I read here on weight weenies that the FSA cranks are lighter but also stiffer than the shimano cranks. Where can I find information about that?

I just read an article about the stiffness of the FSA Pro Team Issue and compared to the ultegra and dura ace crank it's less stiff.

link to chart

link to article

Can somebody give some information about this?

There was an article a couple of months ago in Velonews where they tested several cranks, including FSA. The '04 DA is the stiffest. Contact Zinn at Velonews for the details.

The Velonews test showed the FSA superlight to be the stiffest **of the cranks that used standard BBs**. The 04 DA was by far the stiffest in the test, but my interpretation is that only proves the external BB system is much stiffer, not the cranks themselves. The FSA was quite a bit stiffer than the TruVativ cranks which are about like every other traditional aluminum crank. FSA is going to have an external BB design soon. I think that comparison would be more meaningful.

As far as weight/stiffness ratio the other cranks were slighted by the fact that the 04 DA and Campy used BB's that were optimized as a system and the rest were not tested with the best available BB. If the FSA superlight had been tested with an FRM BB or something in that class it would have the campy look even more overpriced.

Intresting, so you say the outer bearings had something to do with stiffness that would mean that the actual crank itself (FSA superlite) is just as stiff as the dura ace.

how about the dura ace chainrings they look beefier, i think that has to do with stiffness also

To be stiffer, the axle diameter has to increase, but then you get less durability. with outside bearings Shimano tries to solve this problem, let's see.

well we have already seen isis with outside bearings, i do not remember the name of the crank. but if that alone can increase stiffness i think its worth it. bigger axle means new crank - no go for me.

before you flex the crank, the frame will. so just get some outside bearings like the dura ace have, and we are good to go. I'd upgrade to that

As far as stiffness goes for Cranks and BB's are we getting to a point where the added stiffness even makes any difference. As you said at some point the crank is not the limiting factor the wheels, frame, etc may be the limiting factor. Does this supposed increase in stiffness with DA actually equal more power to the road. I don't know about you guys, but I am no pro so I don't put out the gaudy power numbers that a pro might! For the avg. Joe I would guess that the cranks on the market now are plenty stiff for our purpose?

I think JTC is right, only Storck or some other very light crancks are maybe not stiff enough

I think what the external bearing would do for me is make me hit my ankles on the cranks since there is less room for crank offset if you keep a fairly normal Q factor. The amount of offset the FSA have is one of my favorite things about them.

I do think the solid chainrings are probably significantly stiffer too, but there are already CF chainrings that might be comparable.

I am still waiting for Negmass cranks to make it to market, if they ever do.