Specialized Carbon Cranks - teeth breaking on chainrings

[rhyslewisdavies]

Hi - ive got an S Works Tarmac SL4 with Specialized's own carbon cranks installed as of last July - I havent ridden them much - a few hundred miles so far but ive noticed that a few of the teeth on the chainrings have snapped off, normally when the bike makes a very loud noise. Is this normal? Personally i cant remember it really happening on previous campag cranks and i dont think its acceptable on a £500 set of cranks. Should my LBS warrant a new outer chainring?

Thanks

Rhys.

[prendrefeu]

Yes.

[diesel]

Specialized makes many great things. Chainrings are not one of them. I have never heard of this happening though. They should warranty unless they have signs of impact. Also, is your chain on backwards?

[BobDopolina]

Are you certain the teeth aren't cut that way to allow faster shifting?

Pics would help.

[tetonrider]

Are you certain the teeth aren't cut that way to allow faster shifting?

Pics would help.

bob has a good point. you may be very experienced, so please forgive us -- but many people look at a perfectly good chainring and think it is broken because they do not realize it is normal for some teeth to be shorter than others. i am assuming you are not one of them, but we just want to be certain.

i've had very poor experiences with specialized chainrings over time -- so much so that even when i got them for free i would immediately toss them. i'm no cancellara, but i could get them to flex (especially the lighter weight ones) and also found that on some power meters they would not produce reliable numbers.

now, i immediately put dura ace chainrings on all my (shimano-compatible) setups. they are phenomenal.

specialized makes many, many amazing products, but i cannot get down with those rings.

[rhyslewisdavies]

I dont think theyre supposed to be like that because the placing of them is completely random. rather than them being pointed, some of them are completely flat - ill post a pic at some point although i do take the point that they could be deliberate to improve the speed at which you can shift - im not too impressed with the cranks either - wish id bought the BB30 SRAM Red instead