[Commodus]

Hi, not sure where to put this post, but since I'm building a commuter I guess its here.

I'm ditching the crank on my old Giant carbon HT as part of my 'performance commuter' build. I want to go to a SS crank and leave the 8 speeds on the back. Questions:

All the current cranks are 9 speed of course, and though I'm (nearly) sure it won't be a problem, will it?

I've never installed cranks before, is it hard? Can I do it myself? I've looked into it a bit, and started reading about special tools to face the BB shell surfaces and got a bit worried at the cost of the tools involved....and I'm not too sure how well they would cut carbon, anyways.

Which one to buy? I see TruVativ and RaceFace both make nice SS cranksets, I want something light and strong that doesn't weigh too much, just like everyone I guess. Suggestions welcome! I'm partial to RaceFace stuff because they're local to me (Van), any reason I shouldn't just buy the Deus cranks and be done with it?

Thanks in advance!

 

[perttime]

What crank/BB do you have now?

My SS bikes have regular Shimano LX (Hollowtech2) cranks, now with Blackspire chainrings and some bashrings. If you dont put on a bashring, you'll need shorter chainring polts or some spacers.

9 speed chainring is not a problem.
Most 1x9 and 1x8 mountain bikes need something to keep the chain from falling off of the single ring. On smooth surfaces you might get away without anything, or you might not.

 

[Commodus]

What crank/BB do you have now?

My SS bikes have regular Shimano LX (Hollowtech2) cranks, now with Blackspire chainrings and some bashrings. If you dont put on a bashring, you'll need shorter chainring polts or some spacers.

9 speed chainring is not a problem.
Most 1x9 and 1x8 mountain bikes need something to keep the chain from falling off of the single ring. On smooth surfaces you might get away without anything, or you might not.

I have an XT crank right now. I know I don't have to buy a new crankset to go SS, but I want to drop some weight too. I'm kind of assuming that the XT is heavy, but to be honest I don't know its weight.

The cranksets that I'm looking at have bash guards, will that keep the chain in place, or will it still be able to fall off towards the frame?

Thanks for the response!

 

[perttime]

I am not one to count grams really, so don't know about the weights either.

The chain can also fall towards the "inside". Will it? I don't know. There's products like N-Gear Jump Stop to make sure it does not. Some make their own guides or leave the front derailer there as a guide.

 

[EHCRain]

I would keep the XT crank and just swap out the big ring for a bashguard.
XT are good and usually are pretty light weight.

 

[dskunk]

I would keep the XT crank and just swap out the big ring for a bashguard.
XT are good and usually are pretty light weight.

+1 , plus ditch the small chain ring and derailleur, and get an N-Gear jump stop to do the job of keeping the chain from coming off to the inside ( if, as has been said, you need it).

 

[Commodus]

Okay I think I will! Thanks guys!