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  • my crank keeps coming loose
  • Karinofnine
    Full Member

    it's Race Face Deus on Hope BB. If I do it tight the cranks don't turn, if I do it so the cranks do turn, it works loose. A bike shop fitted the BB – is it because they used all the spacers?

    jam-bo
    Full Member

    probably, what size BB shell is it.

    SpokesCycles
    Free Member

    Possibly. Take a spacer or two off the axle and it should be OK.

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    Karinofnine
    Full Member

    Think 68mm – it's an Orange 5

    coatesy
    Free Member

    If it's a Five, then you have a 73mm shell, and will need only one spacer fitted. For a Race-Face chainset, i'd always recommend getting the shell faced back to the min.width recommended(-0.25mm undersize)as they rely on the shell being an exact width to avoid pre-loading the bearings(i'd also be a bit wary of letting the same shop do this if they didn't measure the shell, put too many spacers in, and either sent it out with a loose crank or massively pre-loaded bearings.)

    BigJohn
    Full Member

    Be careful – those Deus cranks need mega torque to do them up properly, and if not tightened fully home they will go all wobbly and only be good for the bin.

    Karinofnine
    Full Member

    Thanks everyone. It had a Race Face BB in it. The bearings were rubbish and I had them replaced many times. In the end I decided to run them until absolutely finished and then throw out the RF BB and start again with a Hope.

    I knew I wouldn't be able to get the old BB out so I took my bike to a shop, with the new Hope BB (in its packet, with the instructions) and asked them to get the old BB out, chase the threads out and face the cups.

    When I picked it up they had (apparently) done all that, plus fitted the BB, which I had not asked them to do. I just gave it to them so that they could see if they had chased the threads out properly.

    There was another issue, but never mind about that for now.

    I rode my beloved for a bit, then decided to change the chainrings (plus chain and freewheel). When I put the chainset back on I thought it was funny because I could either tighten it until tight and the BB made a little whooshing noise, or I could back off the crank bolt and the bearings did not make the noise. I was riding another bike anyway so didn't think about it too much.

    Any road up… sorry about the length of this post – yesterday I just had to ride my 5. I got maybe 1km down the bridleway next to my home and the cranks were loose. Went home, got an allen key, tightened until I could spin cranks without the little whooshing noise. They came loose again, and again, so I went home and posted on here to ask you guys what the hell is going on?

    The shop have put two spacers on the non-drive side and they have probably overloaded the bearings. Wonder if that means the bearings have had it? They are the ceramic ones 🙁

    foxyrider
    Free Member

    +1 73mm bracket so you should only need 1 spacer on the the drive side. Can you also use loctite on the bolt?

    Edit: take it back to the shop and tell then they have bu99ered it up (In a nice way initially 😉 )?

    Karinofnine
    Full Member

    The problem with taking it back now is a) a fair bit of time has passed and b) I've fiddled with it. The shop will use those two things to wriggle out of any blame and I will get wound up over the wasted journey and waste of time.

    It strengthens my resolve to shop online and do all my repairs myself (apart from forks and shocks to TFT – who have been consistently brilliant).

    PJM1974
    Free Member

    It could be that there isn't enough torque in the bolt. As has been said before, Raceface cranks need scary amounts of torque to stop from going wobbly.

    I have had problems with RaceFace cranks in the past (Evolve X-Type) and several friends have had problems with Deus cranks killing the spline interface in a matter of months. Once the splines are worn there isn't anything you can do to sort it, unfortunately.

    bigdawg
    Free Member

    I had this problem with an xtr set and BB – turns out the orig installer (shop) hadnt used a torque wrench aand had tightened the bolts up 'tightly'. Turns out they had over tightened the ali bolts and had actually stretched them, had three races with my cranks hanging off – needed a new BB and bolts (tightened to specified torque).

    duir
    Free Member

    http://www.raceface.com/comp/inst/Deus.Evolve.Ride.XC.EXI.web.pdf

    Raceface stuff is a bit more tricky than shimano but if the time is taken in the first place to get things just right, they stay put and last years. Almost all people that have issues have either had their LBS botch it or botched it themselves. My Raceface atlas is about 6 years old and has been on several bikes and never worked loose. The way raceface cranks are made makes it very hard to work loose and very hard to over tighten. So here are several things to consider:chainline, B/B size, chain device fitted? For example my new bike (Mythic Spitfire) with atlas cranks, hope 73mm B/B, double chainring and bash needed:no non-drive side B/B spacers, 1 drive side B/B spacer, 2 black drive side chainline spacers and the red RH crank seal.

    Bit fiddly but well worth taking the time. When fully tightened they stay put and spin freely with no play.
    Nice

    mtbfix
    Full Member

    My Bonty/Truvativ cranks had a habit of coming loose so I went with a strong Loctite solution and they have been fine ever since. However the fact that you can still tighten them until the BB stops turning sounds like another issue may be present. Bite the bullet and take them back to the shop for a second opinion would be my advice.

    Karinofnine
    Full Member

    My bike is five years old, I never had one single problem with loose cranks until the Hope BB/bike shop got hold of it.

    There's obviously a width issue here – I think they've added too many spacers, tightened the bolt down hard and didn't check that it turned freely. Funnily enough, they told me there was a problem with freewheeling – they said it was the rear hub. It was actually frozen jockey wheels, plus, in hindsight, that they had over-tightened.

    I'm just having some lunch, then I'll have at it this afternoon.

    Thanks all.

    Karinofnine
    Full Member

    double post sorry

    Karinofnine
    Full Member

    Right, there were three spacers in there. I've taken it all apart, cleaned it all and put back with one spacer, drive side, plus Locktite. You can now tighten it until it feels that you can't go any more. Let's see what happens on a ride…

    clubber
    Free Member

    I'd be taking it back to the shop and asking for new bearings for the BB – if they had 5mm of extra spacers in there then they'll have had to apply a fair load to the chainset to get it to tighten…

    Not to mention that the loosening may well have shagged the chainset…

    Or have I misunderstood the situation (eg the shop didn't actually fit the chainset, just the BB though they clearly did that wrong).

    rootes1
    Full Member

    Sometimes useful to use Loctite Bearing Fit on the spline interface, this is better than loctite on the bolts.

    Karinofnine
    Full Member

    Doh! Now I've only got one spacer in the drive side and the crank tightens BUT it won't go into the big chainring because the chain hits the bolt that holds the bearings in the swinging arm…

    coatesy
    Free Member

    Just a guess here, but your shop may have removed a spacer/seal from between chainset and BB in an attempt to tighten it all without it locking up(there's usually a red elastomer type ring pressed into the back face of the chainset),there's not much clearance around the chainring, and with that missing,possibly none at all.

    Karinofnine
    Full Member

    Thanks, the spacer/seal is still there.

    I've been on to Orange this morning. They are going to send me some lower profile bolts to go through the swinging arm. That way I can tighten the cranks AND have top gear!

    I suspect this has always been an issue, and is partly why I destroyed so very many sets of RaceFace bearings (notwithstanding that they are rubbish anyway). It was at a time when I had a boyfriend who objected to the amount of time I spend riding/fixing/upgrading/preparing for rides/recovering from rides/being injured/travelling to races and events. All mechanical work was dealt with by various bike shops.

    Now I have no boyfriend and can fiddle with my bikes as much as I wish, I have discovered this little problem. No matter, will be sorted as soon as the news bolts arrive.

    Thanks

Viewing 22 posts - 1 through 22 (of 22 total)

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