bt

or replace the bad part with a fail safe one.

gregf83 

Even with the risk of becoming a quadriplegic it wouldn't be worth it for me personally to go to the Trek dealer for a replacement skewer. I'd just tighten my skewer when I put the wheel on like I do now.

UnfilteredDregs

Leave it to you to equate a defective QR with a disc problem.

79pmooney

This recall on a system where a hard stop with less than full QR tightness could lead to the fork dropout lifting off the wheel axle. (True of any front disc where the caliper is behind the fork.) Why not put that same unit on the right side, forward of the fork, solve that problem and allow the left side QR lever be used safely? Kill two potential litigation issues with one stone.

Ben

tekhna

Leave it to Unfiltered Dregs to come running to the bike industry's defense in any and all circumstances

If you're really going to live up to your name you should really consider going into muckraking instead of parroting industry talking points. You know, be an actual contrarian.

CliffordK

Yes...
And on the rear????

The problem is dealing with everyone...

On my road bike, I always put my skewers on the left, and always pointing straight back. However, it doesn't take much looking at bike racks, or browsing Craigslist to find a bike with the skewers in a direction that I wouldn't ride it.

One Up, One Down
Another skewer pointing down

Personally I pay attention to how my bike rides, but I don't do a 30 point safety check before every ride. And, that would assume conditions never change during the ride too.

UnfilteredDregs

...and the award for completely delusional logic goes to Tekhna. The tin foil is strong in this one.

So it's not a QR problem Einstein?

tekhna

It's pretty clearly a quick release design flaw. I didn't say otherwise anywhere that I can see.

You need a new way to lash out other than to accuse someone of tin foiling. It's stale. You don't want your bits to get stale.

Slackerprince

Should we light torches and brandish pitchforks, or just stay with keyboards and emoticons?

intransit1217

I've got a candle if it helps.

merlinextraligh

Properly tightend QR's don't just fly open. Dollars to donuts, the few that have had issues were "tightened" with the QR lever open, and the nut screwed down to tighten.


https://www.bikerumor.com/2015/04/21/...o-trek-recall/

Stucky

Failure to maintain forward momentum on two-wheeled vehicles may result in inability to maintain perpendicularity with pavement, resulting in sudden impact with same, which could cause serious injury or death to the operator fo said two-wheeled vehicle! Immediately return your vehicle to your nearest authorized official Trecialiant dealer, by walking or transporting via automobile, so that outboard stability-enhancing auxiliary wheels may be added to reduce the possibility of serious injury or death.

UnfilteredDregs

What's stale is you portraying my point as anything other than what it was...clearly saying it's clearly a QR issue. If you're going to delusionally tilt Quixotic you ought not jack yourself out of the saddle like an idiot.

Jed19

Yes, I concur this is a design flaw. I am not an engineer nor an industrial designer, but it seems to me that industrial designers should design to the least common denominator. While you can't make most products "idiot proof", you can at least lean that way in your designs. More so especially with products with which people can get seriously hurt.

A favorite phrase posted by FB in the mechanic's forum is that fools are too ingenious in ways they can hurt themselves. This ought to be the mantra in engineering and industrial design schools.

CliffordK

Does Trek make any of their QR levers, or do they use other brands such as Shimano?

I could imagine this having ripples across the bike industry. However, it is possible that Trek will actually replace substantially fewer than 900,000 skewers. They may be scrambling to try to figure out just how many skewers actually have that problem.

As far as recalls... this appears to be a cheap one (the coupon still puzzles me). Somebody is going to make money off of this. Imagine bringing 900,000 customers into the LBS, all with a $20 Bontrager coupon. Undoubtedly some will spend substantially more in the shops.

Ahhh, Bontrager is a subsidiary of Trek. Now that makes sense.

If they play their cards right, this could be such a lucrative recall that they'll have to find something else to recall !!!

Perhaps we'll see the headline: "A million X-Brand bikes recalled for a brake pad adjustment... which could cause a bike to fail to stop" (or stop too quickly).

snotrockets

I don't have those tabs

AndyK 

I guess the scary design flaw is that if the QR was open all the way, it would LOOK closed - and then it could go past the 180 and hit the spokes or disc?

