Submitted by
Chris Carey
a Downhiller
from Suffolk
Date Reviewed: January 2, 2001
Strengths: Seriously thick pieces of metal, the cranks will never bend
Weaknesses: The L & M chainring isn't as good as the crank.
Bottom Line:
The cranks work well but will take a little fiddling, the chainring however is a bit of a dissapointment, it bent about 3mm out of place, this may not sound like much but it was enough to give me major problems in setting up my chain guide, also for forty quid its a bit pricy. The problem is, is there is too much chainring, it looks like a bmx one, solid, this means that there is a lot of leverage so the chain ring bends easily, however once it bent it hasn't bent any further so I think that it has reached it's limit. All in all go for the cranks, but try a Raceface chainring or tribal (7mm)
Submitted by
ELVIS COSTELLO
a Weekend Warrior
from WIGAN, ENGLAND
Date Reviewed: September 7, 2000
Strengths: looks strong, british, it was available in gold.
Weaknesses: to soft, poor spider attatchment design.
Bottom Line:
i like the cranks and don't want to change them, but the three bolts that hold the spider on keep coming loose, even when i aplied loctite. three of my freinds have had bad experiences with thease cranks, two of them have rounded the taper and one had even cracked them! (although he is a fat ba$tard!) i dont think i ride hard enough to damage the cranks in this way as i only tend to use my bike once or twice per week to 'mess about on' and i dont race. in conclusion i dont think serious dh racers should buy this product. but if it was half the price then it would be very good value
Submitted by
John Bissell
a Weekend Warrior
from Suffolk, England
Date Reviewed: March 21, 2000
Strengths: Good looks, Stiff arms
Weaknesses: Very Poor taper, bad design!
Bottom Line:
I had high hopes for these cranks, but unfortunately they have been very disappointing. After about three months use, both tapers had been warped severely and about a week ago I managed to completely shear off the driveside taper. I only weigh about 12 1/2 stone, and I'm not a very hard rider. Whats going on!
Havent had any problems with these cranks apart from the crappy and far too short 4mm allen bolts supplied that hold the spider on. After i fitted the cranks, to try them out before offroading, i rode the bike to work. On the way back a horrendous grinding noise and bike came to a halt. One of the bolts had fallen out and jammed between the crank and the chain device (MRP style). I had to sort this out and take it easy to get home. On inspection, 2 of the 3 bolts had fallen out. The problem is that the drillings are nice and deep but the bolts were so short that only a couple of threads were holding the spider on. AFter fitting bolts that screwed right into the holes and Loctite-ing them in they have been fine in the roughest stuff (Les Gets World Cup course, Morzine etc). Nice and stiff. If its for DH make sure the ones you get are not machined out at the back of the cranks. Those are the XC/freeride ones and i know of one snapping clean off half way down the arm. The solid ones are fine though. 4 chillies after the remedial job on the bolts.
Strengths: good looks excellent finish replaceable spider
Weaknesses: made of aluminium weak DH chain ring weak taper in the crank
Bottom Line:
this crank is not up to the kind of use that it is designed for i am not a heavy rider but i do ride hard. Even so i expect a solid DH ring to last longer than 6 rides after which it warped. the coating on the crank started to wear off after the first ride. The drive side crank arm has also warped and will be sent back to the factory as has the ring. the spider cannot be removed as the taper on the crank has warped so i am very annoyed as they do cost between £170-£180 complete with ring!!!!! i have gone back to using my £25 FSA crank in desperation!!!!!!!
