What 165 mm cranks for enduro?

[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, 2024 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  

[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, 2024 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, 2024 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. 

[Nuffy]

4 minutes ago, BaGearA said:

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 

Thanks. 9 out of 10 times the above works, but I’ve had two that I haven’t been able to do, although I didn’t try heat on the latest one. I’ve broken at least one bench vice on this task, so I have invested in a much stronger one. Thankfully the bearing on the latest hub is still smooth, so I didn’t spend a lot of time on it, although I have some new muscle aches and hand pain from hauling on that wheel!

I’ve seen suggestions elsewhere to use an impact wrench, so I’m going to see if I can find who was selling the tool with a compatible fitting. Anyone else here tried that?

[droo]

2 hours 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? 😁

Phone a friend, 2 pairs of hands are better than one.

Also, make sure you've got a decent bench vise and that the tool's properly tight in there. If it can move it puts pressure on the leading edge which can cause the vise to break.

[Ruben101]

8 hours 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? 😁

We broke a vice and our work bench trying to get that ring out. 

Sent it away to get stoked , who were the agents for dt swiss at the time if I remember correctly to remove and replace. They ended up cutting it out with a dremel. 

[Me rida my bicycle]

Have to say I used to run 165mm XO downhill crank, little disappointed when the pedal insert started moving around inside the arm. Sram bb's prices are also eye watering for what is a piece of plastic and 2 bearings. 

Now running Lyne's AMP crank, no more creaking, issues, cheap shimano bb lasts forever and I can still run SRAM chainrings. Ordered the crank and I probably had it within 24 hours. 

Edited August 8, 2024 by Me rida my bicycle

[DieselnDust]

On 8/6/2024 at 11:05 AM, droo said:

Removing SRAM cranks is easy. Take the wheels off, put the hex key in to the bolt about 1/8 of a turn ahead of the crank, put on ground, stand on hex key.

I have yet to find a crank I can't remove with this method.

Then, when reinstalling, anti-seize on the spindle thread. Next time you'll get it off on the stand.

I feel a video is required for this method with disclaimers 😁