Hello,

Got a new bike a few months back and it came with a set of Race Face Ride cranks on it with a Race Face bb. I have been on two light xc rides with it and the cranks now have a bit of play, but you don’t notice it when pedaling yet. I have tightened them up as much as I dare but still slight play. I’m not familiar with Race Face products and without sounding stupid is this normal to have a little play or are Race Face just not that good ?

Cheers dave

No there should be no play. Check the cranks are done up tight. They basically do up to a hard stop, but that stop is after some pretty stiff tightening.

Presumably you have one of their cinch cranks something like this – http://www.bikerumor.com/2014/06/23/new-race-face-turbine-cinch-crank-tightens-up-your-ride/ ?

As benpinnick says, it takes quite a bit of effort to tighten them up (and undo them), not had any problem with my cranks though the BB itself gave up after 1500Km.

The BBs are prety poor but mine tend to just get grouchy rather than develop play in the bearings

As Ben says –

*NoTES:
1) Actual torque required to bottom-out RH crank may vary but this is a “hard stop” that will be very noticeable. It is not possible
to “over-load” the bearings with the LH crank installation. The most important thing is to ensure that the LH crank bolt is fully bottomed-out regardless of final torque requirement

If it still has play – bin it and find a cheap XTR.

The cranks are a standard 4 bolt arm not the cincher type. I have ordered a Shimano saint bb to replace it as it was only £20. If I put too much pressure through the bolt the rotation of the crank gets rather stiff .

that usually means there are too many spacers on the crank axle if its stiffening up, take it back to the shop and get them to rectify it if you are not sure what you are doing.
alternatively, take the driveside crank off, remove 1 of the spacers on the crank axle, refit and see if you can do it up till it hits the hard stop mentioned above and see if the BB is still tight. if it is, repeat and remove another. Basically you adjust the pressure on the BB with the spacers till there is no play and it spins freely. Its a good system that offers fine control over the chainline, but is not quite as simple as other systems out there.

Ride cranks will still be on the older fit system rather than the newer cinch cranks, it may be that you need some micro spacers between the non-drive side crank arm and the bb.

Unlike Shimano and many other cranks the bolt to bolt to tighten in the crank is not used to remeove slack or apply preload onto the BB bearings. That is managed by the micro spacers.

The tightness for the bolt on race face cranks is double hard bastard tight.

I’ll try the spacers on the drive side and let you guys know.
Thanks for the help so far.

from the pic above looks similar to my race face deus xc ones. only issue i’ve had with the crank itself is the bolts for the chain rings working loose.

stripped mine down about a fortnight ago, and replaced the x-type bb (which had obvious seal issues, and have an awful rep online) with an XT one (once wiggle sent me the entire BB, not just half!).

IIRC there should be two spacers on the drive side, and one on the other. the same scheme was used by the x-type bb and the xt one i fitted. only difference was the xt bb required the adaptor included with the bb on the park tool bb remover to bring the size down.

no problem getting it all tight. (mine doesnt use the self extracting type remover though, have to use a normal hollowtech II type crank extractor)

Sorted
Cheers people