Levo Gen 3 Broken chain stay on new S- works turbo levo

[drdory]

Bought a 2022 S works turbo levo a month ago. Earlier this week the right chainstay spontaneously fractured at it’s midpoint. No crashes. I’ve been riding hard and fast for about a month. I’ve been mountain biking for almost 40 years. This is my fourth specialized bike. I’ve never had a single fracture of any frames. Hopefully just a minor manufacturing defect that will be warrantied but this is concerning to me.

 

[Mcharza]

Have you contacted your dealer or Specialized custom care? It's of course a warranty issue.

 

[drdory]

Have you contacted your dealer or Specialized custom care? It's of course a warranty issue.

It’s in the shop right now. Hopefully will be warrantied. But I hear Specialized always likes to claim there was a crash.

 

[Mikerb]

It’s in the shop right now. Hopefully will be warrantied. But I hear Specialized always likes to claim there was a crash.

what were the circustances? you may well have to argue your case because unfortunately the photos suggest the break was caused by an impact from below the chainstay.

 

[drdory]

what were the circustances? you may well have to argue your case because unfortunately the photos suggest the break was caused by an impact from below the chainstay.

there were no impacts on the chainstay.

 

[ebikerider]

Are you asking for opinions or is an FYI post?

To fracture the way it has imo can only come from an impact (imo). There are other chips in front of the fracture indicating something else has also impacted enough to chip paint. Hard to tell exactly without physically having the frame and taking the chain stay protector off.
Bad luck for sure and I’m sure Specialized will sort you out but I wouldn’t be surprised if a few questions were asked.

 

[drdory]

Are you asking for opinions or is an FYI post?

To fracture the way it has imo can only come from an impact (imo). There are other chips in front of the fracture indicating something else has also impacted enough to chip paint. Hard to tell exactly without physically having the frame and taking the chain stay protector off.
Bad luck for sure and I’m sure Specialized will sort you out but I wouldn’t be surprised if a few questions were asked.

I’ve

Are you asking for opinions or is an FYI post?

To fracture the way it has imo can only come from an impact (imo). There are other chips in front of the fracture indicating something else has also impacted enough to chip paint. Hard to tell exactly without physically having the frame and taking the chain stay protector off.
Bad luck for sure and I’m sure Specialized will sort you out but I wouldn’t be surprised if a few questions were asked.

I am not concerned about the replacement cost. There are no paint chips, but just some dirt on the stay. The repair person I am working with my local bike shop is somewhat mystified as well. There are no other signs of trauma here. This is somewhat of an FYI as I am concerned about the mechanical integrity of that stay. I have noticed that when the bike is in turbo mode and occasionally even in trail mode that as the motor cuts in it places a significant compression force across that chainstay. This causes some flexion in the area where the chainstay has a sharp bend. Unsure if design in this area is different than previous bikes but I think this bend is a stress riser and that this likely could be a fatigue failure. I am an orthopedic surgeon with 25 years of experience and stress risers In mechanical constructs such as this can lead to failure if repetitive bending forces are applied. Luckily this is a fairly simply replaceable part and a fix could be applied to all the bikes later if this proves to be a repetitive problem for others. A stay with no bend in it or a gentle continuous bend would likely be much stronger and less likely to undergo fatigue failure.

 

[Mikerb]

The thing about carbon is that the initial damage could have been caused a long time previous to it failing because a knock can cause delamination which is not immediately visible......but that weakens the structure leading to failure at some future point. The chainstay is not under huge compression force since high pedal torque/chain tension results in an upward travel of the rear triangle, controlled only by the rear shock. The forces applied to it are therefore directed towards the top of the seat tube so you would expect the chainstay to fracture from below rather than on its upper surface. It also looks like the underside of the chainstay at the point of fracture is covered by the chainguard so there would be no surface marking.
All just to say that I do not think there anything wrong with the design so a replacement ( warranty or not) will be fine.

 

[drdory]

The thing about carbon is that the initial damage could have been caused a long time previous to it failing because a knock can cause delamination which is not immediately visible......but that weakens the structure leading to failure at some future point. The chainstay is not under huge compression force since high pedal torque/chain tension results in an upward travel of the rear triangle, controlled only by the rear shock. The forces applied to it are therefore directed towards the top of the seat tube so you would expect the chainstay to fracture from below rather than on its upper surface. It also looks like the underside of the chainstay at the point of fracture is covered by the chainguard so there would be no surface marking.
All just to say that I do not think there anything wrong with the design so a replacement ( warranty or not) will be fine.

Well, the bike is only a month old and there has not been any significant trauma so I still wonder. And there visibly is a bowing motion of the chain stay when it is initially loaded by the motor. Time will tell if the replacement fails in the same way.

