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On 26 March 2018 an industrial building burned down in Sakai (Japan). 20 fire engines from the local fire brigade were able to extinguish the blaze within a few hours. No people were injured. What sounds like a story for the local Japanese press is still giving bike product managers around the world goosebumps ten months later. Because the hall that burned in the industrial area of Sakai was Shimano's production facility for cranks. To be more precise: The factory produced the high-quality racing bike cranks for the Shimano Dura Ace- respectively Ultegra gears and the brand new Shimano XTR 1x12 shifting group produced. Shimano's ability to supply these groups also went up in flames with the fire.
Shimano XTR M9100 crank is the biggest problem
According to industry insiders, the supply problem with the Dura Ace and Ultegra road bike derailleurs was solved after a short time. With the XTR mountain bike cranks, however, the problem is still very much alive. As of 22 January 2019, no new XTR cranks have been delivered. The groupsets that BIKE has tested so far, or that Shimano-sponsored athletes have ridden, have always been labelled with a thick prototype stamp. Series products do not yet exist.
Many manufacturers install other cranks
Many mountain bike manufacturers who wanted to install the new XTR drivetrain and crankset on their top models therefore often switch to cranks from Race Face or E*Thirteen. Switching from XTR aluminium cranks to carbon cranks from other manufacturers may save around 50 grams, but does not completely solve the problem of delivery delays. Frank Greifzu, Product Manager at Cube, explains:
"We have rescheduled all models that we originally wanted to equip with XTR cranks to Race Face or E*Thirteen cranks. Due to Shimano's delivery problems, we won't be able to assemble bikes that should already be at the dealers in our factory until February at the earliest. As a result, delivery to dealers and end consumers will be delayed." (Frank Greifzu, Product Manager at Cube)
As Cube is one of the largest bike manufacturers, it must be assumed that Race Face and E*Thirteen supply the Upper Palatinate first, before smaller manufacturers receive the coveted replacement cranks. BIKE does not have any explicit delivery dates from other manufacturers, but in general it can be expected that bikes with the new Shimano XTR groupset - regardless of the crankset - will not be available before the end of February 2019.
Shimano importer Paul Lange & Co. says:
When we asked the German Shimano distributor Paul Lange, we only received the following answer after this article was published:
"Many XTR products are either already on the market or will be delivered to Europe during January, with the exception of certain specifications that will be delivered later. In particular, however, the production of XTR M9100 cranksets was affected by the fire at our Sakai factory in March 2018. Getting our production back up to the very highest level proved to be more difficult than we had anticipated. However, these difficulties have now been resolved and we will be back on schedule in the coming months. We expect to be able to deliver the most popular XTR cranksets to bike manufacturers in June 2019, so that these products will be available in stores shortly afterwards."
When individual XTR groupsets However, it is not possible to predict when the Shimano XT will be available to end consumers. The Shimano XT drivetrain is not affected by the supply problems.
Update (5 May 2019)
The cranks of the new 12-speed XTR 9100 groupset will not be available before the middle of the year. Shimano has now also admitted that the new XTR hubs with micro-spline freehub will not be available on the market as announced. The silent SCYLENCE mechanism will not exist. Like conventional hubs, the new XTR hubs will make a whirring noise as soon as you stop pedalling. However, the XTR hubs - like the chain, rear derailleur, shifters and cassette - are available immediately.
