Well said....and I agree! I'm actually laughing right now cause I deal with this kind of drama every day! Not that I want to, but more of the fact that I feel like I have to get a lot of the custom things I want. I'm not just into "High-End" Cycling stuff but I'm also into Saltwater Reef Tanks. There too, I have to deal with the same. I think that the common denominator here is the "CUSTOM" thing. Custom = wait a long time. It drives me crazy as well. In order to not loose my hair I've gone to therapy and learned some good coping skills. Don't waste your money....., I'll tell ya what works just as well. Drink wine, laugh a lot and ride Ride RIDE!! Cheers mate!

When I initially bought the brakes I deliberately did that from a another company who had them in stock knowing the history. This thing is as stock as it gets as we are talking cams here, a small milled piece of aluminium that comes in every Negative G brakes since the introduction of the Shimano 7900 group. It's not a big deal as I have the old ones, bit charging my creditcard immediately before shipping the stuff and then not responding back on several emails that's just not how you should behave. I'll give him a few weeks and then file for a refund.

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It's online again:The Machinist

I'm waiting too and not in a hurry. Right now I can't see putting the cranks on my bike to just ride rollers. We had 10" of snow last night.

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-For my next trick I will set myself on fire!
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Aren't Lightning Cranks made in the US?

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Speedplay is the devil.

Here's a slide of pictures ! Sorry if these pictures are very small. I can send you original size by email if you contact me with leaving your email address.

I like the grey one, but the full black is also very nice. We sell less red anodized brakes than in the past, but these red anodized pins are giving a nice touch to the crank.

The original prototype is going to ride again in order to continue the fatigue tests (I have just changed the attaching screws by the new ones).

That series is going back to the factory in order to improve the chainline. Ted has changed this week the chainline and it seems perfect now.
On the prototype I had to add some e-clips to adjust the position of the spider, but it's working great.
Moreover, I don't own a BB30 frame, and the few lucky US riders have a BB30 frame, that is allowing more adjustments than my BBRight.

Is the tube diameter in the 2-tube version the same as the 3-tube version? Is the weight difference between the versions essentially the weight of the 3rd tube (per side)? Are there some additional modifications, currently, or planned, in the 2-tube version in the "receptacle" end where the "missing" 3rd (middle) tube would be in the 3-tube version?

As of today, the tubes of each version are the same, but this 2 tube crank is a prototype and the commercial versions should be different:

What is planned for the future:

3 tubes version:

-2 tubes for traction and compression stiffness, these tubes will be the same as the existing tubes
-1 tube (the center tube) for the to torsional stiffness.

2 tubes version:

-2 oversize tubes with the same bases and tops, with high module carbon fiber oriented specifically to work on the calculated directions.

I confirm that the current stiffness of the original 3 tubes prototype is enough to make it stiffer than the Rotor 3D Flow that I'm using at the same time (I'm switching between Rotor and Ciamillo for testing).
So, using some special tubes will allow the use of a lighter carbon tube with less stacked carbon fiber sheets. The current thickness of the carbon fiber tubes is 2mm: internal 10mm, external 14mm.

the two tube version, will it still has a hole for the third tube in the middle on the aluminum parts?

I think Tim @ Lightning does some of the crank in the US, but not all.

I think these cranks are cool.

By torsional stiffness, I assume you mean twisting the pedal about the axis of a given crank arm. I'm surprised a center tube contributes nearly as much as the outer two to this stiffness mode. If I twist pedal with just a center tube, I twist just the center tube, but if I twist it with the outer two, I twist the outer two but additionally they need to bend to accomodate the twist,so the outer two contribute not just with their torsional stiffness but additionally with their bending stiffness. On the other hand, if I take the pedal as mounted on a bike and pull, that will attempt to bend the crank arm along its length. For this mode, it seems like all three tubes contribute equally.

added: I'm not a mechanical engineer so can be a bit slow on this stuff. I just realized after posting if you twist the outer two, you need to bend them but you also need to change the length of the crank arm (to 2nd order, not first). This length change will be inhibited by a middle tube, which would need to be longitudinally compressed for the crank arm to shorten. So it would contribute to 2nd-order torsional stiffness. So with the middle tube, when you twist, you end up with the middle tube in compressive stress, the outer two in tensile, all three in torsional stress, the outer two subject to a bending stress. The compressive and longitudinal stiffnesses of the tubes are obviously considerable, and perhaps there's another way for twisting to occur.

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Fuji SL/1
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for some reason, this crank reminds me of these:



one is lighter and tastier.

Well, the 2 tubes version will be the Gravitas SL crank.
It will have a specific base, but the same top aluminum part than the 3 tubes.

There will have 2 versions only for this year: Gravitas and Gravitas SL.
Ted has decided to limit the number of versions, because changing the crank every over 3 months is not fair for customers.
So, the customer who is buying in march a 3 tubes crank will probably not have a different crank than the other customer who will get his crank in december.
A 2014 version will be probably designed, but I remind you that the PTS technology is bringing me a very high level of satisfaction.

It depends on how the crank twists, but I'd imagine that the centre tube will most likely have a torsional load but I'm struggling to see how it would end up with a compressive load.

I love how ugly they are. It proves that you are all about function over form. nice.

Please, don't make them expensive. They seem quite easy to produce. You should make them as cheap as the rotor. that way you will sell lots of them, so mr. ciamillo cat go with the submarine all day long.

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Happy Trails !!!
MTB / Giant Xtc '05 / 8.7Kg
ROAD / La Perla Negra - FM015 / 7.0Kg

You ought to hook up a neon tube light bulb in the center of the 2tube one.

There are 2 majors handicaps to succeed to sell a cheaper product, and it's about costs of production that for example Rotor don't have:

-Very very expensive raw material: on the brakes it was already expensive to buy the titanium bolts (made in USA also, not in China), or even the lobe of the cam (Torlon). On the crank, the problem is that Ted is paying a lot of money for just the high module tubes.
-Impressive number of operations. Some additional operations are necessary after testing the prototype. The final price will not rise. Some of these operations should be done only by a very skilled operator, probably Ted himself.

But, as of today, from my side in Europe, and from the USA, the problem is becoming not to have a reliable product, but to supply the demand, because the paid price is still low compared with the cost of production of the 100 first units, and Ted is not able to produce as many cranks a day as he would like.
This is definitely a handmade process, not and industrial process.