I think this is exactly the issue. Modern cranks are designed to go on modern bikes, and I think a lot of them look good there. They just don't work with vintage steel.

I've got a 6503 crank on one of my bikes and it isn't hideous, but I think it was the last Shimano crankset that would have worked. What bothers me is that the chainrings aren't even silver on "silver" Shimano cranks these days. Who thought that was a good idea?

I like the silver Athena and Veloce cranks, even if you do need a gear puller to get them off.

Those strong lights look nice. I hate the look of most modern cranks. I like silver and classy and simple. Those wide weird looking arms?! I have a specialties ta vintage crank that has yet to get onto a bicycle properly. It has 160mm arms which for me is awesome but they have a made for children vibe...but then that is my problem trying to find decent 160mm cranks.

I like some of the sugino cranks, the silver 'cheaper' campy... A bicycle in the family had the velo orange ta copy cranks and they were awful.

And the wider and more closed off the cranksets get, the more tempted somebody is gonna be to introduce our favorite material ..... plastic. Somehow some way you know it's coming

Beware of the DA 7700 Octalink BB. it is the Devil in disguise. Absolutely the worst component in that group set.
The Ultegra one is the way to go.

Grind what off??

Stuck crank arm :-)

Since there are some companies making 86BCD chainrings, Thorn being one of them, all of those Stronglights and SRs come back into play. Some of the other Japanese cranks in the 80s also came in 130/86 BCD patterns. Those will go down to a 28T small ring. Plenty of them on the bay. A lot of the Sugino and SR 110 doubles also came with 74 holes drilled as well.

Did you polish it yourself? That looks great. Are they GXP only or do they come with 24mm axle for Hollowtech?

Mine was kind of tight coming off but I just used the heat gun method to make it easier. I do the same thing on my BB30 cranks. I'm glad the spindle is tight, that tells me they aren't going to creak from there. No home mechanic should be without a heat gun.

Agree, heat gun came to the rescue many time. Did not help me with that crank though, it was the only crank I had to cut out. It was a long time ago and I think it was mostly user error on my part, likely missed something. But I heard other people had difficulties removing them as well

Odd, I've never heard of that. I've never even seen a discussion about those cranks before.

[MENTION=152773]noglider[/MENTION] I don't think you're being snobbish at all, just realistic. I've seen this trend in cranksets too. The aesthetics of the Pashley Countryman, an otherwise lovely bike, is spoiled by the clunky looking crankset. It is so easy to avoid the bony finger of indignation and charges of pretension by prefacing statements like that with qualifiers like IMO, YMMV blah blah. I suppose my advancing age has taught me that a person that is correct about something is in no way superior to someone who is incorrect and apologies for opinions are unnecessary.
I don't look down my nose at anybody that thinks a modern Jaguar F type is more beautiful than a mid 60s E type roadster. I just think they're wrong.

110 BCD 48-34 IIRC.

Often on sale at Planet X in the UK

On a PX-10

[MENTION=152773]noglider[/MENTION], forgive me for nitpicking, but you should have started out with a working definition of the word "modern."

Not knowing what you meant, I offer a few criteria that make a crank "modern":

1. Large diameter, light weight BB spindle;
2. External BB cups;
3. Ramped and pinned chain rings.
4. Hollow crank arms.

External BB's are not a new invention, but we're not paired with lightweight spindles until recently. Having reappeared after being out of fashion for 90 years or so, we can call them modern. Likewise, hollow crank arms have been around too; but they've now caught on in a way they never did before.

Square tapers are very nice, but they've been around for 80 years, and seem "modern" only in comparison to cotters and ashtabula cranks. Sorry, but square taper cranks, as much as I love them, are old school.

I simply assumed it meant in-production

But he's asking for classic-look currently in-production cranks. (2016 Grand Bois Type V)

"Modern" could also denote "11-speed compatible," although in this case, I don't think that is what the OP has in mind.

It could also mean (as mentioned) "non-square-taper."

I've also assumed modern to mean in production. Otherwise 'modern' becomes a pretty nebulous term.

What I would like to see is a cro mo steel hollow crank. IMO aluminum is the wrong material for the job. It's simply too bulky to make hollow in a component where narrow profile matters. Admittedly the Shimano (et al) designers have done a great job working around this. Still, hollow steel would or could be lighter, stiffer, more aerodynamic, and better looking.

Bullseye more or less invented the hollow two piece crank, so they deserve a mention. It would be nice to see an updated version of these for road, with improved design aesthetics. I guess the originals look cool, er baddass, if you are a 13 year old BMX enthusiast, but I've moved past that...

Supposedly the newer Mk II version of Velo Orange's TA copy cranks* has fixed problems with the mk I version. I don't have either. I considered them for my touring bike but the cost, questions of quality/design problems, and unsuitable (for me) chainring sizes put me off.

*actually they are Stronglight 49 copies

[MENTION=398265]BigChief[/MENTION], maybe snobbish isn't the word I'm looking for. Maybe it's hard to please.

[MENTION=73614]rhm[/MENTION], great points. I was really thinking about current or recent production, nothing about the design. But your list of attributes of modern cranks points out how newer cranks are better than old ways because of those attributes. Now that I realize this, I wonder if I'll become more tolerant of how newer cranks look. I didn't even know the arms are hollow. That explains why they're so chunky.

Very elegant. Suits the bike perfectly.

Nope, I've stripped and polished plenty of crank arms, but that particular picture is just an example taken from the internet.

Also, GXP uses a 24mm axle, the difference vs Hollowtech is that they taper to 22mm on the non drive side. You can use GXP cranks with a Hollowtech BB if you get a shim that fits inside the NDS bearing.

Learned something new! I did not know I can use the shim, thank you

Yes, but some of them are still ugly. Someone mentioned silver 105 5800 - I have it and I don't like the looks one bit. Some modern cranks are pretty good looking, Praxis comes to mind but they only come in black. I still don't understand this whole bloated thing:




Praxis - pretty good looking, just need some polish


I do like Tune, comes in variety of color combos but pretty up there $$$

yeah, I like the last one because of all the air

air in a classic crank screams speed - that's what made 141 bcd Strada cranks so beautiful.