My next project! Hold on to your butts.

[Superlite]

Nah, just making them on my spare time, and having them machined at a local shop.

[limba]

So you called this your next project.What was your first one?

[Superlite]

Aluminum speedplay pedal inserts, reduces weight of X/1's to 128g.

[cadence90]

....Any input appreciated on what colors, or finish you guys would like on them. Thinking a black anodized spider, aluminum hardware to match, and the crank arms either bead blasted, or natural ti. Polishing could be done to individually for extra, or I could have the cranks coated in a few different colors in large quantities for a minimal charge....

Black, silver or pewter anodized spider; aluminum hardware to match; natural ti arms with SUPERLITE engraved in Swis721 LtEx BT face, further expanded by 10 pts; engraving color to match spider color.

What's the spider BCD, 130 or 135?

[Superlite]

Here's the axel it will use, weighs a scant 80g. Considering it goes through both cranks and holds the spider it is very light. Still trying to determine which grade of aluminum to use, whether 2000 or 7000 series.

[Joel]

I'm thinking about stiffness: how stiff will it be compared to all those new high-end carbon crancks which weigh the same as your combo.
I guess you'll use hollow crancks - stiffness? How will you test this?
Is the 450 g weight including the outside bearings or not?
These are just some question I have, but I hope your project will be succesful.

[Superlite]

Like I said, sub 450g for crankset, BB combo. Stiffness should be very high and it will be tested in a lab for deflection over a load, same as velonews test. That way you can see how they compare.

[Joel]

I just couldn't believe it, 80g for the axle, let's say 50 for the bearings etc, so the crancks will weigh around 320g

[cadence90]

Add the shell, not much....wow!
Superlite what is the drawing program you're using?
Have you drawn the whole thing yet in exploded axo?

[Superlite]

I'm using Autodesk Inventor. Look in the upper left hand corner. I have the exploaded view of the assembled crankset, but I won't show that yet. Theres still a few minor changes to be made, depending on the source for the titanium tubing, and which method I use to get the correct q-angle, either bending the tubes, or cutting slplines at an angle.

And Joel, don't second guess and be dissapointed, I doubt I could get it to 320g crankset/BB combo. Although that would be nice.

[BeeBee30]

Hi,this looks like a fantastic design,must say though,your spline design looks very similar to the right hand arm interface on a set of sweetwings cranks I'm using?Don't here much about theas cranks on this forum,why is that?they are very light and stiff,and from my experience,very reliable.

[Superlite]

Sweetwings? What the hell are those? How much do they weigh? I'm guessing not very light or they would be talked about much more. Got a link or pics?

[BeeBee30]

You guess wrong,520g!Sweet Wings are a two piece crank design with outboard bearings,very much like new DA,and it can be dissasembled using only one M10 allen bolt.Attached is a set I've got on my CAAD5,plus some scans of original sales literature.

[520 Dan]

yeah, sweet wings used to be THE baddest cranks around...I might be mistaken but i think at one point they did produce a tubular TI crank that was lighter than the cro-mo ones. I heard that there were problems withe the outboard bearings (at least in the offroad version)

[Superlite]

Nice, seems pretty nice. Mine are gonna take it up a notch tough. Definatly will be much stiffer, and lighter to.