 

[Jag009]

I remember reading reviews on the stumpjumper a few years back when i was looking to buy one and this very fault popped up on a few reviews , the pics looked exactly like yours ,stopped me buying one
do a bit of digging on the net and you will probably still find them

 

[Chairman]

Oh dear. I don't mean to knock but you Spez boys n gals seem to have an extraordinary amount of issues. I mean I would much prefer they were reliable. I mean half my riding group ride spez but it seems like there is always at least one out of action with blown motor or battery or wiring issue or.....This chainstay thing is new so I will be interested to hear the outcome

 

[RickBullotta]

Was it on a hitch mounted/towbar mounted bike rack? Maybe someone hit it. Also, that color combo isn't a standard S-Works frame, or did you add some type of protective material to the seatstay?

 

[drdory]

That’s all mountain style protective film on the seat stay. And the bike was never hit by a car. Because I never leave the bike unattended.

 

[ah1]

Oh wow @drdory good luck with the warranty, please keep us posted so we can keep Specialized honest! I love their bikes and currently own KSL and Enduro but have to agree that failures aren't uncommon. I agree it's hard to tell w/o looking closely but I believe it could just snap like that, happened to me on a roval carbon rim cracked on a simple trail ride with full air in tire. Also to what others claimed could be impact from below it's kind of hard to crash into something that hits the below the chainstay, not impossible but it would have to be a very specific impact where you land with only your rear right next to a rock in a way that your tire doesn't hit but your chainstay does.
Please let us know and good luck!!

 

[SteveRS]

Well, the bike is only a month old and there has not been any significant trauma so I still wonder. And there visibly is a bowing motion of the chain stay when it is initially loaded by the motor. Time will tell if the replacement fails in the same way.

How the heck does one see a bowing motion of ones chain stay whilst riding said bike?

 

[Chairman]

How the heck does one see a bowing motion of ones chain stay whilst riding said bike?

One would imagine you would look downwards and slightly back. At least that's how I would do it but maybe I am highly creative

 

[Pdoz]

So will you CT or xry the new chainstay before fitting it?

 

[RickBullotta]

The forces on the chainstay really shouldn't create that type of failure. There was an impact of some kind. That's almost without a doubt.

 

[Chairman]

The forces on the chainstay really shouldn't create that type of failure. There was an impact of some kind. That's almost without a doubt.

One unfortunate thing I have observed on this forum is that some people have no problem calling others liars. Very interesting trait that. I can only presume it comes from a general sense of mistrust. Shame

 

[ebikerider]

One unfortunate thing I have observed on this forum is that some people have no problem calling others liars. Very interesting trait that. I can only presume it comes from a general sense of mistrust. Shame

You are making things up mate. Just because there are different opinions or statements from others with experience in carbon fibre and how it reacts to impact which contradicts the posters text does not mean the poster is being called a liar.

 

[SteveRS]

One would imagine you would look downwards and slightly back. At least that's how I would do it but maybe I am highly creative

I think that’s the creativity that would make it work.

 

[Mikerb]

The OP detailed the damage on his bike together with his suspicion that the chainstay design was faulty. If that was the case you would expect several other reports of such failure given the volume of sales. Others have pointed out that the damage could have been caused by an impact. It is an unfortunate feature of carbon composite construction that it is brittle and an impact can break fibres but may show no visible sign of damage.......but leads to failure at any future time. I would guess that is how Specialized will view it.
The OP seemed less concerned about whether Specialized would warranty it or not, and more concerned that a replacement would be no better. I think he should be reassured the replacement will be fine.
Nobody is calling him a liar! It is probable he is totally unaware of what caused the damage...or when that happened. It may even have happened before he collected the bike.

 

[Swingset]

Pure tension and compression (independent of any lateral forces) as it has a pivot on both ends. In a perfect world it would be a straight line from pivot to pivot. Since its not, it has moments driven into it. Looks to have failed in the vertical plane so its either a serious flaw in the layup or something hit it.

 

[spicker]

It could certainly have had an impact, long before it every reached the OP's ownership. Could have taken a ding in the factory that was missed (covered up?) by QA because of the chain bumpers.

 

[Chairman]

I currently have 4 carbon framed mountain bikes all of which I have owned from new. A 2006 trance a 2012 nomad a 2017 Zerode Taniwha and a 2020 cannondale moterra 1 In my experience If built for purpose carbon can take huge impacts without damage. The Trance is built far too lightly for how it was ridden and consequently did not hold up. All the others are very much race rallied and rolled. Carbon should no more fail than steel

 

[escrs]

Thats not the first carbon Levo to snap a chain or seat stay without any known impact happening

There have been other cases posted on here

I was warned not to by a 2020 S-Works by a very reputable dealer as they had at least 2 S-Works rear ends snap on their customers without any impact, i went for the Expert in the end which came with the alloy rear end

 

[Paul willis]

I think they are bit prone for it that put me off I got carbon frame alloy rear end and they are bit pricey for what you get extra

 

[HIGGIE216]

It’s in the shop right now. Hopefully will be warrantied. But I hear Specialized always likes to claim there was a crash.

Specialized always tried to claims the damage is a crash. I have around 200 miles on my bike never crashed and I had a catastrophic failure on my seat stays. they offered 30% off a seat stay not taking into account the damage done to the whole frame from the force of the triangle snapping