[chairthruster]

Am I losing my mind? I have the Stylo ss crankset, maybe 2005 vintage, which comes with the silver/black bashgaurd. Pretty much worthless as a bashgaurd, and I don't typically find myself in bashgaurd situations anyway on the single, so I want to remove it. My initial attempt failed when I was replacing the stock chainring with a salsa ring, as I learned the existing chainring bolts/nuts were too long, and, without the added stack height of the bashgaurd, they would not seat. No prob I thought, I will just spend $5 and get some "bmx" bolts, which I think are cut shorter (both nut and bolt). Thought I was embarking on a 5 minute exercise last evening, but spent well over an hour trying to get the frigging shorter bolts/nuts to seat without the guard. WTF? I finally ended up adding the bashgaurd back in, and using the short bmx nuts with the long stock bolts, and have three of the four seating well. The forth is still spinning quite free, won't bite. Of course I do not have a chainring nut wrench/tool thingee, as I prefer to cut little circles in my fingertips while trying to hold the sharp edged nut in place to get it to bite. Is this nightmare solved by simply having the right tool? say it isn't so. Who else has removed that aluminum foil bashgaurd on the stylo... please share your story. thanks

 

[CB2]

In the past I've ground down my "long" crank nuts and bolts on the bench grinder to make them short enough to work.
Making sure you are properly greasing the bolts, which you've cleaned, will make assembly easier.

 

[Malachite]

In my experience, the "wrench/tool thingee" works OK but a flat blade screwdriver works just as well.

 

[Hippienflipflops]

i had this same problem with my girlfriends stylo, I used a flat head screwdriver and an allen wrench

 

[Dirdir]

I used a chainring bolt tool and the correct sized bolts without issue on my Stylo.

 

[JohnnieA]

I have a Stylo SS. It came on my 2006 Inbred. The back side chain ring bolts use a 5mm allen wrench & the ouside nuts take a 6mm. Makes it easy to take on & off. You might want to take a closer look at yours. They may be the same. I wanted to remove my bash guard because the chain rubs on it. After using this type of set up I don't want to deal with the slotted BMX bolts ever again, so I just decided to try putting a washer between the spider and guard to create some clearance. I got the washers today & am going to try it out tonite. I'll follow up on how it works out. If I can find a set of short BMX nuts & bolts that use the double allen wrench system, I'll probably just remove the guard. I think I saw a set on the net once but they were like $25 plus shipping.

 

[chairthruster]

thanks everyone for the advice. JohnieA - unfortunately my setup uses the slotted nuts rather than the nicer double hex you describe. I may resort to picking some of those up.

I am also assuming I need to keep the chainring on the inside of the four-arm spider, even without the bashgaurd, as it didn't fit up too well with the steps on the outside of the spider, originally intended for the bashguard.. seems to float too much there. When placing the ring on the inside of the spider however, the bolts seem to have nowhere to seat well on the outside of the spider arms, as there are no countersinks on the holes. hmmm....

 

[reverend_dallas]

I am waiting for my Stylo SS to arrive..... How is it? Any problems? They are very poorly reviewed, but people only talk about cranksets when something is wrong....

 

[Devine Intervention]

One Minor Issue

I've got one of the internal bearing versions on my Cannondale1FG. I've had absolutely no problems with that one.

Bought an external bearing unit for my latest build, and found the chainring wasn't perfectly centered about the crank bearings. I checked the pitch diameter and found that it changed about 3/32" in one spot, allowing the chain to slacken as that the chain ran over that area. A Raceface chainring improved the sitation considerably. I think others have posted similar concerns, but I couldn't beat the price I paid, even considering the cost of the additional chainring. I've got about 100 miles on the set-up with no chain problems to date.

 

[chairthruster]

the stylo has been rock solid for me, unless of course you attempt to remove the bashguard Prob have about 1500 miles on with no issues thus far.

