xccx

Hey all,

I have a Truvativ Elita Giga x Pipe Crankset (with external bb) on my cross bike and its making a pretty bad noise when i pedal out of the saddle, or under heavy load. The noise seems to be coming from the the drive side, and its primarily on the down pedal stroke. The only way i can descibe it is that it sounds like a horrible "creak." My chain is clean and in good shape and my chainring bolts are tight. This is a pretty new crankset so i hesitate to suspect the bb, but could it be possible that its shot already? if so, i'm convinced that this crankset is a huge POS! Any thoughts? Similar experiences? Advice? thx in advance...

joejack951

I have an FSA Gamma external bearing crank on my 75 mile old Iron Horse Warrior Expert. I was playing around with the cranks last night when I noticed that I could rock the crankset about a millimeter. I removed everything and couldn't see anything obviously wrong or loose. I retightened everything and it still feels loose. I'm wondering your issue is just an advanced stage of my problem. I'm going to be contacting Performance tomorrow to see if this is a common problem and what the fix is. At this point, I'm not too sold on the external bearing crank setup.

xccx

when you say "you could rock the crankset"...in which direction are you referring to? i went out and rode today and there is something very wrong with my crankset. i think i can feel some play in the cranks when i pedal, but its hard to tell. the noise is ridiculous though. terrible. i think i'm gonna try and get rid of this and go to a standard isis setup or something.

joejack951

If I grab both crank arms by the ends, facing the side of the bike, and pull one towards me and push the other, I can visibly see the chainrings shift a tiny bit and feel a looseness. I cannot feel it while pedaling though and there are no other symptoms of a problem. I really got lucky to find this at all. It may have been this way from day one too. The only thing that I could see causing this problem is something keeping the crank arms from tightening up on the bearings when tightening the cap bolt, or the bearings are bad. I need to spend some more time on it. If I find anything, I'll let you know.

TO11MTM

that seems like an awful large amount of wobble for a properly set up crank. Looking at the specs, the crankset came stock on the bike, so I'm wondering if
A: There's a spacer missing
B: Something else strange is going on

Describing the spacer setup would be a help for sure in finding the solution...

as for the OP, I'd suggest taking the non-drive crankarm off (Not hard on the elita, It should be a 1-key release system,) pull out the crank, and look at the cover for the bearings... see how they look. I ran into a creaking issue on a customers LX Crank he bought off e-bay, pulled it apart and just looking at the bearings one could see something was wrong. If they look okay try to put the drive side on, don't put the chain on the rings yet, and try rolling it, see if it's smooth or not.... then put the non-drive arm on, check it again, it should be relatively smooth...

Personally, I'm running an Elita on my Raleigh road bike and a Stylo on my Mountain bike, I've been pretty happy with the external bearing units on both of those, as well as the shimanos I've used in the past (The Elita's compact chainrings, however, are another story...) I'm sorry to see these problems on both of yours... best I can say is see if you can get them taken care of and then give it a chance

joejack951

I think you are onto something with the spacer setup. I didn't assemble the bike so I can't guarantee that they are there but I did see on Park Tool's website what the spacer arrangement should look like. It makes a lot of sense that missing spacers could be the problem as the lack of width across the bearings would not let the crankset tighten down properly. I'll check it out and let you know. Thanks!

joejack951

Ok, according to Park Tool, for a 68mm BB shell width and clamp-on type derailleur, I should have two 2.5mm spacers on the drive side and one on the non-drive side. Well, lo and behold, i only have one spacer on the drive side (and one on the non-drive side).

TO11MTM, I owe you a beer or something The mssing spacer makes perfect sense as to why I can't get the cranks to tighten up properly. I'll be calling Performance tomorrow and getting a spacer.

TO11MTM

Cool, let us know how it works out. I put one of those cranks on a customers bike last week and he was very happy with it.