Race Face Evolve Cranks - Pedal hole stripped out - any advice?
 

Recently I dropped my bike on the drive side. The pedal hit the ground, no big deal I thought. When riding home I realized my pedal felt odd, I thought maybe I just bent the shaft of the pedal so I continued to ride home. It started to get worse, however with it being dark and I wanted to get home I continued riding. When I get home I realize now that my pedal totally stripped out all the threads in the crankarm and now the thing is totally ruined. Has anyone else ever had this experience? I've dropped my Bike many of times on the side and the pedal struck the ground, however this is my first experience with something like this. I'm starting to think that the Race Face Cranks are just poorly made. Any advice on what to do? They don't even make my model of crank anymore. I hate to buy a new crankset just because of this. :notamused:

You can tap the crank and use a pedal insert/bushing. If you don't want to do it or have the tools to do it (just need the proper sized tap), see if your LBS will do it for you.

Helicoils! They're small coiled-wire inserts which take the place of the damaged threads. Often they're stronger than the original screw-thread was.

The tools to tap out the damaged threads and insert the helicoil likely cost more than the crankset, but your local friendly metal-workshop might do it. With the right tools it's easy.

^^ Trouble is Helicoils aren't durable in that application. And no machine shop/automotive machine shop is going to have taps/helis/installer for bicycle pedal threads. They'll have spark plug coils and stuff like that.

There are full-on steel inserts (Eldi) but you have to know a shop that has the inserts . . . and the tap . . . and the installer tool . . . to get it done. Not just something you want to plunk the $$$$ down on to do it yourself - - unless you want to set yourself up in the biz.

Your first move should be to see if you can get the crank arm warrantied or warranty-upgraded from raceFace.

Sorry, but I think something else is going on here; I've had an Evolve crank for 4 years -- and OH YEAH, my bike hits the deck! -- with NO issues at all. It may be as simple as a flaw in that unit, or there may have been something with installation. Dissing RaceFace under these circumstances is more than a bit premature.

Talk to them and see what they'll do.

Really? That'd be like me getting a flat and continuing to ride it til the rim cracked then submitting a claim to Mavic. Why should Raceface and its customers share the cost of this rider's negligence?

^^ Well, you have a point - - he did continue to ride it after things felt wrong. However, ovalizing a hole from a rough tumble just shouldn't happen; would lead me to think there's some soft aluminum in the area of the pedal bore.

Maybe I was projecting a bit too much into this. My son ovalized a Truvativ crank arm landing a jump hard. We were able to warranty upgrade him to some Holzfellers. And, wouldn't you know? - - Truvativ started putting steel inserts in the Hussefelts the very next year. That tells me they had some problems with that production run.

Some very interesting responses. I thought about the warranty issue, but I feel like I did push the crank after I first noticed the pedal felt weird. I know that if I was the business covering warranty claims, I wouldn't warranty an item after the customer caused the damage to get worse. After thinking about my options, I just decided to buy a new Crankset. Shimano Deore. I'm not a hardcore rider so it should work pretty well for me. $92 smackers and no headaches with dealing with a warranty/repair issue. Thanks for all the advice. It was helpful.

LX is only $85