The president of US bike components firm SRAM has apologised for the major recall his company issued earlier this week of all its hydro road brakes, affecting around 38,000 units.
Stan Day says in an open letter to the SRAM community: "This is a particularly tough recall because many consumers bought these bikes with the hydraulic as a primary feature and unlike say a wheel recall, they just can’t pop the quick release, stick another set of wheels on the bike and get back at it."
The SRAM boss adds that replacements issued by SRAM will likely be mechanical disk models in the immediate future, followed by improved hydraulic units at a later stage.
He predicts however that this scenario will be "extremely disruptive" to cyclists, and will bring potential compatibility problems.
"The cost will be high," he said, "there will also need to be compensation throughout the channel for the disruption. We don’t yet know how this will play out."
At the moment, there are thought to be around 5,000 bikes in the hands of consumers with brakes affected by the recall.
The issue appears to have been tracked down to a faulty seal, with multiple brake failures reported recently at US cyclocross races in sub-zero conditions.
SRAM has created a dedicated microsite where customers, dealers and bike brands can find more information on the recall here: sramroadhydraulicbrakerecall.com.
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