What 165 mm cranks for enduro?

[440MTB]

9 minutes ago, MORNE said:

Nice if you’re 1,7m tall or…5y old?😅

170 is my limit. The side effect of having shorter cranks is your saddle height increases…and in my case, mine is already too hight haha.

You know when a 200+mm dropper isn't enough, you got some long legs! 😅

And trust me... those long legs can stomp those pedals. I've battled to keep up many times. 🤣🥲

Edited August 6 by 440MTB

[Ruben Hechter]

6 hours ago, 440MTB said:

As someone who has owned a few different cranksets over the years. Dub is by far the biggest pain, if you work on your own bikes.

I've also nearly decided to go throw my bike down a cliff face at one stage, due to the absolute nightmare it can be to get the crank bolt loose... ended up using a massive pipe on my park tool 8mm crank/pedal wrench and just going with the notion of "if it breaks, it breaks". 

I've also seen how easily the dub spindle can wear out if you run with worn BB bearings or don't set the preload correctly (previous owner of bike left me this surprise).

Then also the little plastic preload ring is easy to break if you overtighten the tiny 2mm allen bolt (ask me how I know this)...

Shimano cranks are a lot nicer to work with in my opinion, and the 24mm steel spindle lasts forever.

I was quite lucky to get my hands on a Lyne AMP crankset from Stoke a while back which I am going to use on my new build - like MORNE said, best of both worlds, 24mm spindle, pinch bolts on non-drive side crank arm to fasten and release easily, and a 3 bolt sram style chainring for easy maintenance/replacement.

Also, in my opinion, not much difference between 170mm and 165mm, so if you can get 170mm just go with that, you'll be fine.

[Nuffy]

33 minutes ago, MORNE said:

DMR also make nice ones. DMR axe. Silver or black. But another dumb proprietary BB unfortunately.

I’ve been eyeing those up too. They look lovely, but I’m also put off by the proprietary BB.

34 minutes ago, MORNE said:

If you really struggle THAT much with pedal strikes

It’s not that big a deal, but since I’ll be shopping for a crankset to replace the slightly defective one on my hardtail anyway I thought I might as well try 165 mm on the big bike. Your points on the suspension and pedals are good ones, and I will do some more playing with the LSC. I get very little pedal bobbing, and only use the climb switch on long tarmac climbs. It’s a coil shock, and I am tempted to try a stiffer spring, but I think the sag is pretty close to optimal as it is.

45 minutes ago, MORNE said:

Is you new bike running the recommended front travel?

Recommended fork travel is 150 mm and I’m running 160.

46 minutes ago, MORNE said:

It might just have a lower BB anyway…an unfortunate side effect of all this long low slack BS.

Yes, it does. And a longer wheelbase. The increase in frequency of pedal strikes was entirely predictable. But for me the trade-off was worth it for the improved stability at speed, confidence when the trail gets steep, and a more planted front wheel when winching up climbs.

My main reason for starting the thread was to see if there were any options available in RSA that I had missed, and out of genuine curiosity about what others are running. There seem to be more and more options available overseas (Canfield, NS Billet, Intend, plus many others), but the trend for shorter cranks doesn’t really seem to be taking off in southern Africa yet. My current plan is to hold out for a Race Face Turbine set, but I’ll keep an eye out for other options. Maybe I should grab the one in the classifieds for the hardtail and leave the full sus alone…

[440MTB]

11 minutes ago, Ruben Hechter said:

Yup! The dub spindle on my stylo carbon crank on my Scott Spark 910 looked almost as bad as this when I took them out for the first time after buying the bike 2nd hand... It was also a pain to get loose, but not as bad as my descendant crankset on my Giant Reign, where I almost gave up.

The one in your picture is wild man! 🫣

 

Edited August 6 by 440MTB

[Robbie Stewart]

6 hours ago, Nuffy said:

I do still get more pedal strikes with my current 170 mm cranks than I did with my previous bike.

line choice  

[BaGearA]

2 hours ago, Nuffy said:

I’ve been eyeing those up too. They look lovely, but I’m also put off by the proprietary BB.

It’s not that big a deal, but since I’ll be shopping for a crankset to replace the slightly defective one on my hardtail anyway I thought I might as well try 165 mm on the big bike. Your points on the suspension and pedals are good ones, and I will do some more playing with the LSC. I get very little pedal bobbing, and only use the climb switch on long tarmac climbs. It’s a coil shock, and I am tempted to try a stiffer spring, but I think the sag is pretty close to optimal as it is.

Recommended fork travel is 150 mm and I’m running 160.

Yes, it does. And a longer wheelbase. The increase in frequency of pedal strikes was entirely predictable. But for me the trade-off was worth it for the improved stability at speed, confidence when the trail gets steep, and a more planted front wheel when winching up climbs.

My main reason for starting the thread was to see if there were any options available in RSA that I had missed, and out of genuine curiosity about what others are running. There seem to be more and more options available overseas (Canfield, NS Billet, Intend, plus many others), but the trend for shorter cranks doesn’t really seem to be taking off in southern Africa yet. My current plan is to hold out for a Race Face Turbine set, but I’ll keep an eye out for other options. Maybe I should grab the one in the classifieds for the hardtail and leave the full sus alone…

Is the hardtail maybe BSA ? 

 

Because as much as I hate sram my DUB BSA BB has been going strong for more than a year and is showing little to no sign of wear. 

