After a large number of tweets, emails, filling out the form on the recall page, informing SRAM I was going to register a domain to document my experiences, and that I intended to leaflet the London Cycle show in Febuary, not to mention being interviewed by the press I am happy to report that SRAM for some reason decided to give me some answers and respond to me.
1) The first recall documented at
http://sramroadhydraulicbrakerecall.com/sram-road-hydraulic-brake-recall/ states the following : "SRAM has identified a technical issue with respect to a narrow production range of its RED 22 and S-700 Road Hydraulic road brakes. This is a performance and safety concern. There are no reported failures in the field."
QUESTION: - What was the concern over SRAM has never stated, I sent my brakes back and was not advised of what had been done to them can they tell me?
SRAM Response : If your brakes were replaced at the time of the original recall short date range, those brakes would have been completely replaced. The US CPSC requires us to obtain all physical samples of effected brake units, so it can be proven they have been taken out of the marketplace. These brakes would not have been re-worked. The original issue we discovered was that a supplier changed a manufacturing process on the brake lever body, for the described serialized date range only. This change led to a shifter body that was outside of our specification.
2) The second recall documented at
http://sramroadhydraulicbrakerecall.com/brake-recall-clarification/ states : "Our analysis shows the cold temperature accelerates the failure of the seal, but that also the sealing could fail in normal temperatures."
QUESTION: - Was the very first recall related in any way to the seal? and if so what prevent SRAM from addressing it the first time? and what can SRAM do to convince me that they are capable of fixing it this time? - SRAM has also not provided any information regarding what they are going to do to fix the product, or the time frames expected.
SRAM Response : We decided to expand the recall after reports of brake failure in the field outside of the original date range. We still are in process of root cause analysis, and have no updates at this time for specific failure cause. We have seen several kinds of failure types, all which manifest in “brake levers pulling to the handlebar”, or loss of brake function. The seal is something that we have reports on, however, we don’t have a full analysis as to the exact failure reason yet. We will not be able to quote a timeframe for functional hydraulic replacement until the root cause analysis is complete. Once we do, we will be diligently working on replacement units for the marketplace. We understand this open timeframe is unacceptable for many customers. [/quote]
3) SRAM created a web page to track this issue located at
http://sramroadhydraulicbrakerecall.com this page features a contact email address
brakerecall@sram.com. SRAM also use social media like twitter.
QUESTION: - At this time I have received one generic prefabricated response from my attempts at communicating with the company through the form on the website, twitter, email and when I called head office I was put on hold for a period of time and the line eventually went dead. What perception do you think I have about SRAM based on these experiences and do you think they are just. I am also curious to know what SRAM are going to do to make it up to me.
SRAM Response: We are working alongside the US CPSC and other global product safety organizations to register this as an official recall, and to abide by local laws and regulations in doing so. Some of these regulations specify when and how we make comment on compensation. Please note that we are working hard to be sure that you as a consumer are made whole. The purpose of setting up the brake recall website is to offer updates as soon as they become available on our brake recall website, and via the registration contacts we’ve received- including that of details on compensation. We will be sending out updated communication shortly on compensation for labor, getting back on the bike in the interim as we finalize a permanent solution, etc.
I'm reasonably happy to know what's going on, its all I wanted in the first place, now I have to decide if I should give SRAM the opportunity to try to win me over, or should I run into the warm comfortable arms of Shimano Di2
