Trek issues recall of 720 disc and 24h Bontrager Approved TLR Disc wheels due to spoke breakage

Written by Zach Overholt Jan 19, 2017 12:21 p.m. ET

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You know how this goes, if you happen to have a 2015, 2016, or 2017 Trek 720 disc, you should stop riding it and head to your local Trek Dealer. The same goes for the wheels that were on the bike, the Bontrager Approved TLR Disc 700c 24h wheels. The reason for the most recent recall is a higher rate of spoke breakage on those wheels which were sold on the 720 or sold separately. Spoke breakage doesn’t usually lead to a recall, but in this case there were apparently enough spokes breaking that it needed to be addressed.

As usual, owners of affected bikes or wheels will be given a new wheel set along with installation free of charge, and you’ll also be eligible for a $100 coupon for Trek or Bontrager merch.

Full release after the break…

From Trek:

A limited number of model year 2015, 2016 and 2017 Trek bicycles were made with a wheel set that exhibits a higher rate of spoke

breakage. On the front wheel of the bicycle, a broken spoke could engage with the brake caliper, causing the bicycle to stop suddenly,

resulting in a serious accident.

Your safety is very important to us. Therefore, Trek will replace the wheels on an affected bicycle or an affected aftermarket wheel, free of

charge. This letter contains important information regarding what to do next if you think you may have purchased one of these bicycles or

aftermarket wheels.

AFFECTED MODELS

Only model years 2015, 2016, and 2017 720 Disc bicycles and Bontrager Approved TLR Disc 700C 24H front and rear wheels are

affected.

DO NOT RIDE YOUR BICYCLE UNTIL THE WHEEL HAS BEEN INSPECTED

If you break a spoke, it could engage the brake caliper and you could be involved in a serious accident. Do not ride this bicycle until your

dealer has inspected the bicycle to determine if it is affected by this recall.

WHAT TREK WILL DO FOR OWNERS OF A RECALLED BICYCLE OR AFTERMARKET WHEELS

If you own a bicycle (or wheel) that is affected by this recall, Trek will provide you—through your Trek dealer—a free replacement of the

wheel set on your bicycle, including free installation. If you purchased an affected aftermarket wheel, you will receive a replacement wheel

through your Trek dealer.

In addition, when your recalled product has been repaired, Trek will give you a coupon worth $100 to use toward any Trek or Bontrager

merchandise. The coupon is good through December 31, 2017 and has no cash value. If you have any questions, please contact your Trek

retailer.

THANK YOU FOR BUYING A TREK BICYCLE

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this problem might have caused you. We value you as a customer and want you to enjoy

your Trek bicycle. We hope that after your Trek bicycle is repaired, you will continue to safely enjoy cycling.

trek.com

Zach Overholt

5,630 articles

Zach Overholt is the Editor in Chief of Bikerumor. He has been writing about what’s new in the bicycle world for 12+ years. Prior to that, Zach spent many years in the back of a bicycle shop building and repairing nearly every type of bike, while figuring out how to (occasionally) ride them.

Based in Ohio, Zach is now slowly introducing a new generation to cycling and still trying to figure out how to fit the most rides into a busy schedule as a new dad.

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fred

7 years ago

24h wheel on a Touring bike – great idea!

Pete

7 years ago

Reply to fred

No one could have foreseen this!

shafty

7 years ago

The replacements are 24h as well!

Frank

7 years ago

I hope the replacement wheels are 50% more spokes. What a disservice to their customers for Trek to be putting such flimsy wheels on bike that are marketed as long-haul load-bearing bikes.

ando

7 years ago

“720 is the roadie’s touring bike” — meaning you better have a SAG wagon.

Daniel M

7 years ago

“Touring” bike with disc brakes and 24-spoke wheels! I wonder how many people realize that braking forces come through the spokes with disc brakes but not rim brakes. Nothing against disc brakes, but you gotta be realistic – the wheels (and the frame and fork) need to be designed to cope with braking forces that are in entirely different places than with rim brakes.

And low spoke count on a touring bike makes it not a touring bike! This is the type of bike that someone might choose before getting into bike touring, but probably not after.

shafty

7 years ago

I’ll say it again….THE REPLACEMENTS HAVE THE SAME NUMBER OF NOT-ENOUGH-SPOKES!

Anon

7 years ago

Reply to shafty

Good. I didn’t hear you the first time…

WhatchyouKnowAboutEthic

7 years ago

Reply to shafty

Unless you can give concrete examples/reasoning backed with technical information on why 24 spokes isn’t enough, it doesn’t really matter how many times you say it. It still doesn’t hold any value.

I’m sure the people at Trek have a pretty solid understanding of what they need to do to fix the situation. They’ve been around for at least a few years now.

ryan

7 years ago

Wow, it sounds like a lot of people out there are just sure that the problem is the spoke count and not the spokes themselves. I think those folks may be jumping to conclusions that may or may not be correct. I work for a wheel manufacturer. My boss weighs 280 lb and rides 24 spoke wheels. Hasn’t broken a spoke yet. I think it’s more likely that Trek either got a bad run of spokes, or someone in engineering chose a bad spoke for that application. Low spoke counts make for wheels that are harder to keep super true, but rim and spoke technologies are pretty well evolved at this point. Last year we did a spoke pullout test on one of our carbon rims and we don’t even know what the final failure tension was because the test machine “only” read up to 300kgf. Kinda sucks that Trek and Trek owners are stuck with this situation, but I’d be hesitant to just chalk it up to low spoke count and move on. I think there’s probably more to it than that, but I won’t blame Trek if they never wanna talk about it. At least they’re doing right by their customers.

fred

7 years ago

Reply to ryan

Does your wheel company recommend 24h wheels for loaded touring?

Nick

7 years ago

Reply to fred

This isn’t a “loaded touring” bicycle, it’s intended to have the included bags loaded, and that’s all. No more than 20lbs, max…they don’t spec the same parts on the 520, Trek’s flagship “loaded touring” model.

fred

7 years ago

Reply to Nick

Uhh, whatever with your semantics (ignoring the fact you used the word ‘loaded’ to describe how the bike would be used, and the fact the bike comes with rear rack mounts.)

I will rephrase – Ryan – does your wheel company recommend 24h wheels for any type of touring?

James

7 years ago

Reply to ryan

I remember many years ago I bought a Cannondale touring bike wheelset with Mavic 520 rims and CODA hubs. 36 hole 3x black DT 15g spokes. I set off on a long trip and after a few weeks on the road I began to break spokes and continued to break spokes on the rear until I relaced the wheel with 14g DT spokes. The high spoke count and traditional lacing was not enough to make up for a poor choice of spoke (or possibly a bad run from DT?)

In this situation the oem wheel probably had low quality spokes or the wheels were sent out wildly under-tensioned.

That said.. I think that the only possible benefit of going lower than 32 for a light tourer is looks. 32 is nice in that replacement rims are easily had when touring and the additional weight of 8 spokes is largely irrelevant on a bike in this category.

killa cam

7 years ago

Still waiting for that GIANT Via wheel recall.

ChillinWithTheSasquatch

6 years ago

Anyone know what the replacements are? I just got a set of these wheels secondhand so I need to bring them to my local Trek shop. Just wondering if they respoke the wheels or if you get an entire different set

Sigs

4 years ago

I have a set of these wheels and the spokes keep snapping on the rear wheel going up hills. Not particularly steep hills or under serious pressure. I’ve never broken spokes before so I was wondering what the deal was. Thanks for the article I will try and get a replacement.