Toadmeister

6’4” 270# and I just destroyed my SRAM Apex crankset on day 5 of RAGBRAI this week. Ride is now done Was wonky all week and finally committed suicide 5 miles outside of Charles City. SAG wagon successfully deployed.

Time for a new and upgraded crankset and BB. Looking for recommendations from other Clydesdales. The last two SRAMs I’ve had lasted ~2000 miles before stripping out. Yes, proper torques and assembly practices used.

hayden52

What fails? Do the splines strip, or do the bearings fail?

MattTheHat 

That's no fun!

At 230-260 pounds, the Ultegra 2x crankset on my Roubaix is going on 14,000 miles trouble free. I got a new Shimano BBR60 bottom bracket this week that I'll install soon. I'm not even sure it needs it. The Praxis crabon 1x crank on my Creo is going on 10,000 miles trouble free. I haven't looked at cost, but I'll bet it's gotta be a little spendy. I had a 2x Praxis on my Diverge a few years back that was horrible. It held together okay but it dropped chains constantly. Never did figure out why.

Darth Lefty 

Do you care about q-factor? MTB cranks are stronger.

Toadmeister

Threads strip out on the retaining nut over time. I can retighten/torque but it’s just a matter of time before all the threads are chewed up and it gets wobbly than falls off. Spline gets progressively chewed up too.

I did add Loctite blue thread locker the last time I did maintenance as suggested by some others.

Bottom bracket was creaking too, time too replace that with the crankset. I definitely need to level up to better, more durable components.

I watched a interesting YouTube video by Harambi where he illustrates how SRAMS design is “*****” and is designed as such to avoid SHIMANO patents. As an engineer myself I see his points.

Toadmeister

good point as I prefer boost spacing and on a 1x that’s really not much of an issue.

I have a boost spacing Shimano XT crankset on my Salsa Fargo and an Industry Nine BB that’s been solid but I have only probably ~500ish miles on it.

Toadmeister

Considering Shimano GRX 1x right now. Would definitely be an upgrade from SRAM Apex.

I’ve got ~3500 miles on my SRAM Apex derailiur and it has a bent cage. So I was already thinking of updating the rest of the drivetrain to Shimano GRX

Darth Lefty 

There are not a lot of q156 cranks out there, wish there were. Most MTB cranks are 175 ish. Ones that have individual crank arms are at least going to lose 5 mm when you go to a road BB.

Other options are Canfield (using GXP bottom bracket, SRAM's old version) and Race Face. Race Face has a PF30 bottom bracket for threaded shells but they also still have a few cranks with 24 mm spindles that work with Shimano BB's. The Race Face Ride crank that came with my Stormchaser has a Shimano size spindle but I think it might be oem only, they sure aren't pushing it for retail anyhow

https://www.peterverdone.com/gxp-is-so-awesome/ Includes some notes on crank widths

https://canfieldbikes.com/products/c...s-am-dh-cranks Canfield's hook is that they are available in short sizes which they think is good for reasons they will tell you

https://www.raceface.com/products/bsa-cinch-30mm bottom bracket to put 30mm spindle cranks (usually press fit) in an English threaded shell

wvridgerider

I am 290. Been there for a while. I am fond of the Shimano cranks, not the hollow tech. I have an XT and a GRX double on two different bikes. I have a converted SLX triple to a 1X in my parts box. They have held up well.

Darth Lefty 

Oh, Easton and Race Face are both owned by Fox. After the buyouts Fox made RF the MTB brand and Easton the road brand, so now there are no more "Race Face" road cranks but instead Easton cranks are RF Cinch 30mm cranks with road chain line and q-factor. So there are some games you can play with spindle lengths and q factor. You will have to dig into the details to make sure the chain line and chainstay clearance works for you

beng1

Convert to one-piece crank, your troubles and worries will be over;

Toadmeister

I ordered the Shimano GRX RX-600 1x, which is forged (not hollow tech) and their bottom bracket.

I like their 2x thru bolt design better for retention and ease of maintenance.

