Levo Gen 2 Bracket axle cracked?!

[ASU]

Today, after a 50k ride the drive side crankarm snapped off the bracket axle of my Turbo Levo Expert Carbon 2020. Was not really accelerating and was driving in eco. As it was only my 4th ride on the bike and it has about 250km done this really cought me by surprise. Anyone had this happening? In 38 years of mountainbiking I cracked a bunch of frames a various other parts but never an axle! As the axle is a non-replaceble part and the bike has still 4 years of warrenty will take it to the bikeshop tomorrow but this is a very strange failure to me...It looks to me if the axle was already partly cracked. Did not crash with the bike btw.

Oh, I'm not a feather weight and I'm 94kg. Is this a quality failure?

 

[Zimmerframe]

Never seen or heard of anything like that before ! Impressive !!

Have you had some pedal strikes or impacts to the crank/spider ? In the photo it appears that there are scuffs on the spider and the crank arm ? Though they could have been caused at separation.

Are they the original cranks ? The cranks could have been over tightened which would have put the shaft under tension which in turn, would make it fragile.

Will be interesting to see what the shop say.

@Specialized Rider Care an interesting one.

 

[ASU]

Never seen or heard of anything like that before ! Impressive !!

Have you had some pedal strikes or impacts to the crank/spider ? In the photo it appears that there are scuffs on the spider and the crank arm ? Though they could have been caused at separation.

Are they the original cranks ? The cranks could have been over tightened which would have put the shaft under tension which in turn, would make it fragile.

Will be interesting to see what the shop say.

@Specialized Rider Care an interesting one.

Hi, thanks for your reply. No pedal strikes (yet) (it is a new bike) and did not had any tooling to it. They are the original cranks indeed. Scuffs on the crankarm and spider happend when the crank-arm snapped off (was riding about 20km/h) So if the the crank was over-torqued that this happened in the bike shop I'm affread. Very curious what the bike shop will say. My guess I need a motor swap right?

 

[Bigtuna00]

I'm pretty sure the cranks are shipped installed so not necessarily the shop's fault. Some shops remove and reinstall everything, some don't. The motors are not serviceable (meaning Specialized doesn't allow it) so they'll have to swap it out.

 

[Jeff McD]

In another post, #177, it was mentioned by Bearing Man that in early 2020 Brose strengthened the Kevlar belt and the crankshaft axle. Perhaps your axle pre-dated the strengthening modification. Pretty sure this is a warranty issue and the next one should be stronger and not break.

 

[ASU]

My LBS (Speci Concept store) has made a warrenty claim at Specialized NL (Benelux). Hopefully they warrent a new motor. Response of the LBS was also "wow", they never saw a snapped Levo engine axle and they have sold a lot of Levo's so that's saying something.

 

[ASU]

Update: got rewarded a new motor by Specialized NL, good service! Hopefully it's replaced within a week. Better luck next time...

 

[Roger20]

In another post, #177, it was mentioned by Bearing Man that in early 2020 Brose strengthened the Kevlar belt and the crankshaft axle. Perhaps your axle pre-dated the strengthening modification. Pretty sure this is a warranty issue and the next one should be stronger and not break.

I read in another post that on the latest 2021 motors the colour of the crank has changed. If this was a strengthening issue (perhaps case hardening) it may have been to make the bearing surface of the sprag clutch harder and therefore more robust. Like pedal axles they have to take considerable loading. Snapping a pedal or axle whilst riding hard is a bit like contemplating seat post failure! Sounds like the OP has a pre 2021 motor though?

 

[ryturn]

My partner took a small jump today luckily she landed ok as the drive side crank arm fell off. Bike just back from shop yesterday ,got home put on glasses and the spindle had snapped off. Original motor on 2019 comp 8500 kilometers looks like its a pre upgrade...2 bonuses she landed ok and not hurt plus she'll get a sparkly new motor.

 

[NoPro]

happend on my 2nd Motor I know that the 2 rides before it flet like the pedal was loose but when I checked it was allrigt and than BANG right when I put down power. My guess is it was tightened to much as there are some contradicting torque specs in some manuals as I discribed here

 

[ryturn]

My partner took a small jump today luckily she landed ok as the drive side crank arm fell off. Bike just back from shop yesterday ,got home put on glasses and the spindle had snapped off. Original motor on 2019 comp 8500 kilometers looks like its a pre upgrade...2 bonuses she landed ok and not hurt plus she'll get a sparkly new motor.

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New motor approved by Specialized an hour later will be fitted Monday morning... just on 2 years old 8500 kilometres original motor no issues till now Thanks Specialized Australia for great service.