After much deliberation I am going to jump in and convert to XX1, but I am stumped on which crankset to get, what is narrow and wide Q factor, what BB width do they relate to?

The BB shell on my bike is 73mm

I’ve got a 168 XX1 fitted to my Mosaic mtb frame which has a 73mm shell.

The narrow version might not give enough clearance with your chainstays.

WP_20130816_010 by Ample Brew, on Flickr

What is meant by Q-factor?

It’s the measurement between the outside the crank arms.

Have a look here.

Q factor is the width between the pedals and nothing to do with sheel width
Mostly full sus frames need the wider one but not always
If your unsure just order the wider one

This should hopefully help you decide on which q factor you need.

Thats what I was thinking.

Wide one is now on order – eek, that shopping basket was bloomin expensive

I got all my XX1 stuff from Tweeks Cycles, who were the cheapest at the time. That was a few months ago though.

With Xx1 do you get a bigger or a smaller cog? Or a wee bit of both?

I’m running a 32t on the chainset and 10-42 cassette on mine.

Crankset is from tweeks – they seem to be the only ones with the GRP 168 Q factor and 175mm crank arms, the rest is from Bikediscount.de

Cheers, sorry for the slight highjack btw.

@ EdwardH

You’ll love the groupset and the cassette is a work of art.

I ordered some Crankskins to protect my chainset, but they already come with protection film fitted.