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I need to buy a new chainset for my track bike. I was going to get a Miche Primato Advanced (£85, square taper) but then I saw that SRAM make an extenal BB chainset (Omnium, £170). Are they worth paying doube the price? Are external BB cranks guaranteed to be stiffer? That would be my upper limit for budget so Dura Ace and Record Pista are too pricey...
I have Omnium cranks on one of my track bikes. Not bad, but nothing spectacular about them. Worth noting though is they have slightly thicker arms than usual and with some chainrings you don't get much thread engaged on the chainring bolts. Numerous cases of people having issues with them coming apart while racing, which is not pretty.
Fix is simple:
Buy some high quality stainless steel double chainring bolts and use the fronts of these, with the backs from singles (preferably dura ace track bolts). That way you get plenty of engagement. Bonus pro tip - tiny bit of superglue on the back bolts stops them falling out the cranks as much when changing gearing.
Watch the crank length
Felt stiff to me
Planet x knocked them out cheaper once so worth searching the net
I would guess external BB would be stiffer. Larger bearing housing, larger diameter bearings, larger diameter contact surface, larger spindle, bonded on drive side. Also hollow cranks are probably stiffer than solid ones.
SRAM £142 here: https://www.raceviewcycles.com/sram-omnium-track-chainset-mirror-black-165mm-48t-inc-gxp-cups?language=en¤cy=GBP
tiny bit of superglue
Or threadlock if you don't want to risk gluing them in permanently 🙂
I went for Stronglight 2000 because they were £35 on Planet X lol 🙂