Weight Weenies

best crank:

lightning, can change the spider to fit all kind of chainrings like the sisl but without the creaking
also 30 mm axle that also will fit in a non bb30 frame same like the vuamquad
also can be obtained much cheaper then the german overpriced cranks like thm and ax
same weight like the germans



best looking crank:

record UT



bang for buck:

Dura ace 7800



most overpriced:

clavicula


most crappy:

stronglight and fs k light

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eigner wrote:If you got BB30: Canondale SISL

yes, if you got bb30, cannondale hollowgram SiSL

tochnics wrote:most crappy:

stronglight and fs k light

My new Cannondale CAAD10 comes with the FSA SL-K light BB30 crank. Can you tell me what is so bad about this crank? Im planning to use it until I can afford a SI SL.

/PalleRaa

wouldent it be very interesting to trade in the crank while its new
so that you only have to pay the difference in price to the place where you buy it ?
no reason to pay for a crank that you are not tend to keep in the end anyway?

i dont like the way how the left crank fits and holds the axle with all fsa cranks
dont get me started of the older isis models to
the weight is never really light but the price is mostly the reason for buying

i know people are running campagnolo but i like the sram cranks more in the fsa price range
havent tried campagnolo cranks with the bb30 adapter

gumgardner wrote:Where is that AX crank anyway

Obviously they're working on it.

tochnics wrote:best crank:

lightning, can change the spider to fit all kind of chainrings like the sisl but without the creaking
also 30 mm axle that also will fit in a non bb30 frame same like the vuamquad
also can be obtained much cheaper then the german overpriced cranks like thm and ax
same weight like the germans

best looking crank: record UT
bang for buck: Dura ace 7800
most overpriced: clavicula
most crappy: stronglight and fs k light

Well you have a good point with the Dura Ace, but imo, the Lightning just seems like any other cheap but cheerful crankset. Not something I'm too impressed with unless you want something cheap. Record UT best looking? Really, I think it's quite ordinary. Clavicula most overpriced. Completely not true. It is very expensive but when you see the work that goes into it it's far better value for money than many cranks. There's not too many carbon bicycle products that impress my boss, the Clavicula cranks and my Storck C1.1 frame are about the only ones.

The comment previously about the Rival cranks was a good one. Definitely a good cheap option.

stephen@fibre-lyte wrote:Well you have a good point with the Dura Ace, but imo, the Lightning just seems like any other cheap but cheerful crankset.

You don't like the build quality? Reliability? Lack of bling? The specs are good, the design is solid, it works well, and it's extremely modular.

Dura Ace 7900, because when paired with Di2, it is the most impressive shifting I've ever seen on the front. And even the mechanical version, personally I believe has the best shifting using that chainring design

stephen@fibre-lyte wrote:the Lightning just seems like any other cheap but cheerful crankset. Not something I'm too impressed with unless you want something cheap.

Seems to be or did you actually try one yourself ? It's hardly what I call cheap at 670$ either!

To be fair I haven't ridden one but on appearance, especially the carbon spider, I'm not overly impressed. There's nothing wrong with it, just like there's nothing wrong with an old FSA octalink crank, but I wouldn't buy one. I hadn't realised they were so costly, so may be just "cheerful" without the "cheap"?

djconnel wrote: You don't like the build quality? Reliability? Lack of bling? The specs are good, the design is solid, it works well, and it's extremely modular.

Not sure of the reliability, but as for the other two, no can't say I'm that enamoured. It's light, but compared to other cranksets are the specs really that good? It may be extremely modular (as in you can change the spider?) but how often do most riders change their cranks? I'm not faulting it as such, but it certainly doesn't stand out (to me) in the way that many other cranksets do (just look at the crank shootout on fairwheelbikes)

Its stiffness results weren't great. But I'm not convinced stiffness more than "stiff enough" on a crank is important. Me on a Lightning is less flex than Cavendish on a Dura-Ace, I'm fairly sure.

On modularity: if I were to buy a BB30 frame, I could replace the Lightning bearings, and I could move it over. Or a press-fit frame. A crank is a fair investment, and being able to move it is a nice feature.

The bearings have adjustable pre-load. As such, they spin very smoothly compared to sets with fixed pre-load.

WRT weight: at that price, what other sub-600 gram cranks are there?

Your comments imply a "normal" (not "cheap") price for a crank is > $1k.

Re: stiffness that's certainly a point where we differ. When I was at Eurobike last year I rode some Rotor cranks followed almost straight away by some Dura Ace 7900 cranks and I could certainly tell the difference. Whether you could claim that was the frame or not may be part of it, but it certainly made me take ntoice.

On modularity regarding the bearings, it's a nice touch, but just looking at this forum it appears that riders change their cranks more than their frames. Even if I did change frames, there's certainly a likelihood that most cranks will fit most frames. Until BB30 or press fit are more common that wouldn't worry me. Its also usually better value to buy a fully equipped bike than a frameset so you may as well just get the cranks with the bike and sell off whatever parts you have left.

Adjustable preload - may be good but I've seen a lot of comments about how great Campag UT bearings are, aren't they fixed?

I don't know if I have implied that a normal crank is >$1k but it depends on your definition of normal. In the UK the Clavicula, Vuma Quad and Power Arms are beyond that mark. Record/Dura Ace cranks are less and the rrp for my boss's FSA Meg Exo cranks wasn't far short.

I've yet to read here any negative comments about Lightnings flexing.

Here's the Fairwheel results:



The ratio of flex of Lightnings to Dura-Ace is 1.4. That implies my 700 W sprint on a Lightning is like a 980 W sprint on Dura-Ace. If Dura-Ace is good enough for a 980 W sprint (and it's good enough for a 1600 W sprint), then Lightning's not going to cause me any issues. At least that's how I see it.

I think frame flex is a much more noticeable factor than crank flex, until the chainrings start to rub.

I like to try and be totally honest with people, even if it upsets some of the manufacturers. We sell a fair amount of lightning cranks, but no more than we do of any other crank, and we've had more Lightning cranks returned than any other. On the plus side, the guys at lightning are usually really good at taking care of problems with their cranks. We do not see an unacceptably high number of them returned, and they aren't returned because of catastrophic failure(it's usually qc issues like pedal inserts being a little crooked.) The think about lightning is that they are good cranks if you get a good one. But you have a higher chance that your first one may not be.

As for the Clavicula being overpriced: I showed a clavicula to a friend who is a carbon engineer for Trek. Typically when he sees things it's the usual response in that it's nothing special. Most companies do the same things, with the same techniques and same materials. However when I showed him the Clavicula his response was, "wow, they've really done something amazing." He went on to explain about all the different things he could see that made the crank special, and that was without even cutting it up and looking at the rest of it. Of course that doesn't mean it's a perfect crank either, it's still a little delicate and still a little wide. However it may not be so overpriced if one knew what actually went into making one.

Still as I see it, every crank has pros and cons and you just have to decide the characteristics that are most important to you. Make a list and rank those criteria and then put the 3 cranks the fill each criteria in order of how they fill the need. When you're done average out your answers and see which crank fits your needs best.

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