[40hills]

*WARNING* this has a high weight weenie content... if it makes you sick, stop reading now.

I have both of these cranksets, but don't want to disassemble everything to weigh the pieces unless no one can answer my question here.

There are two things I'm wondering about. Are the LX Hollowtech II cranks stiffer than the RF Deus, and if so, can they be a lighter set by swapping out the chainrings? Weight and stiffness rule, so you can see why I'm curious about this.

My RF crankset weighs 832g including BB, and my LX weighs 924g including BB. The RF BB weighs 114g and the LX BB weighs 103g. I've read that the LX chainrings are steel rather than aluminum, so maybe if I put the RF alum rings on the LX cranks (if they fit) I'd have the lightest combo... and maybe the stiffest (but that's hard to measure isn't it?).

Does anyone know about this?

 

[AZ-X]

*WARNING* this has a high weight weenie content... if it makes you sick, stop reading now.

I have both of these cranksets, but don't want to disassemble everything to weigh the pieces unless no one can answer my question here.

There are two things I'm wondering about. Are the LX Hollowtech II cranks stiffer than the RF Deus, and if so, can they be a lighter set by swapping out the chainrings? Weight and stiffness rule, so you can see why I'm curious about this.

My RF crankset weighs 832g including BB, and my LX weighs 924g including BB. The RF BB weighs 114g and the LX BB weighs 103g. I've read that the LX chainrings are steel rather than aluminum, so maybe if I put the RF alum rings on the LX cranks (if they fit) I'd have the lightest combo... and maybe the stiffest (but that's hard to measure isn't it?).

Does anyone know about this?

I'll give you fair warning that this subject has been discussed ad-infinatum on the weight board--by none other than me, amongst others.

Here's a link to the discussion and a lot of weights, pictures and linked information--including a link to macsi's post where he machined and polished his LX cranks to get them down to XTR weight with replacement rings and a lower Q-factor to boot:

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?p=1882991#post1882991

Here's another link to a set of XT cranks that I purchased from MTBR member Fett that I got down to 774 grams including BB after Fett machined them to lower the Q-factor and I just replaced the rings and bolts with Extralite 2x9 parts. A triple ring setup could still be under 800g with an aluminum granny and bolts. I'm going to be polishing these as well since the process was already started by Fett's feet...

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?p=2017507#post2017507

Good riding to you!

 

[40hills]

O.k., I'd like to reopen this thread because the stiffness issue isn't discussed too much in most other crankset discussions.

Let's forget about the weight for now.

Are the Hollowtech cranks stiffer than others like my Deus and the Truvativ Stylo ISIS? I suppose the BB has a big influence on stiffness too, so do include that as a factor. The Hollowtech cranks (XTR, XT, LX, more??) just look stronger to me due to the fairly wide arms which would theoretically make them stiffer. My RF Deus have a pretty nice I-beam shape, but would those arms flex more than the Hollowtech? Compared to XTR cranks specifically how stiff are they?

When I switched from my Truvativ Stylo ISIS to LX Hollowtech II, I swore I could tell a difference.

Another thought is rider weight. I'm a lightweight at 145ish and crankset stiffness probably isn't going to be tested much by me.

...because curious riders want to know.

 

[EJ_92606]

Search for details on the board, but I saw a post that had a magazine article showing the XT hollowtech cranks were the stiffest, even more than XTR. RF deus was a fairly close 2nd though.

O.k., I'd like to reopen this thread because the stiffness issue isn't discussed too much in most other crankset discussions.

Let's forget about the weight for now.

Are the Hollowtech cranks stiffer than others like my Deus and the Truvativ Stylo ISIS? I suppose the BB has a big influence on stiffness too, so do include that as a factor. The Hollowtech cranks (XTR, XT, LX, more??) just look stronger to me due to the fairly wide arms which would theoretically make them stiffer. My RF Deus have a pretty nice I-beam shape, but would those arms flex more than the Hollowtech? Compared to XTR cranks specifically how stiff are they?

When I switched from my Truvativ Stylo ISIS to LX Hollowtech II, I swore I could tell a difference.

Another thought is rider weight. I'm a lightweight at 145ish and crankset stiffness probably isn't going to be tested much by me.

...because curious riders want to know.

 

[Hecubus]

I don't have any exact numbers but there have been some articles posted from Europen magazines that test that sort of thing. Overall it seems the Shimano hollowtech 2 cranks have always been at the top of the list with XT always being the stiffest, XTR is close behing as I would imagine LX. With the obvious exception of Saint which has a monstrous difference in stiffness. While the Race Face ones are pretty stiff I believe the I beam design is not quite as stiff as a hollow box.