Bottom line - close your QR's!

snotrockets

It's math: cost of recall vs the expected cost of a trial.

Like democracy, the judicial system is far from best, but it's not as bad as some imagine.

IANAL, but I'm also suspect the probability of a verdict isn't high enough to tip the scales in favour of a recall, if this was a rational decision. But as Kahneman & Tversky observed (and won the Nobel for their observation), people are rarely rational in their decisions.

I suspect it's personally cheaper for Trek's lawyers and/or management, personally, to spend so many thousand dollars out of Trek's vaults, than to be willing to make a decision which involves any of their own risk. Typical of management.

CliffordK

Publicity is fickle.

Sometimes bad publicity will have a positive effect on a company by getting people talking about the company. Sometimes it can have disastrous results.

I have no doubt it looks much better to appear safety conscious than to appear to bury fatal design flaws. I have to ask, however, why they let this continue for a decade and a half. Was this mandated by a court case (which I'm not seeing)? Or, perhaps preventing a lawsuit coming from an accident?

In this case, Trek is giving away a part that may be worth $2, with less than a minute for installation time. And, insisting that consumers come into the store to pick up the $2 part (no sending it by mail).

Plus giving out a coupon worth about a half a tire. How many people will go ahead and buy both halves of the tire plus a second one?

So... Their liability will be:
$20 coupon for Trek products
$2 part
x 1 Million
----------
$22 Million... quite a chunk of change. But, they could well make several times that, just getting people coming into the store and buying Bontrager and Trek products.

intransit1217

Some of that depends on how in depth the store will be to log said skewer replacement.

GlennR

Nobody wants to take responsibility for their own actions.... it's always someone else fault.

If a teenager can't read, they blame the teachers and the schools when they should blame themselves for not doing something about it sooner.

You place a pressure cooker bomb at the finish line of the Boston Marathon and it's not your fault because your brother influenced you.

You drive without seatbelts and get injured..... it's YOUR fault.

You crash your bike and weren't wearing a helmet.....

You ran a stop sign and got hit by a car.....

merlinextraligh

A substantial portion of the owners won't ever here of the recall; given that this goes back 16 years, a good number of the bikes are no longer in use; a good number will hear of the recall and not bother to look into it, and a good number will say, I don't need to bother because I know how to use a QR.

Add all that up and I bet fewer than 100,000 get replaced.

Heck, the rear wheel on my MTB has a disc and a QR, My tandem has been set up with a disc and a QR. I could not care less whether its possible to put the QR in the disc if you set up the QR totally ass backwards. If I owned a Trek, I doubt I'd jump through the hoops to get a $20 coupon.

bt

irregardless, the handle went into the rotor, allegedly, and paralyzed someone.

cale

Watch your fingers! You could get hurt putting your fingers between the spokes. Bad spokes. Bad flawed spokes.

RNAV

The "problem" is absolutely not a design flaw. The quick release, when used as designed, performs the function for which it was designed without error. The problem is the end user not using the product as it was designed to be used. This is known as user error, which is very different from product design error. So let's grasp this concept and get back to reality.

This qr issue is simple and basic bicycle safety, for which every rider is responsible. It is not the case that these quick releases just popped open of their own volition -- that would be product design error. What is the case is that users neglected to verify their wheels were properly attached to their bike (i.e. is the qr lever closed, or open?), and the result of their own neglect was injury. Heck, Trek's quick releases even have the words "OPEN" and "CLOSED" printed on them! Even my 4-year-old knows to check that her wheels are properly attached to her bicycle before she rides it.

Is a helmet manufacturer responsible for your head injury if you don't fasten the helmet to your head? Is a saddle manufacturer responsible for you getting butt-hurt because you decided to install the saddle vertical instead of horizontal? If you are using a product in any way other than the way it was designed to be used, any injuries that result are your own fault.

I certainly understand why Trek would issue the recall -- and I think it speaks volumes that they want to keep people who misuse their product from getting hurt. But that does not entail that it's Trek's fault.