angelonc

I've been commuting for about 5 years now, at least 3 miles per day, and I've probably gone through 3-4 crank arms. One of the cranks will start creaking, I replace it with a new one, then within a year or so, it will start creaking again. Looking for some advice on:

1) Installation. I usually will reinstall new crank arms on the BB that's already on my bike, could this cause premature rounding off of the crank tapers? Any other tips on a secure crank arm install? In some cases, I have taken cranks off the BB spindle to either tighten or replace the BB. Is there a trick to replacing them to prevent rounding them off?

2) Long-wearing crank/BB combos. If I want to upgrade, what is a bombproof crank and BB combo for everyday use? My current setup is a 1x9, and a single ring crank would be preferred.

Cheers!

HardyWeinberg

I really like this sugino with a regular shimano square-taper bb. Have 10s of ks of miles on mine over ~10 years now. The amazon link has a 48t ring but I use a 42

Darth Lefty 

When you install a square taper crank arm it doesn't have the usual tight-bolt feeling because the bolt is pushing the crank onto the taper rather than clamping rigid parts together. For Shimano with an 8mm Allen wrench, you need 30 ft-lb torque, which is 60 lb force if you guesstimate you are pushing on the wrench 6" from the bolt. Easier with a torque wrench, for sure, both for measurement and for a longer handle.

My last two bikes have had SRAM NX cranks. The first one had GXP bb and the current one is power spline. Both with steel direct mount chain rings. Pretty brutish, no issues seen or expected. If you wanted larger rings their road bike 1x cranks should be similar but 5mm narrower.

You can get narrow-wide chain rings for most crank bolt patterns.

angelonc

Great, thanks for the suggestions! I've been told that using a new square taper crank on an old BB is not always a great idea. Any thoughts? I was never sure I believed this, because a lot of cranks are aluminum, so shouldn't be harder than a steel spindle?

Darth Lefty 

I'd think you'd be able to see any damage, but the replacement part is only twenty bucks so it's not expensive to not worry.

sheyn

hey.
recently, i installed two of these on my commuters.
shimano Deore M617.. found them at merlin cycles for 50 or so bucks
one i managed to install on old mountain Mongoose that i converted to cyclocross commuter, that got stollen i ran both as single setups.
anyway, they work great, im 230lbs and they support me nicely.
on both i just took off smaller chainring. you can install one-by or like me just use pre-installed chainring and deal with occasional chain drop.

best,
z

jack k

You are blowing through crank arms at a remarkably high rate.

Moe Zhoost

[QUOTE=sheyn;20905161]... cyclocross commuter, that got stollen :/QUOTE]

Bakery run, eh?

acidfast7

[QUOTE=Moe Zhoost;20925643]If it's not a Dresdner, than it's not really a stollen

And that example looks disgusting.