 

Also enduro bike so not tons of mileage but ive worn through BB's quicker with similar miles and conditions 

[droo]

3 hours ago, Ruben Hechter said:

 

2 hours ago, 440MTB said:

Yup! The dub spindle on my stylo carbon crank on my Scott Spark 910 looked almost as bad as this when I took them out for the first time after buying the bike 2nd hand... It was also a pain to get loose, but not as bad as my descendant crankset on my Giant Reign, where I almost gave up.

The one in your picture is wild man! 🫣

 

Sorry to say, but that's not SRAM's fault.

[440MTB]

10 minutes ago, droo said:

 

Sorry to say, but that's not SRAM's fault.

For sure. I never hinted at this being sram's fault.

I merely mentioned they are a bit more finicky and if you don't look after them, and set your preload correctly, this is most likely what you're going to do to your aluminium spindle, where Shimano's steel spindle may be more forgiving.

My dub spindle on my 2020 Reign is still in amazing condition... many factors that contribute to crankset wear.

[droo]

2 minutes ago, 440MTB said:

For sure. I never hinted at this being sram's fault.

I merely mentioned they are a bit more finicky and if you don't look after them, and set your preload correctly, this is most likely what you're going to do to your aluminium spindle, where Shimano's steel spindle may be more forgiving.

My dub spindle on my 2020 Reign is still in amazing condition... many factors that contribute to crankset wear.

Yeah, the steel spindle will be more forgiving of seized bearings, but you'd be surprised what I've seen.

The thing that I've seen cause that more often than anything else is dislodging the little blue seals during cleaning or reassembly. Be vigilant.

And don't overtorque the preload collar bolt. It only needs a nip.

[thebob]

@440MTB what bike is it? I had a Knolly Fugitive for a year which was stupidly low, even with 165mm cranks I feared for my life any time I leant the bike over or went near any rocks.

Edited August 6 by thebob

[440MTB]

17 minutes ago, droo said:

Yeah, the steel spindle will be more forgiving of seized bearings, but you'd be surprised what I've seen.

The thing that I've seen cause that more often than anything else is dislodging the little blue seals during cleaning or reassembly. Be vigilant.

And don't overtorque the preload collar bolt. It only needs a nip.

Excellent tips! Those little blue o-rings come out when regreasing/cleaning without one even noticing, and the preload collar doesn't need much tightening... I learned that the hard way. Lol

16 minutes ago, thebob said:

@440MTB what bike is it? I had a Knolly Fugitive for a year which was stupidly low, even with 165mm cranks I feared for my life any time I leant the bike over or went near any rocks.

I had many strikes on my Merida OneTwenty (140/120) with 175mm M8000 cranks and RaceFace Chester pedals.

I currently own a Giant Reign (160/146) with 170mm Descendant cranks and Spank Spoon 110 pedals, and I've had very few strikes, even in the gnarliest of rock gardens we have here in The Tygerberg trails, but they are two very different bikes, and I've progressed with my riding a fair bit too, so know when to put a pedal down and when to keep them up.

I'm currently building a Nukeproof Scout for longer, more mellow rides, and I was only able to get a 175mm Lyne AMP Crankset, but I'm not planning on doing too much in terms of "gnar" with it... I crash too much these days, breaking ribs, and smashing shoulders, to care to push myself anymore... taking a break from the "Eduro" life for a while, and then will most likely settle for a 150/140 trail bike over a full enduro rig, if Iever do go dual sus again.

Edited August 6 by 440MTB

[Knersboy]

I recently bought switched to a 165mm XT crankset. BUT I am in the US and it was still really hard to find.

 

I refuse to use 30mm (or 29.99999mm) crank spindles. I find my BB bearings last 10x longer with a 24mm spindle. 

[Nuffy]

13 hours ago, Knersboy said:

I recently bought switched to a 165mm XT crankset.

From 175 mm? Did you notice a big change?

13 hours ago, Knersboy said:

I refuse to use 30mm (or 29.99999mm) crank spindles.

I used to be firmly against 30 mm spindles too, my thinking being that they don’t leave much space for big bearings. But seeing how many respected brands use 30 mm spindles (Hope, Race Face, DMR, etc) I’ve started thinking that as long as the parts are from a decent brand and I’m not trying to fit it into a BB92 pressfit shell, maybe I should hold off on the armchair engineering.

[Nuffy]

At the risk of derailing my own thread…

@droo, since we’re here… any tips on removing a DT Swiss ring nut? 😁

[Knersboy]

3 hours ago, Nuffy said:

From 175 mm? Did you notice a big change?

I used to be firmly against 30 mm spindles too, my thinking being that they don’t leave much space for big bearings. But seeing how many respected brands use 30 mm spindles (Hope, Race Face, DMR, etc) I’ve started thinking that as long as the parts are from a decent brand and I’m not trying to fit it into a BB92 pressfit shell, maybe I should hold off on the armchair engineering.

Yes lots less pedal strikes, which is what I wanted to achieve. 

[BaGearA]

1 hour ago, Nuffy said:

At the risk of derailing my own thread…

@droo, since we’re here… any tips on removing a DT Swiss ring nut? 😁

get the right tool ( most important part ) 

 

Get a large bench vice attached to something heavy then clamp the tool in the vice and use the wheel itself as leverage, little bit of heat if she really stuck in there