Favero Assioma Pedal Axle Failures

A concerned viewer recently reached out to the Hambini YouTube channel, reporting a peculiar failure of a Favero pedal axle. While Favero is widely respected for the precision of their power meters, there’s scant discussion about the quality of their mechanical engineering.

In the “Unfortunate F*cker of the Week” segment, featured in Hambini’s Sunday reaming, this seemingly random failure took centre stage. Following the video’s release on YouTube, numerous viewers have shared their own pedal failures with the channel, prompting further investigation.

The evidence suggests a genuine issue with the Shimano variant of the Assioma pedals. A common pattern has emerged: pedal axles are shearing near the point of attachment to the crank. Whether this issue has been addressed remains unclear.

YouTube Video

Possible causes

Given the number of failures occurring at the same geometrical position, there is strong suspicion of either a design flaw or a material defect. The Shimano version of the Assioma pedal features a bronze bushing adjacent to the failure point, unlike the Keo type, which uses a bearing. This difference in construction could be a contributing factor.

There is some evidence pointing to a material problem. A photo submitted by a viewer appears to show porosity in the metal, particularly between the 9 and 12 o’clock positions. The small tab at the 11 o’clock position is likely where the material ultimately gave way, leading to the failure.

Such consistent failures at the same spot necessitate a closer examination, as it hints at underlying issues that could potentially compromise the safety and reliability of the product.

At the time of publication. Favero had been contacted for comment.

Response From Favero

Favero responded, the email has been copied and pasted below

Dear Hambini,

Following your recent email, we have taken a look at your social media content.
Nowadays, unfortunately, it seems like the line between helping a community and gaining attention/likes by creating sensational stories is not so clear anymore.
Hopefully, your intention is genuine, but it’s slightly hard to believe considering that it would have been helpful to get in touch with the company first and hear what they had to say about it before sharing misleading/offensive information.

Now, let us give you an overview of our values and history while addressing some of the concerns raised by you and your community these days.

We have been manufacturing this spindle system since 2017, and a very similar model since 2015. Over the years, we have sold more than one million pedals.
Our spindle complies with the “EN ISO 4210 Safety requirements for bicycles” as required, and it undergoes rigorous quality controls during the entire production process to ensure these standards are met.
This not being enough, our pedals have been also tested by TÜV Rheinland Italia.

So far, we have received a limited number of tickets regarding breakages in the spindles, and each case has been promptly and individually assessed through detailed laboratory analysis.
It was found that most spindles had been previously damaged due to improper use and/or cycling situations (such as previous violent impacts).
Also, to date, all production batches comply with the required safety standards.

Rest assured that our Company and the whole team are very rigorous and customer-focused. We would never release a product that does not comply with the required regulations.
Not to mention that producing and selling max-safety products is in the company’s best interest.

We’d like to remind you that sharing unsubstantiated/disrespectful information can harm companies significantly. The first to suffer are our colleagues on the production site, should production be reduced for a non-contextualized alarm on the web. We strongly believe that it’s fundamental to protect them and their families by avoiding unnecessary defamatory content, presenting information that lacks a factual basis.

In light of the above, please note that we will not tolerate the spread of further ungrounded defamatory content about our products and/or Company.

In view of a constructive cooperation, should you hear of any new breakage/malfunction cases (after your video became public, we haven’t received any new ones), please invite them to raise a ticket with us.

Thank you for your cooperation,

Best regards,

Stefano Cecchinello

Stefano Checchinello, Favero Customer Service

Some key points

• They have accused the Hambini Channel of “spreading ungrounded defamatory content”
• And the result of the above would be workers on the production line would “suffer”.
• They claim they have sold over one million pedals
• They claim they have had a “limited” number of pedal breakages which were mainly caused by improper use and this was verified by “laboratory analysis”

Favero Recall

It should be noted that Favero remotely disabled a number of customers’ pedals in October 2023 to force them to send the units back for replacement, almost all of the pedals were left sided pedals. This was due to an “unspecified manufacturing fault”. Based on the timing of events, it appears that the “unspecified manufacturing fault” and the broken pedal axles are linked, almost every failed axle photograph submitted has been a left sided axle.