Cane Creek’s hollow welded titanium cranks are here – and they’re only a thousand pounds

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When was the last time you saw welded, hollow cranks like these? While it’s not a new idea, it’s not something that has been done very often and, despite the advantages, it’s very hard to get right. Cane Creek today launches this set of ‘eeWings’ welded, hollow, titanium cranks with a fair amount of confidence. Mostly because it hired the guy behind ‘Sweet Wings’ who successfully made some very lovely welded steel cranks back in the 1990s.

As we say, the concept isn’t new and there have been hollow, welded metal cranks before – from Syncros, Bullseye and the aforementioned Sweet Wings. They’re hard to make strong, true and durable, but it has been possible. And the benefits are considerable – low weight, high stiffness and, if made right, good durability too.

Welded, hollow titanium cranks. It’s the 1990s all over!

Cane Creek has gone full-on into this project, producing a high end crankset that it reckons weighs in at a mere 400g while also claiming to be 20-30% stiffer than premium carbon cranks. Quite a tall order.

And these cranks aren’t just spindly light XC cranks designed to be stiffer than spindly light carbon XC cranks. Cane Creek is pitching the eeWings to “keep up with the rigorous demands of the most aggressive trail and enduro mountain bikers“. And despite all of that, the claimed weight comes in at 400g for cranks, spindle and adjuster, but no BB or chainring. (By comparison, SRAM’s new hollow carbon XX1 DUB cranks and BB spindle with a 32t chainring weighs in at 422g.)

The concept might sound familiar, but with the might of Cane Creek behind it, it should be pretty sharp.

Cane Creek says “eeWings are designed to keep up with the rigorous demands of the most aggressive trail and enduro mountain bikers – though they will benefit  any rider who puts a premium on durability, stiffness and weight. In fact, Cane Creek has such confidence in the eeWings’ quality and durability that they are backing the cranks with a 10-year limited warranty.”

The cranks have a titanium 30mm spindle and are compatible with BSA73mm, PF92/PF89.5, 392EVO bottom brackets as well as PF30 and BB30 bottom brackets with outboard bearing configurations.

The eeWings also include an new CNC machined aluminium preloader that is compatible with multiple other high-end 30mm spindle cranks – providing a more durable solution over preloaders from other manufacturers, which are often made from plastic or, apparently, cheese.

Cane creek eewings
There’ll be no mistaking these
The hollow spindle has a multiple toothed joining connector similar to other ultra-high end cranks like Magic Motorcycle.

“When we first set out to make a crankset we knew we wanted to create something that really pushed boundaries and deserved the ee designation,” said Brent Graves, president and CEO of Cane Creek. “That meant not cutting a single corner, using the best materials regardless of cost and holding ourselves to the highest standards of testing and design, We’ve done those things and it’s resulted in a truly exceptional product that we’re all very proud of.”

The eeWings were developed in collaboration with revolutionary components designer Craig Edwards. Edwards joined Cane Creek in October of 2016 as part of an exclusive deal for the company to take over manufacturing and distribution of his ultra-light eeBrake. In the 1990s it was Edwards who developed the original Sweet Wings hollow welded cranks.

The offset, three bolt design will doubtless fit SRAM’s range of mountain bike chainrings.
We’ve come over all retro looking at these.

eeWings come in a brushed titanium finish with only a minimalist laser-etched graphic on the face of the crank. The lack of graphics will allow riders to use Scotch-Brite or a similar abrasive to remove small scratches and blemishes that accumulate in the finish over time and use.

We asked a few more questions to preempt the inevitable and here are some quick answers. Yes, the pedal threads are welded. They are available in 170mm and 175mm. No plans for fat bike (or anything aside from MTB) at the moment and, yes, the chainring setup is compatible with SRAM X-Sync.

And here’s what goes into them. All welded together.

The cranks will retail for £999 and will be available through Cane Creek distributors such as Extra in the UK in a month or so.

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Chipps Chippendale

Singletrackworld's Editor At Large

With 23 years as Editor of Singletrack World Magazine, Chipps is the longest-running mountain bike magazine editor in the world. He started in the bike trade in 1990 and became a full time mountain bike journalist at the start of 1994. Over the last 30 years as a bike writer and photographer, he has seen mountain bike culture flourish, strengthen and diversify and bike technology go from rigid steel frames to fully suspended carbon fibre (and sometimes back to rigid steel as well.)

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