Which crank material do you prefer for higher torque single speed/fixed gear use? I live in a very hilly area and put alot of pressure on them crank arms. Is carbon tougher for this? Aluminum? Titanium? Perhaps another alloy? Thanks.

Tungsten crankset brah. Tungsten.

Never heard of Tungsten cranks yet... learn something new every day!!

Hah I was kidding, Tungsten is the strongest metal , but its super heavy so I doubt they make em. Titanium would be strongest, Carbon would be lightest.

edit: it seems like some company does make chainrings out of tungsten though. interesting...

Tungsten carbide to be dead on. I have a ring made from the stuff.

I've broken 4130 cr-mo cranks before but have never broken aluminum cranks. Never owned carbon cranks. So, aluminum FTW.

LOL, Squeege. I use carbide in machining! Very hard, but brittle.

Funny, and I've always thought 4130 to be more forgiving than aluminum... Maybe the welds gave out?

I'm talking some serious mashing now, the hills in my area are monstorous!! (or may be the fact that I'm getting older that they just seem more monstorous ) I've only used aluminum thus far, and knock on wood, haven't broken any yet...

Mashing is nothing. Think me landing a 8 foot high jump to flat concrete at 200+ pounds.

Aluminum.

If you have the money titanium is a good metal. Strong as steel, light as aluminum.

don't worry about it

...and burns 150 barrels of oil to produce 1 ton.



All of these materials (steel, aluminum, carbon) will do the job otherwise they wouldn't make cranks out of these materials.

holy ****!

I think you mean "holy Crude!" sorry that was bad.

I run aluminum and love it! no problems and stiff for great power transfer.

carbon cranks stiffest. full stop.

depends. I hear FSA carbon cranks aren't very stiff, and these from riders that aren't packed with muscle

Carbon nano-tube cranks. I don't know if they're made yet, but they should be.

Or aluminum.

the world entire uses about 100,000 tonnes of titanium per year. There doesn't appear to be much data on what the bicycling industry itself uses. Possibly due to the way it is purchased - through parent companies or from fabricators. So all titanium produced across the planet per year by your estimate uses 150,000,000 barrels of oil per year. The world produces about 30,549,000 barrels per day. That would mean that the titanium industry uses aprox. 5 days worth or about 1.36 percent of the total oil consumed on the planet annually. I did not verify your assertion but assuming the production of titanium of all types for all uses that number still seems high. Where did you get your data? Honest question. I guess it really doesn't matter. No one is being a bad steward of our earth by purchasing a titanium bicycle or bicycle parts. No guilt. No shame. Wonderful, abundant, naturally occurring, exceedingly useful product. It was placed here for our direct use - or else it would not be naturally present.

Thanks for the replies everyone. As budget is always a concern, seems like aluminum is the best choice for me...

not all carbon cranks are stiffer than all alu cranks. think dura ace. but carbon is a stiffer material, thus making it possible to make stiffer cranks. think storck power arms