 

[reverend_dallas]

My concern was primarily with breaking them. I bought them to replace a raceface carbon set that I snapped about 2 inches above the pedal. Several reviews I read said they weren't tough enough for SS and have a tendency to break..... made me a little nervous.

 

[kvojr]

Am I losing my mind? I have the Stylo ss crankset, maybe 2005 vintage, which comes with the silver/black bashgaurd. Pretty much worthless as a bashgaurd, and I don't typically find myself in bashgaurd situations anyway on the single, so I want to remove it. My initial attempt failed when I was replacing the stock chainring with a salsa ring, as I learned the existing chainring bolts/nuts were too long, and, without the added stack height of the bashgaurd, they would not seat. No prob I thought, I will just spend $5 and get some "bmx" bolts, which I think are cut shorter (both nut and bolt). Thought I was embarking on a 5 minute exercise last evening, but spent well over an hour trying to get the frigging shorter bolts/nuts to seat without the guard. WTF? I finally ended up adding the bashgaurd back in, and using the short bmx nuts with the long stock bolts, and have three of the four seating well. The forth is still spinning quite free, won't bite. Of course I do not have a chainring nut wrench/tool thingee, as I prefer to cut little circles in my fingertips while trying to hold the sharp edged nut in place to get it to bite. Is this nightmare solved by simply having the right tool? say it isn't so. Who else has removed that aluminum foil bashgaurd on the stylo... please share your story. thanks

I used an old cog I removed fron the cassette. The teeth were a perfect fit for the 2 little slots on the bolts.

 

[reverend_dallas]

I saw it hovering around a "2 chili" rating, with numerous reviews saying that it snaps. Good to hear from a satisfied customer; like I said in a previous post, you only really talk about cranksets when there is a problem.... At 3mm that "bashring" seems like a misnomer, is it's intended purpose to simply keep the chain on?

 

[RedRocker]

Is there any diff between the Stylo SS and Firex SS (what came on my Inbred)?
There isn't squat on Truvativ cranks on SRAM's site. That's actually pretty weak.

 

[alexrex20]

i dont use the meat of my fingers. i use my fingernail.

 

[Dirdir]

thanks everyone for the advice. JohnieA - unfortunately my setup uses the slotted nuts rather than the nicer double hex you describe. I may resort to picking some of those up.

I am also assuming I need to keep the chainring on the inside of the four-arm spider, even without the bashgaurd, as it didn't fit up too well with the steps on the outside of the spider, originally intended for the bashguard.. seems to float too much there. When placing the ring on the inside of the spider however, the bolts seem to have nowhere to seat well on the outside of the spider arms, as there are no countersinks on the holes. hmmm....

I think the "float" is not a problem as I used my chainring on the outside after taking off the bashguard. I did dump the Stylo though because it was way off "round" and made my chain tension way too uneven through the crank revolution. And yes, it was the crankset. I checked all other possibilities first.

 

[chairthruster]

thanks for all of the advice. Interesting Dirdir you actually found the crank itself to be unround, not the ring, etc. Since I have it dialed with the silly bashgaurd, I supposed I will leave it be.

for those stressing over Stylo durability... I think there were changes year to year in the design... The Stylo "SS" model seems to get better props than previous models. I have the SS.

 

[pacman]

thanks for all of the advice. Interesting Dirdir you actually found the crank itself to be unround, not the ring, etc. Since I have it dialed with the silly bashgaurd, I supposed I will leave it be.

for those stressing over Stylo durability... I think there were changes year to year in the design... The Stylo "SS" model seems to get better props than previous models. I have the SS.

The later model uses a 7050 Al alloy, it's written on the crank. The weaker ones were 6000 series alloy.

 

[Big Chipper]

Been bashing away on the newer SS version for a few months now. I got the 180mm version and removed the bashguard and had my LBS supply me with shorter bolts. Works like a champ...no worries.:thumbsup:

 

[reverend_dallas]

Good news. Thanks.