Toadmeister

Update, received crankset & BB and threw them on, went for a short 7 mile spin. Of course new components are smooth like butter. Nice to be able to put some real torque on my left leg again!

I guess I’ll wait and see how things are going after another 1500-2000 miles.

Toadmeister

lol do they even sell these new anymore on new bikes?

beng1

I think they are the standard for BMX and also on most all bicycles sold to the general public. Go to Wal-Mart and see for yourself. They sell kits to convert bikes with one-piece cranks to three-piece cranks, so it should be no problem for the mechanically inclined to switch from three-piece to one-piece. The one-piece steel forged cranks give me peace of mind, being a 200 or more pounder, and liking fast riding, I know I have at least one bike that will never have a problem with it's pedal cranks ever. I have destroyed a few pairs of aluminum three-piece cranks on my mountainbike. I am in the market for a 1980s-90s Huffy MTB in a large size with the one-piece cranks I can fix up for off-road so I can have a bullet-proof MTB to match my bullet-proof Huffy road-bike.

DWhitworth

My road bike has Ultegra hollow tech since I got it (I think 2016) and has way more than 10k niles on it with my weight in between 340-375# and no issues. I used to worry but then I thought about it and realized that pro level riders put way more watts for way longer than I ever would through them and quit worrying about it.

That said, I put GRX on my gravel bike to get the better climb gearing and like it very much.

Dave

Toadmeister

Those pro riders have a different duty cycle than us Clydesdales. Watts or our body weight is not a good comparison.

I work for an OEM of Engines. Certain Duty cycles and what they do to wear or shorten the life of components can be very surprising.

Guaranteed Shimano or SRAM really doesn’t know themselves what will happen once thousands of components get thousands of miles in the field. No doubt they do their own testing but it can’t cover all users and conditions.

hammond9705

I weigh less then you and had. This happen to my Shimao Ultegra after about 5k miles. I was disappointed but replaced it with the same model

Black wallnut 

Late to the conversation but do you mash or spin? How do you mount the bike?

Toadmeister

I spin when riding.

But good point on mounting the bike. I step on that left pedal first, the one that keeps failing!

Toadmeister

I’ve heard of that problem with Shimano HollowTech. Based on those issues I went with a solid forged crank arm.

Black wallnut 

If you step on the pedal as you are swinging your leg over the frame "cowboy style" that could be the cause of your issue.

Toadmeister

whelp, I actually stand on the ground with my left, swing my right leg over, put my foot and weight on my right pedal, than take off that way with my right foot first.

so, nope, don’t overload the left side.

Interestingly, I injured my right hip cartilage this way and I need to change it up.

tallbikeman

Bicycle frame has to have the American one piece crank shell on the bottom bracket. One piece crank bottom bracket shells are much bigger than most bottom bracket shells now being sold. As Beng1 noted they are sold on lower end bicycles. I use an old Schwinn Varsity with the American bottom bracket shell with Profile 180mm BMX cranks. The bearings are massive, the crank axle is 19mm around. I've been riding this crank set for 20 years with no mechanical or breakage issues. Bike is heavy but so am I and in Schwinn's case the heaviness involves the durability of the frame/fork. They are very durable. On some of my other bicycles I also run an older ISIS axle and cranks with no issues for several years, and an early 180mm RaceFace MTB square tapered axle setup, also with no problems for many years now. From experience I can bend a steel one piece crank but not a chrome moly steel one piece crank. Profile makes cranks and axles to fit almost any bottom bracket. It is easy to adjust q factors with Profile cranks. Their website is ProfileRacing.com. Their cranks are welded chrome moly arms and almost indestructible.

tallbikeman

This crank and sprockets are from a 70's Ross bicycle. Ross made the skip tooth big sprocket to make shifting onto it very easy. They had a patent on this idea. My son owns a Ross Europa 10speed from this era with this feature. I had to look it up because I didn't know about it. It is the easiest shifting front sprocket system I have ever ridden. The skip tooth sprocket teeth wear faster because there is fewer of them which is really the only downside to this feature.