Ritchey Cross Crank Breakage

Was getting some bonus mileage, riding down to Sausalito to engineer for a class. Just past the end of the bike path - BAM! - i have no left pedal. I think, "wow! pedal failure. that's weird." Look down and not only is there no pedal, but the crank is pretty much gone.

It should also be noted that I'm still moving forward, upright on the bike (though a bit "adapted" to the new lack of a contact point).

At this point, I realize that the curious condition is now a fairly real issue. Pause just long enough to go back and find the bits, snap a quick phonecam photo, call the folks and tell them I'm still on the way but may be late. Then I got to one-leg it a few more miles to where I was supposed to be. A good drill, but now I'm feeling a bit overworked on the one side.

I've broken a crankarm before, but that was an old, used Campy GS arm that had an unknown provenance. What gets me a bit - wait for it - cranky about this is that I'd cleaned the bike well a week or two ago and took a good long look under good light at the cranks.

My new working theory is that black aluminum cranks are not a good idea. Black cracks - and this has clearly been migrating - don't show well on black cranks.

UPDATE 9/28 -
Ritchey Logic customer service is on it! Very quick response to email via their website. Seems that this crank fell under a voluntary recall period - more info here. Sending off the bits tomorrow.

13 photos | 109 views

items are from between 23 Sep 2009 & 07 Oct 2009.