Korina

For less than $200 (glaring at you, V-O & Rene Herse)? It's crazy that all my small bikes come with 170 and 175(!) cranks; what were they thinking?? I'm looking for a 160 or 165 mtb. crank. Does such a thing exist? Does anyone sell just the arms?

Any suggestions will be gratefully accepted.

Dr.Lou

A cold day at a nudist colony.

AnthonyG

Try contacting this guy.

Short Bicycle Cranks

Honestly. Just be thankful that you can get them at any price.

DorkDisk

For 165mm MTB from Shimano, currently only XT and XTR have them. Arms are sold separately or as left arms all the time.

Every wife bike I build gets shorter cranks, its kinda a PITA with used bikes.

mrt2you

Ebay search--- mtb 160 crankset and mtb 165 crankset
160mm 255 listings and 165mm. 263 listings most are new.

AnthonyG

I was struggling to believe there are that many items out there.
The truth is that you have to take a look at the listings and not just count the numbers.

There are some SINGLE speed cranks being sold in various short lengths on eBay. Not triples. These are newish to the market and pretty much based on BMX racing cranks.
Don't get me wrong, its nice that there's at least some choice although most of these hundreds of listings are from just one or two sellers. It seems to be a newish eBay sales technique for there to be MASSES of the same listing from one seller.

There are triples made in a 150mm length for juvenile bikes but generally MTN triples are made at 170mm.

Berta

Sugino makes cranksets with 165mm arms; I have a triple w/165mm’s on my mtb. I’ve also seen a variety of lengths from Sinz.

JohnDThompson 

TA "Carmina" cranks are available in 155mm, 160mm, 162.5mm, 165mm, 167.5mm, 170mm, 172.5mm, 175mm, 177.5mm and 180mm lengths, but somewhat outside your $200 limit.


https://www.peterwhitecycles.com/carmina.php

165mm Sun XCD cranks can be had for under $200:


https://americancyclery.com/products...s-arms-110-bcd

Darth Lefty 

If you can't find a triple you can install a big cassette (11-40). Sunrace makes them in several speeds.

SRAM NX 155 mm. For 1x11, obviously, with a 30t steel chain ring. Probably like $140 with the BB.

There’s an Origin8 square taper crank that goes down to 140mm. It’s 5x110mm double BCD. Like $50 for just the crank arms, no rings or bolts.
https://www.amazon.com/Origin8-Alloy-Crank-155mm-SIlver/

Soma sells (sold?) a short crankset to match its Bart kids bike.

You can find people who will modify an existing crank. Ask in the frame builder forum here or the kids MTB subforum on MTBR. Another option is crank shorteners, $100ish; I have a set for my kids on the tandem bike.

mrt2you

if you want specifics all i can say is search yourself. it doesn't cost anything to look.
i modified the search to 160 crank set triple and got 12 listings from 11 different sellers, the seller with 2 had 2 different types. 6 were selling the same part with almost the same price.
i like to make ebay my first choice when looking for bike parts these days. it seems most local bike shops don't have anything in stock anymore "but they can order it. and get it a week" for 2-3 times the ebay price and usually get the ebay parts in under a week. it also seems to be most online stores really don't have much for deals anymore so ebay i go.

_ForceD_

I would check with local machine shops and see what they would charge to shorten your existing set for you.

Dan

fietsbob

J&B Via your LBS?

Korina

Wow, thanks for this. I have a couple of 175 sets that could easily be shortened, and I wouldn't have to worry about compatibility with the bb.

Trsnrtr

I have used 165 mm cranks since 1982 and they are still available from major manufacturers. I have Ultegra, Campy Record, SRAM Red, etc. and just bought a new set of 105s.

Trsnrtr

Be sure to check with him directly. I've heard that he's been trying to scale back for some time.

Korina

Thanks @Trsnrtr, good to know.

Pridedog

Just bought a set of 160 mm Origin 8 cranks from Amazon for my grandson for $50. They are available on Ebay as others have said. Just do a search for 160mm Crankarms.

Korina

You guys are all awesome! Thank you for your suggestions, they're all very helpful.

It has been brought to my attention that I may have left off some relevant information from my original post, such as the bikes I'm speaking of are vintage mountain bikes, which complicates everything. We have found a source for 160 "youth" cranksets, but of course the first rule of upgrading bikes says that it doesn't fit; the spindles are too long (bike's are 128 mm, crankset requires 113 mm). ::headdesk::

MikeyMK

BMX is the easy off-the-shelf route, with 5x 130/110 at least, but they don't do grannies.

Qurran

Ebay maybe?

trailangel

Seems to be a trend... medium sized bikes coming with 175mm crank arms.

Korina

Noooo, I <3 my get-up-the-hill gear!


Must be an old trend; both my Rockhopper and Singletrack are small size and both came with 175s. Crazy, man, crazy.

Mad Honk 

Korina,
It may sound great, but shortening crank arms will be a challenge. The arms will have to be shortened and then re-welded, or the pedal spindle holes will need to be filled (re-welded) and positioned correctly and will cost more than a new crank arm. Look around both on the internet and some bike co-ops. Places like Madison and the Colorado State co-ops will have some of those around. I could look here in the Bloomington co-op for you but, will take a few weeks.
btownbicycleproject should get you through to them and they can search for you. HTH, Smiles, MH

Just googeled 165 crank sets and found two Sugino's for less than $50! deepen your search protocols, Smiles, MH

Korina

Thanks and you're right. My mtb. cranks are very different from road bike cranks, making them entirely unsuitable for shortening. Still, it's a great idea for the right bike. I think what he does is cut off the bottom and drill a new hole.

dedhed

You can't change the BB because? 73 X 113 BB are readily available