SD Fixed

Well, perhaps it's not all that serious.. but I haven't found any cranks that don't suck yet for my "dream bike". So, I was kicking around the idea of cheap but strong Sugino 75's and having them polished. With a ZEN ring on it. Hmmm..

Anyone get cranks professionally polished?

*new*guy

Campy record pista cranks are polished.

I've never paid to have my crank polished... If I'm that desperate, I'll just polish it myself.

Chimay

Looked into getting my crankset polished. Sacha said it wouldn't work, plus would destroy Campy logos. For the record: Campy Pista crankarms, PW Ti/Mag BB, and Boone Ti custom chainring (polished). Fit the bill for my "dream" bike.

absntr

Chimay - out of curiosity, does Sacha generally spec with Phil wheels, Campy/Sugino cranks or is that just for the photos/showroom shots? It's all I ever really see on his bikes on the site so I was wondering if they were temporary pretty builds or what he specs?

flythebike

My Specialties T/A cranks, available from www.bicyclespecialties.com I think, and www.peterwhitecycles.com, are polished. They look nice and perform well.

If you polish your own, don't forget make yourself spit when you pull your crank.

Chimay

Your choice. Spec the bike yourself or let him do it. I think, as he's a fairly high-end builder, you tend to see high end components on his bikes. I spec'd my entire bike. Sacha asked what I wanted on it and he acquired all the components, built the wheels, etc. Chainring was a pain. Had to ship the spider to Georgia so the chainring could be custom fit.

mattface 

I find it vedry theraputic to sit around at night polishing my own crank

absntr

Chimay - completely understandable. I just see the same components pretty often that I was wondering about it. Of course, rim selection should have told me otherwise, but I was still curious.

WK: I like my Campy Record Pista's (I now have both the old and new versions) but I also love my Sugino 75's. Don't get the Zen chainring please - so ugly (that's from a purely aesthetic view of course).

brunning

you'll go blind from polishing your crank too much.

FixednotBroken

goodlooking SWM seeks someone to polish his crank

Jose R

Well, if we were to take this question seriously:

I figure, using the right tools it would take about 15 hours of hard labor to polish a set of Sugino 75s. Now, if someone spent 15 hours straight polishing his own crank it would probably fall off before he had the opportunity to go blind.


"Easy to use; ideal for the first time user. A professional quality shine in a fraction of the time."

Chimay

Absntr,

Yeah, hubs and cranksets are fairly similar on the bikes. Well, there's only so many super high end components out there, eh? Rims, bigger selection.

Oh, and for chainrings... https://www.boonerings.com/cr/cr.html

InVeloVeritas

Had one of the Ti Boone rings made with custom laser etching, absolutely amazing. Bruce and Brett do wicked work over there (although I think Bruce is focusing on finger-rings nowadays)

...I should really find out if he's still making those twist cranks....

Judah

WK, the Sugino Cubic S3 chainring is very nice if you don't want the standard 75 chainring. It's also supposed to have a better tooth profile whatever that means. Mine is very quiet, and looks nice, but you may not be into the bronze-look...

SD Fixed

TI boone rings look nice. Very pricey, but nice. How much does polishing cost?

SD Fixed

Thanks Judah. I'll have to look that up.

eddiebrannan

they're not the highest zoot around by any means, but my new miche set is 100% silent and feels terrific, fwiw

sameness

I can get 'em polished for free if you can somehow get 'em all the way over to... Clairemont Mesa.

Got some ex-employees who now run the production facilities for my buddy at a big CNC job shop down there. Half the production is devoted to nothing but hand polishing surgical-grade stainless steel and titanium on bench top polishing wheels. They take raw cast Ti6Al4V all the way up to mil spec, so starting from the Sugino's production finish should be a walk in the park.

Plenty of favors to call in up my sleeve, so I'm sure they'd let you experiment with different grades of cutting and polishing compounds to maximize your Bling Quotient.

Hell, if it coincides with my being down that way (which happens probably one weekend out of the month), I'll meet you down there and polish 'em myself. I love the smell of rouge in the morning.

PM me if this sounds like something you'd be interested in.

wangster

You can buy a metal buffer attachment for you electric drill. It'll buff your cranks out in no time. I think they cost around 20 bucks.

SD Fixed

I'm gonna have to get a hold of you. It'd be much more worthwhile if done by my own hands or.. in equitable trade.

That and I LOVE power tools.

Screw dremeling off derailers and shifters on down tubes.

4" disc grinder with a masonary attachement. The sparks are amazing.

bostontrevor

Sweet Jesus, Karsten! Are you still building up your Thylacine?

I guess I had a friend who held onto a Lemond frame for years dreaming of when he could finally build it up. Of course he also admitted that it was a silly impulse buy that he didn't have the income to back up...

He rode that thing for many years until just a few back when he finally moved on to a high end Specialized. He used to show up to races and people would take a look at his quill stem and go, "Ooohh... retro..."

shants

the sugino zen is pure sex and quiet as hell.

biff

You could always do it by hand. Get a bunch of different grades of sandpaper. I do 50-->120-->220-->400-->600-->1000-->1500-->Dremel polishing wheel.

I get mirror-like results like this.

I dunno how it would work for aluminum, but if Phil can do it - you can do it. I would definitely use some crap cranks to get your method down before you take a piece of sandpaper to $200+ Suginos.

SD Fixed

Yeah, and I probably won't finish it before deployment either. Wah!!!!

wangster

deployment...ouch...sorry dude, good luck with that...

I'm glad i'm out of the military thing...

but yeah, get a polishing wheel or attachment and you can do it yourself with great results like biff's.