Looking for a very lightweight crankset – any ideas?

Will be 2nd hand as I have a budget of £50 ish. XT? X9? Raceface?

Also any suggestions for a lightweight singlespeed chainring?

I recently bought a 2nd Hand Shimano lx crankset off eBay(hollowtech variety) chipped and scuffed but otherwise good.
Polished them to a mirror finish and fitted with a e-thirteen chainring.
Pretty lightweight ,cheap and pimp looking.
Will post some pics when I get chance.

Looking for a very lightweight crankset[/Quote]

I have a budget of £50 ish.

One, or t’other. XT are excellent cranks. Light, they are not.

Aerozine from Superstar were pretty light, also sold by Actionsports as Funworks IIRC, over budget though.

I run XT on my SS.

On the hills you will putting serious force through the cranks (well if you are over 15 stone like me) I had Raceface (ride XC I think) on to start with and I’m sure I could feel them flex. It may have all been in the mind but the XT don’t feel the same.

Pics of mine:-

BEFORE
AFTER

XT’s probably as good as you’ll get for that sort of money. It’s pretty light by average standards, just not by weight weenie standards. RaceFace Deus are lighter, but not as stiff, and fiddly to initialy set up. I wouldn’t get hung up on weight, light stuff’s nice, but it doesn’t actualy add much or anything to your speed. Especialy on the SS I find stiffer is usualy better than lighter.

Chainring, Hope, E.13, renthal all make fairly light rings, pick a colour you like and see who makes it. Likely to be 2/3rds of your budget though! And the kind of thing people wear out rather than sell 2nd hand.

unovolo what did you use to polish that crank?

I’ve use Race Face Deus. Not cheap (new), light, flexy. I can live with that though.

unovolo: Those LX cranks are the mutts nuts.

If you can find a set of raceface turbine cranks second hand, they would be ideal as they have a removable granny ring spider. The newer raceface cranks a much less faff and easier to set up.

I picked up a pair of little used Middleburn Unos for a touch more than your budget. Had to factor in £20 for a new BB but thats offset with not having to buy a chainring.

Otherwise I’d go XT. I killed my old Race Face Deus cranks. Splines wore on them. My same era Atlas cranks though are still going strong 5 years later – bit heavier but mental stiff.

unovolo what did you use to polish that crank?

A big tub of elbow grease!

Seriously ,sanded out any gouges with 180grit sandpaper,then worked through various grades of wet and dry.

Then repeated polishing with Peek metal polish and brasso to finish.
Theres no tricks or short cuts ,just lots of time and patience.
I have a set of old Shimano 600 square taper cranks on my SS road bike that have had the same treatment.

Nice job unovolo, but lx aren’t light are they?

They were some middleburns on classifieds for £25 earlier…

Not weighed them but I’d imagine the main weight difference between them and XT would be in the rings rather than the cranks themselves.

I’m still pleased with them either way,pics now without link

Do they still look like that?

Lightweight Strong crankset to run singlespeed

Do they still look like that?

Yep, as they have not been used yet 😀

Regards weight just put then on my digital kitchen scales:-
Driveside with plastic pre-tensioner but no chain ring 388gm’s
Non driveside with the 2 small bolts 221gm’s.
Total=609gm’s.

The other cranks I polished(shimano 600) still look good ,they need a polish about twice a year to bring them back to a high shine but there’s no corrosion on them,of course they pick up the odd scuff but they get used in all weathers and still look good 5years on from when I originally polished them up.

Lightweight Strong crankset to run singlespeed

Read the OP title

Very nice

Unovolo’s giving me ideas, my Race Face cranks are looking very tired…

Read the OP title

Where do you think the quote came from?

Strong > Light

Shiny >>> Dull originals!

Haze – Member

Unovolo’s giving me ideas, my Race Face cranks are looking very tired…

Me too – considering treating the Pomp to a shiny second hand set and change of BB standard!

I went from these

To these

Can I just send one of you polishing legends some cranks and then wait for you to send them back looking all shiny? 🙂

Who wants to get paid for polishing my crank?

Is that a euphemism 🙂

Seriously, if you polish cranks to a mirror like this I think you’ll have to lacquer them or brasso them every day, they’ll stain won’t they?

I was wondering about lacquering too – would have thought it would be needed?

I actually polished the frame clamp on a front derailleur and lacquered it, after a fe months there are veins under the lacquer where its got damp and started corroding.

Clear Powdercoat would be better as it tougher and the heat from the curing process would get rid of any damp that may attack the finish.

I’ll stick to polishing them every so often.

The best lightweight singlespeed crankset is Middleburn IMO.

Bought secondhand they can be a real bargain.

ISIS versions tend to be cheap, and despite all the negatives, it should still be possible to pick up a decent ISIS BB.

Citizen cane – how did you lose so much weight on those? Granny tabs, excess on the other tabs but what else?

Middleburn with a uno ring (’tis mine on the classifieds for £25) 😉
Btw a tip for polishing is to dip them in caustic solution for about 10mins then rub with a scourer to fetch the anodising off. Wear rubber gloves though

Citizen cane – how did you lose so much weight on those? Granny tabs, excess on the other tabs but what else?

Different cranks, polished cranks are XTR M960.

Lightweight Strong crankset to run singlespeed

**Ahem**

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/xt-crank-fail

polished cranks are XTR M960.

filed off arms aswell aren’t they?
nice anyway. Polished up some old LX sq taper, admittedly not as good a job as you guys did, looked pretty tatty after half a dozen rides. Obviously not enough elbow grease.

in a slightly thread hijack:

dickydownes – I have a set of RF Next SL carbon cranks that you could have if you’d stretch your budget a bit. Mail in profile if you’re interested.

I’m running raceface atlas cranks currently,

They often come up cheap every now and again. Really pleased with them, Light enough and pretty stiff.

Just bought a set of X9 cranks. Going to remove rings and spider and add an MRP bling ring or similar.

Anyone want to buy the rings/ spider?