Picked up a set of RF Ride cranks and have installed them with a standard Shimano external BB, but if I tighten the crank bolt to the recommended level, then you can barely turn the pedals due to the resistance.
Do RF cranks have to be paired with an RF BB as well? Not sure what the difference would be though as the specs for the RF X Type BB says it’s compatible with Shimano crank sets.
Anyone have any experience of this?

yes they are

You should have some of these Click to space the axle out so this doesn’t happen and adjust the chainline.

Were they new or 2nd hand? if new, they should be in the box and you will need 2-3 of them

This is how to fit them

Yup, there should be a rubber 2.5mm “X-ring” spacer in the crank (can’t remember if theres one on both sides) and some 1mm plastic washers. You add washers untill the space is filled (easier to install with none, guess the gap, and add that many spacers).

The idea is the 2.5mm rubber ring is just squished by <1mm to provide preload on the bearings.

They were 2nd hand. The 2.5mm spacer is installed on the non-drive side, there is something on the drive side too, a slim red spacer from memory, but none of the 1mm spacers. Will have to buy a couple and see if that works. That’s certainly a cheaper option than an RF BB!

I read the installation guide earlier, but the name of the 1mm spacers suggested to me that they were only needed to adjust the chain line not to take up any space on the axle.

you might have too many on, try taking one off before you buy any.

I have none of the 1mm spacer/seals fitted. Reading the installation guide it looks like there should be 2 of them in varying configurations depending on the required chain line. So I need to buy a couple of these to sort it out by the looks of it.

if its clamping the bb up tight, you have too many in. the red one is a spacer on the crank axle. the 2.5mm one is the spacer behind the BB cup right?
the idea is to put enough spacers on the axle so that you can bottom out the cranks on the spline when doing the 8mm bolt up (its bloody tight) with no side to side play in the bb. if the bb is too tight with the cranks tight, or before you get the bolt fully tightened then you have too many spacers, if there is side to side movement then you don’t have enough.
it depends entirely on your bike as to how many you need, mine runs 3 to get the correct spacing, the previous bike only had one or none depending on whether i had a hope bb or shimano one installed.
worth trying before buying anyway, hope it helps.

As above, various rubber spacers, and a bit of trial and error.

Not helpful to your problem, but I do like the instruction when tightening up the crank bolt, “Tighten until you can’t tighten any more”. None of this torque wrench malarkey. 🙂

Thought I would update this just in case anyone else has this problem in the future.
In my case the problem was with the numpty who fitted the BB (That would be me then!) not actually looking at the shell size and installing too many BB spacers as a result. Leaving the BB a whole 5mm wider than it should have been.

So the lesson is when it doesn’t work, check you haven’t been a numpty!