Hiya,

Trying to remove an old X5 double crankset from my commuter.

8mm, through the self extracting crankbolt, anti clockwise, right?

Won’t budge.

Trying hitting the Allen key with a rubber mallet, no effect.

Don’t have very strong hands (carpal tunnel), any ideas?

Cheers Alex

Yeah. Don’t hit it though. Put a longer bar over the allen key for leverage. It shouldn’t take too much force.

2′ long breaker bar and stand on it while also standing on the other pedal to stop rotation.

It shouldn’t take too much force.

😂

^ It’s gxp, not dub!! Dub needs all that + a goat sacrifice. Gxp needs a firm tickle.

+ a goat sacrifice.

Will try that. Sounds less painfull than pedal pins to the shins.

I’ve always found GXP and DUB take the same amount of effort to crack the bolt off.

You need a bigger lever than an Allen key either way. I usually use a breaker bar style lever and most of the time it then doesn’t need hitting / standing on.

Wouldn’t hurt to soak the bolt in plusgas / any other equivalent anti seize type spray for a few hours first.

Supporting the Allen key/ socket attachment where it comes out of the bolt (eg a car jack and a block of wood) helps prevent it coming out and mashing the bolt. Getting the frame standing vertical and the Allen key nicely supported is a faff, but means you can stand on your extensiom/ breaker bar with more confidence, indeed bounce up and down on if needed.

Lefty loosey, as above a longer lever should do it as they’re on quite tight. Can you slide a pipe over your allen key if you don’t have a longer ratchet/breaker bar

As above, using a breaker bar makes a huge difference. To stop the crankset rotating, I sometimes take off the non-drive side pedal, and slot a 2ft length of 2″ plastic pipe over the crank. Works a treat.

Thanks learned sages. I shall procure a breaker bar tomorrow.

A whole new world