thoughts on FSA products?
 

in general, i think FSA is a totally underrated company.

I'm trying to put my Ti bike together on the cheap, and the more i check into FSA stuff, the better it looks for the price.

the compact omega drops, in particular are a killer value for alu drop bars. competitive cyclist (which isnt known for having inexpensive anything really) has these bars for $40, you cant beat that.

they also have a zero-setback seatpost which is very similar in design to the thompson, a little heavier, but made very well which is also very inexpensive.

thoughts on FSA in general? looks to me like they are making some top notch stuff with reasonable rates.

i found their customer service to be really good. I couldn't get some special spacers for my headset from online retailers nor many lbs and their online shop only dealt with north america. i sent them an email and a very nice man called me from italy and sent the spacers to me and said don't worry about payment. it was so insignificant. very nice. so i told him i would always say nice things about FSA so here i am.

FSA is top notch

I've had good experience with bars and stuff. I'm uncertain about a BB I'm using.

I love my FSA SRM.

Bars, seatposts, stems good stuff.

I don't have a lot of faith in their cranks and BBs.

Meh... the only experience I had with them was when I bought my carbon compact crank with megaexo outboard bearings.

It turns out they machined the splines on the aluminum insert on the left crank arm too small(!), so when I tried to tighten the crank bolt to push the crank arm on the through spindle, the harder die cast spindle splines pushed into the aluminum insert, and I couldn't get the crank arm barely halfway on. I called FSA and they told me to take it up with the retailler where I bought it. I was kind of surprised they were so disinterested in that kind of manufacturing error. Got a new one through the retailler.

I haven't had any other real problems with the crank except after riding it a few times in the rain the bearings or the threads are clicking when I stand up and pedal hard. I'm hoping it's just some grit/lack of lube in the bearing threads, I'm going to take it apart this weekend to find out. Don't want to have to buy new bearings.

YMMV though.

I have a Gossamer BB30 compact crankset, and I get this, too - took it to the shop the first time (it was less than a week after purchase) and they told me that it was from moisture in the BB area. They said that they pulled it apart and cleaned it up a bit; the noise was gone when I picked it up, but it's back again, after riding through a little rain and some lingering puddles, yesterday. I'm going to have to learn how to pull it apart myself, 'cause this is going to drive me crazy. Not sure if things would be any different for a different crankset.

Their bottom brackets, at least the Mega-Exo design are inferior to Shimano's. Otherwise, the FSA parts I have work fine. Seems to me that you can really only make something like a stem or a seatpost so good or bad, given that it's just a... stick.

I really like the SL-K crank that came with my Cervelo. The bottom bracket got replaced with an Ultegra one within 1000 miles, but the crank itself works pretty well, and I think it looks pretty cool.

My Bianchi 928 came with an FSA Crankset and BB. I wanted shorter crankarms and was looking into my options. I put a post on the Mechanics forum concerning the possible future of ISIS vs. MegaExo (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...=#post10425809) and these guys just ragged on FSA BBs.

That said I haven't had any problems with the FSA stuff. I swapped out my 420mm ITM bars for 400mm FSA and I like them. Could be the better fit but I think they are even "quieter" and more comfortable than the similar ITMs.

My experience with their customer service is not decided. The shorter crank arms I bought new from Bikewagon came with self-extracting bolts. The assembly instructions state using self-extracting bolts will void the warranty. I sent a message to FSA asking for clarification and didn't receive a reply. Whatever. Been a couple of months and everything seems fine so I really don't care.

Good thing the self extracting bolts were available. I read some where that an old square-taper crankarm puller could be used on ISIS if you put dimes in to give the pushrod extra diameter. Wrong, Wrong, Wrong. Dimes just deformed and got pushed into the axle. The self extractors worked just fine.

I have a set of their RD440 wheels. I am the second owner and when the rear wheel had some cracking at the nipple - called them up and they warrantied them. Took about a week and got a brand new rear wheel. Light wheels that feel great.

I have zero issues with two differing headsets. One Orbit on my SS, and the new Pig I bought for an old MTB, both flawless and smooth. I have heard of BB issues. I have two cranks the Superlights and the Gossamer, neither I have installed yet on my road bike. I've heard from my shop buddies that if the Gossamers are not installed correctly you will hate life and they seem to be a bit on the funky side. I'm not keen on how easily they can be removed, as a friend had theirs punked from the parking here at work.

They had a bad run of cranksets a while back, but I havn't heard anything for a while, so seems to be fixed.
The threaded pedal instert was coming loose or something.

That said, I have some FSA wheels (RD-600) and FSA cranks. nothing bad to say about them other than my hub acquired an annoying tick that took me forever to find. (sounded like it was BB issues).

I used to have an FSA seatpost, but it was notched for adjustments and I could never get the saddle to be level. Now have a LOOK post
Used to have FSA bars (k-wing), but they were too wide so now I have some eastons.
Used to have an FSA stem, but it was too short, now I have a ritchey.

There wasn't anything inherently wrong with any of the components (except the seatpost in my opinion). Just needed something else, and preferred the fit/feel/look of other companies.

This is interesting because I am experiencing the same issue with an FSA crankset. Clicking noise that is. Non drive side bolt has loosened every time I use it. Also have some RD 600 wheels. Had an annoying squeak when I got them. There is a procedure on line to relube the rear hub. I think they have some quality control issues. How do you let a $700 set of wheels out of the factory without lubing the rear hub? sfd

I had that issue with the crank bolt backing out was well (there is no crank bolt on the drive side). Solved it with some blue Loctite on the crank arm bolt threads and the retaining ring/self extraction ring threads.

FSA is really great, don't know why you have the impression is not a good brand. Everything I have from them is great IMHO

Sure you can: http://www.universalcycles.com/shopp...s.php?id=19457 Shipping not withstanding.

I've had decent luck with FSA products. No complaints. Only thing I have currently is their Team Pro carbon cranks. Seem to work fine. Don't care for the Octalink interface, but whatever.

I like FSA. I'm building up a bike and going FSA on stem, bars and post. Their web site is good, customer service is great at answering questions and their equipment is on a lot of new bikes so their doing something right. I have their omega bars, $40, which allowed me to try them out for fit then I got the carbon version for the final build and moved the alum to my other bike.