Originally Posted by
Darth Lefty
We are the victims of some confusing marketing.
“Hollowtech II” refers to the aluminum tube spindle and 2- piece construction with external bearing bottom bracket cups. They have proliferated through the lineup… down to Claris and Alivio
“Hollowtech” is the hollow crank arms. I think it’s only on a few very top end groupsets. You can tell because they look like Hershey bars
Yeah, it's confusing. Some older articles from several years ago say the 6700 cranks were solid forged aluminum. To me the 6700 cranks appear massively strong. I can't see any seams that might indicate hollow or bonded arms. But I wouldn't know what to look for. I pored over Shimano tech documents for days and couldn't find any specific info on the construction of the 6700 crankset, only what I could infer from the diagrams.
But my primary concern is finding comparable quality and strength in shorter crank arms, compatible with my existing components (a mish mash of 10 speed Dura Ace and Ultegra cobbled together from a TT/tri-bike with cracked frame, and the Diamondback Podium).
I'm not planning to update the group or spend much. It won't make me faster than my '93 Trek 5900, for which I already have older Dura Ace, 600/Ultegra and other square taper crank arms in various lengths. But the Diamondback is a nice bike and it'd be a shame to leave it gathering dust just because the crank length doesn't quite suit me anymore.