Road cranks?

PekkaP said:

Anyone running road cranks on their mountain ss? Been planning to buy set of 180mm Dura-Ace's. Are those strong enough or do they fall in pieces in first drop off?

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Its a road crankset for a reason, Personally I wouldnt risk screwing my nice shiny new DuraAces

Yes.

I run road cranks on my SS. FSA carbon ones, compact. I ride them as hard as any other cranks I have used and they are great. I know of several others doing the same with good results. They also allow a much lower Q-Factor than wide ATB cranks, which I like a lot.

Only problem with 130mm road cranks is the large BCD meaning you can only run 38t or bigger. Not a disaster, but makes for some unusually large rear cogs.

JMH

PekkaP said:

Anyone running road cranks on their mountain ss? Been planning to buy set of 180mm Dura-Ace's. Are those strong enough or do they fall in pieces in first drop off?

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FSA energy cranks

PekkaP said:

Anyone running road cranks on their mountain ss? Been planning to buy set of 180mm Dura-Ace's. Are those strong enough or do they fall in pieces in first drop off?

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Theyre 110 BDC, cheaper then DA and strong as heck.

Hey Pekka - are you from Springfield- I know of a guy who has that same name from Springfield.

Later
Fred

JMH said:

I run road cranks on my SS. FSA carbon ones, compact. I ride them as hard as any other cranks I have used and they are great. I know of several others doing the same with good results. They also allow a much lower Q-Factor than wide ATB cranks, which I like a lot.

Only problem with 130mm road cranks is the large BCD meaning you can only run 38t or bigger. Not a disaster, but makes for some unusually large rear cogs.

JMH

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What are you running with your compacts? They usually come 34/50, so are you just using the 34?
I suppose the super low Q-factor could be an issue with heel clearance on some bikes, esp 29ers.

OGG

FSA Compact Cranks

Yes, I am running the 34t ring on my Carbon Pro cranks. I have also used the Energy crankset with good results, although I had to run a 113mm BB on my bike to get the arms past the chainstays.

Fast Freddy said:

Hey Pekka - are you from Springfield- I know of a guy who has that same name from Springfield.

Later
Fred

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Hi Fred -No i'm not. I am from Finland. Far far away from Springfield...

If I went ahead with a dedicated singlespeed (and wanted an integrated BB/crank), I'd definitely go with a compact road crank. Lower q factor. Some of the Fisher factory XC guys used the Bontrager Race X Lite Carbon compact road cranks this year (someone posted some pics here a while back, I believe). If you're just going to run standard road cranks (non-integrated), then the q factor would only really be dependent upon the length of bottom bracket spindle you used. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think I'm thinking clearly on this one.
-Sean

I think i'll go with standard 39t ring. 19t in back. BB worries me a bit. I have to use Ultegra bb. Is that good and strong enough?

ultegra bb pretty good

PekkaP said:

I think i'll go with standard 39t ring. 19t in back. BB worries me a bit. I have to use Ultegra bb. Is that good and strong enough?

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I have run ultegra octalink cranks on my cross check for 3 years, no troubles. BB is similar to xt octalink. I have heard several horror stories about the octalink DA BB though. Lighter then ultegra, but not sealed, and needs attention fairly often, or early replacement. I race cross in the Seattle area, so I think that 3 years with no troubles so far is pretty good. They come in two different lengths, If you need more stay clearance the longer tripple BB might work. The double bb works fine on my crosscheck.

mrbiggel77 said:

Its a road crankset for a reason, Personally I wouldnt risk screwing my nice shiny new DuraAces

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Top Pro roadies can put out 1800+ watts in a sprint. If a crank can handle that, it can handle anything XC riding is gonna dish out.

Cross bike/ MTB

I kinda think of my cross bike as another mountain bike. I currently run the inexpensive FSA alloy cranks. I think they are called Gossamer Cross. Compact 110 BCD, 38/52 which is a crap gear combo. They seem strong enough and they have s uper tough black finish which still looks good way after an Ultegra or DA cranks would look like the underside of my car.

If you're interested, let me know. I would let them go cheap, since I am thinking I will set up my bike 1x9 with my XTR 952's and a swanky Boone ring some day.