quick-Step, during which he won the Tour of Flanders, E3 Saxo Bank Classic, Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne and a stage of the Tour de France.

"The main reason for me to come to this team is the way that the guys race," Asgreen said of the move. "You can see that there's always a plan to try to win. Even if the race is not perfectly suited to them, the guys won't just sit in the bunch, waiting for the other teams to take charge. That really attracted me. On this team, we're going to do everything that we can to make races develop the way we want them to develop. That is really, really cool. For me, it’s the main thing: I like the team's approach to racing."

A statement signing for EF who lost their former classics headliner Alberto Bettiol to Astana in August.

You might have got a shock opening your weather app this morning...

Unfortunately for anyone looking to bag a few wind-assisted KOMs, the BBC quickly addressed the data fault, and confirmed very earnestly that the 404°C temperatures forecast in Hottingham (sorry, that's Nottingham) are not legit.

"Don't be alarmed folks — Hurricane Milton hasn't made it to us here in the UK! There's been a data glitch between our suppliers and the app/online. Folk are working to solve the issue," weather presenter Matt Taylor confirmed on social media, before the BBC Weather press office confirmed the fault in a slightly more serious statement...