so i have a small crack in a pair of sugino 75s. probably not a huge immediate concern but i’m now in the market for new cranks.
i’m a messenger–so i need something that ought to hold up for a good number of miles, but i also don’t have a lot of money to spend. what can i find that’ll be a good mix? naturally i’ll be keeping an eye on ebay and cl for 75s or omniums since i know good deals on those can pop up, but i’m not expecting anything…sometimes good things come up, sometimes they don’t.
for new, i was wondering about soma hellyers–i believe i’ve heard good things about 'em, but not sure. miche primato i had an eye on. i’m told the bb sucks, but i found a lot of sources for just cranks and chainring (though i’m not even sure i want the miche chainring). only thing is i saw them listed as having a 9/16" spindle…which seems to me it would sort of suck.
This. If you’re messing on these cranks, the external bottom bracket will make maintenance quite a bit easier. I imagine the bearings will last a lot longer, too.
the sram sounds okay. and i guess 130 bcd is slightly less stiff but more chainring options.[/quote]
9/16" is the diameter of the threads for the pedal. 15mm is the size of the wrench flats.
Gotta love the bike industry’s ability to use standard and metric on a single part.
I don’t think the stiffness of a 130 vs 144 BCD is going to be noticeable. The BB upgrade will trump any flex in chainring.
Soma hellyers are just re-badged andel cranks that you can get for around $100 from benscycle.
omniums are great cranks. I know it sounds ridiculous and most of you are going to ridicule me for saying this, but if people in the FGFS who have been breaking cranks move to the omniums and have no problems, i imagine they would stand up to normal riding for quite some time. however, some dude with an 8mm wrench can steal your cranks. but i guess that goes with most components on a bike anyway.
i recently bought sakae CR cranks off ebay for something like $20. 144 BCD and have a 42mm chainline with the stock truvativ touro bottom bracket from my rush hour. Those, coupled with an FSA pro track chainring, have been pretty damn good cranks for super cheap. I did have a pair of ofmega mistrals that cracked though, so don’t go with those because the crank arms on those are super thin.
As the diameter of the chainring increases relative to the diameter of the spider, the chainring tends to flex more. Track chainrings are generally around 48t and as such are close to the diameter of a 144bcd spider (smallest chainring is 42t). If you put a 48t chainring on a 130bcd crankset, there’s more of the chainring to flex. Smallest chainring on a 130bcd crankset is 38t.
The relevance of this is likely imaginary for most. For big guys like myself, or people that put out a lot of momentary torque, it makes a difference. For me, when I stand up and mash, the chain will hit the sideplate of the front derailleur, or at least that was the case with my last crankset.
In regards to crank/chainring stiffness, I have one bike with 151bcd cranks to a 48t 1/8" chainring, and another with 110bcd to a 3/32nd 50t chainring.
I’ve never felt any difference between the two that I thought I could attribute to the chainring flexing. The 110bcd one is an FSA outboard carbon deal, and it feels stiffer overall, but the frame it’s on isn’t as stiff.
Basically, there’s so many variables, both imagined and real, that the only difference between 130 and 144bcd is availability of chainrings.
[quote=thurston][quote=grindmaster flash]i thought it was 15mm…
the sram sounds okay. and i guess 130 bcd is slightly less stiff but more chainring options.[/quote]
9/16" is the diameter of the threads for the pedal. 15mm is the size of the wrench flats.
Gotta love the bike industry’s ability to use standard and metric on a single part.
I don’t think the stiffness of a 130 vs 144 BCD is going to be noticeable. The BB upgrade will trump any flex in chainring.[/quote]
oh yeah you’re right about the stiffness…i was just saying. i know that’s the truth.
nah, man, i’d totally send you the crank if it matched–165, though. the nds crank is fine, so half the equation is there…sounds too short for you, though.