Conversion: Dahon Espresso to Drops & STI's
08-27-25 | 11:38 PM
#51
Highly Enriched Driftium
Joined: Apr 2017
Posts: 6,715
Likes: 2,174
If you are willing to tolerate 4 bolt patterns, and especially asymm 4 bolt, you should have plenty of options.
I being retro style, I wanted a 5 bolt spider on a standard BCD.
You may also want to check Litepro, a lot of folks use their stuff, however some of it looks just a little bit too light for me on the rings. But if you need to swap the ring anyway, you might be able to find the right crank only in Litepro, then buy standard rings for it.
My town has one of the best bike shops in the country for their supply bins of used parts, and I might have gone that route, but the Prowheel crank complete with rings and bearings, was cheaper than same in good shape at the bike shop.
I being retro style, I wanted a 5 bolt spider on a standard BCD.
You may also want to check Litepro, a lot of folks use their stuff, however some of it looks just a little bit too light for me on the rings. But if you need to swap the ring anyway, you might be able to find the right crank only in Litepro, then buy standard rings for it.
My town has one of the best bike shops in the country for their supply bins of used parts, and I might have gone that route, but the Prowheel crank complete with rings and bearings, was cheaper than same in good shape at the bike shop.
08-28-25 | 01:25 AM
#52
Newbie
Joined: Aug 2024
Posts: 9
Likes: 0
If you are willing to tolerate 4 bolt patterns, and especially asymm 4 bolt, you should have plenty of options.
I being retro style, I wanted a 5 bolt spider on a standard BCD.
You may also want to check Litepro, a lot of folks use their stuff, however some of it looks just a little bit too light for me on the rings. But if you need to swap the ring anyway, you might be able to find the right crank only in Litepro, then buy standard rings for it.
My town has one of the best bike shops in the country for their supply bins of used parts, and I might have gone that route, but the Prowheel crank complete with rings and bearings, was cheaper than same in good shape at the bike shop.
I being retro style, I wanted a 5 bolt spider on a standard BCD.
You may also want to check Litepro, a lot of folks use their stuff, however some of it looks just a little bit too light for me on the rings. But if you need to swap the ring anyway, you might be able to find the right crank only in Litepro, then buy standard rings for it.
My town has one of the best bike shops in the country for their supply bins of used parts, and I might have gone that route, but the Prowheel crank complete with rings and bearings, was cheaper than same in good shape at the bike shop.
I know, Shimano Cues not very nice choice in terms of appereance. But I probably don't have many options in 175mm or 172.5mm lengths. I would probably combine the Cues with some full "aero" chainring like KEOS from Ali, and thus shift the look to modern, for this type of cranks it would probably be a better choice.
Do you happen to know how big of a gap between the inner face of the crank and the rear frame is common on road/gravel bikes? In my first post, I have 0-1mm in the photo, but I don't actually know what condition is close to ideal.
08-29-25 | 02:22 AM
#53
Highly Enriched Driftium
Joined: Apr 2017
Posts: 6,715
Likes: 2,174
Thak you! Unfortunately, the Litepro has only 170mm cranks on Ali for my destination, I am 194cm tall so its not very ergonomic to me.
I know, Shimano Cues not very nice choice in terms of appereance. But I probably don't have many options in 175mm or 172.5mm lengths. I would probably combine the Cues with some full "aero" chainring like KEOS from Ali, and thus shift the look to modern, for this type of cranks it would probably be a better choice.
Do you happen to know how big of a gap between the inner face of the crank and the rear frame is common on road/gravel bikes? In my first post, I have 0-1mm in the photo, but I don't actually know what condition is close to ideal.
I know, Shimano Cues not very nice choice in terms of appereance. But I probably don't have many options in 175mm or 172.5mm lengths. I would probably combine the Cues with some full "aero" chainring like KEOS from Ali, and thus shift the look to modern, for this type of cranks it would probably be a better choice.
Do you happen to know how big of a gap between the inner face of the crank and the rear frame is common on road/gravel bikes? In my first post, I have 0-1mm in the photo, but I don't actually know what condition is close to ideal.
Someone else on here has tried Cues and says it's good stuff, shifts well, handles the range it's supposed to, etc. IIRC, I think also designed with electric drivetrains and rental bikes in mind, so supposed to be durable. I think a bit heavier than prior components. Most Shimano stuff is bombproof tough, the failure they had on some bonded construction cranks (to reduce weight) was rare for the company. I just got away from their cranks because I don't like 4 bolt assym pattern (especially proprietary, requiring Shimano chainrings to blend well with the crank spider), and direct mount chainrings even worse. But my USD$13 Shimano Tourney TX rear derailleur has been an excellent and reliable replacement for the original Dahon Neos design at $80 replacement cost, for a terrible design.
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