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Hi,
I'd like some recommendations for the lightest non-carbon cranks around, what's out there?
Cheers
Xtr?
single, twin or triple?
XTR, EeCranks, Rotor, Tune
Cannondale Hollowgram, but BB30 only.
XTR are not that light, just the lightest that Shimano happen to make.
Cheers for the responses, I'd be running it as a single but I don't mind if it's not designed for that; it's for XC/AM usage. Is the Cannondale Hollowgram reasonably easy to come by or quite rare?
What's the budget? They're big money, and unless you have a super light build it's an odd thing to spec.
Budget is £150, so not much compared to the price of some of the superlights, though I'm happy to get secondhand.
I've got a reasonably light build, but I've checked the weight of my current Truativ Stylo OCT cranks and I'm not saving much weight by upgrading, probs not worth it what with how expensive new cranks are.
The dale ones are rare and expensive with £150 to spend id be looking at xt with a hope bb rasonable weight and reliable.
Cannondale Hollowgram can be bodged onto a standard BSA with a custom lipless axle and a rotor/e13 30mm bottom bracket
A quick google shows the new integrated Hollowgram chainsets at circa £600 😯
That was probably quite an important piece of info then! Don't bother.
Campag Centaur with single ring. I know someone who's riding them for single speed.
You can save a few grams by using shorter cranks.
If you're going to run a single chainring, consider running a Duraace 7900.
Shimano wears out, Campag wears in.
Good suggestion, IMHO.
Why no carbon? Merlin have an X0 double for £149 at the moment - my X0 cranks are 2 years old, including 2 Alps trips.
What do 7900 cranks weigh, compared to XTR?
~650g vs. ~790g IIRC
That's not just cranks though.
The 7900s weigh 725g including BB according to Wiggle. They'd save me about 100g, so not bad if I can get them second hand for a reasonable price. How tough are they though? I wasn't really looking at road sets because I assume they weren't as durable, but I have no actual experience.
I'm not going for carbon as I don't have the funds to replace or repair things if I get an unlucky rock strike etc. Also, the tougher ones such as the X0 recommended only saves me about 30g off of my Stylo OCT.
Again, that's including rings though. You need the compact one to be able to fit a sensible size ring.
Should be plenty tough enough. Only compatible with 68mm BB shells though.
I can get you a proper weight for both on Monday. I've got sets of M970, M980 and DA7950 crank arms in the bits box.
I'll weigh them without rings and post up.
True enough out the 68mm shell though.
I'd be interested I must say. Shame they need to be compact, I've got some 7800s with dead rings I could've stuck on!
DA7900/7950 can be picked up for a pittance these days; I've managed to nab a couple of chainsets for my CX bikes and have never paid more than £80. Most DA stuff has been used by summer roadies and has little/no wear. Fantastic bargain. DA7900 Brifters are another matter entirely...always silly money.
I assume that's "shifters"!? I don't like the ergonomics of the 6700/7900 shifters either.
rotor 3D? it's suitable for DH too
My 170mm Rotor 3D are 558g
Just switched to FSA K-Force carbon 170mm are 464g
As others have said, why no carbon? The FSA were bought new within your budget.
The FSA with an Absolute Black chainring and Alu bolts are also only 5g heavier than a Cannondale Hollowgram with the lightest most exotic spiderless ring I could find. I would never use a Tune or BOR crank so the Hollowgrams are the lightest Alu I would actually want to use and trust.
Given the FSA Carbon set up was 5g heavier than the lightest Alu and about £800 cheaper it is a no brainer!
slight hijack-sorry,
DanW why the switch? & did you find the rotor 3D to hold up to crashes etc?
What about Middleburn RS-8's?, crank arms and a double ring front set up for 550g.
I'm not going for carbon as I don't have the funds to replace or repair things if I get an unlucky rock strike
My thoughts on this, if it would kill carbon, metal would be dead too. no difference between a FUBAR £150 alloy crank and a FUBAR £150 carbon crank.
Middleburn RS8 are porky and not worthy of consideration for weight loss. The weight above sounds very optomistic to say the least. They are XT rather than XTR weight but have a certain aesthetic appeal.
I have about a year on the Rotor 3D and was very, very impressed. The attachment is super secure which was one of my main worries moving away from the super reliable XTR before that. They are shaped to give less shoe-crank rub than XTR too and IMO look nicer on the bike. The only reason for swapping was getting a new frame with BB30 and a chainline that did not work well with the Rotor.
My thoughts on this, if it would kill carbon, metal would be dead too. no difference between a FUBAR £150 alloy crank and a FUBAR £150 carbon crank.
My thoughts exactly. The OP cites X0 as one of the more durable carbon cranks but I have seen more pictures of failures at the pedal threads of X0 than any other crank (no doubt the popularity accounts for the large proportion of failures though).
As far as I know X0 and XX1 are the same arms with a different spider and the weight becomes more appealing with a spiderless ring. Still not as light or cheap as the FSA though.
I think trusting a carbon crank is a mental rather than physical issue! To the OP: I don't think you will ever justify new Alu cranks on the basis of weight loss especially with a £150 budget. Personaly I would make the jump to carbon if weight really is important. Rotor 3D or XTR is the middle ground but won'r save anywhere near as much.
P.S. If anyone wants my Rotor 3D just let me know
XTR 970 175mm cranks with Ta 36 24 chainrings weigh in at 575g heavier than XX1 🙂
My XTR crank arms were 526g and Sicklines have some weighed at 516g to give some context to the weight above with rings. A light single ring is 35g and Alu bolts 5-10g
XX1 are around 545g with the stock spider and ring and around 505g with a spiderless chainring.
That puts the lightest X0/XX1 single ring configuration at the same weight as the FSA K-Force single ring set up. I went for the FSA as it was cheaper and gave a better chainline on a BB30 frame (spiderless chainrings have a different chainline beween BB30 and GXP versions which I wanted to avoid). Also the FSa give the flexibility for a 2x set up more easily in the future should you wish to go back from 1x
Middleburn RS8 are porky
Hmm i dunno bout that?, my RS-8 crank arms weigh 400g, add a CD spider of 45g, add in my 34t Hope IBR of 68g, , 4 chainring bolts ?....say 30g for arguments sake and a Hope ceramic BB of 107g to make 650g for a complete drivetrain or 543g without the BB.
I've no doubt there is lighter but personally i've always specced Middleburn on my bikes.
Soma, is that the square taper version?
The Middleburn RS8 X-type are 612g with arms axle and spider or 548 with arms and axle but no spider. That is closer to XT than XTR with the spider considered.
The square taper rely on a very light BB to even start to compete with X0/ XX1/ FSA K-force/ Hollowgram with the external BB. If the weights you say in the example above are correct then it is actually quite light in the square taper version.
For comparison my FSA with BB (BB30 bearing so cheating slightly), narrow/ wide single ring and Alu bolts is 560g
P.S. Apologies to the OP for getting all geeky on this subject- I have only just been in the market myself so have it all fresh on my mind. What I said earlier still stands though- I think limiting yourself to Alu cranks only will never seem worth while weight wise and FSA SRAM X0)/ XX1 cranks would be the way to go or XTR/ Rotor if you really can't stand carbon and only have £150