crankset
 

I am building my first tandem and need a low cost crankset. Crankset must be 170mm capt and 165mm stoker and 9 spd compatible. Any recomendations?

The 165 stoker will be hard to find for most cranks, except for Da Vinci.

Go here: http://www.davincitandems.com/comp.html#cranks

You might consider assembling your crankset using individual conventional crank arms and then installing helicoils as necessary to get the correct pedal threading.

My stoker has 165 cranks which are 9-speed Ultegra arms with helicoils.

I don't know if you are looking for just cranks or also rings. Also not sure if you care if 130mm BCD or 110BCD but here are a couple options.

Below is 110 BCD with no rings or bottom bracket. Cheap if you have those on hand or can get them locally. I have purchased from SJS with no problem shipping to US.

http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/thorn-tan...rear-prod1672/

More conventional option with rings and 130 BCD.

http://www.universalcycles.com/shopp...61&category=62

We use daVinci and they are great cranks but not cheap once all bits factored in.


I like the OP's attitude implied by saying "first" tandem. Yes there will be more. Good luck

Sugino is about the cheapest decent crankset (outfitted with chainrings), but cheap is relative (still several hundred $$ before it is done).

You could use FSA gossamer 165 on the rear.
They only make 172.5 on the front, so you could try that or get a standard road crankset install it backwards and get the pedal threads helicoiled.
That is the setup we are using it and have had no issues with it.

The Stronglight tandem crankset appears to be a great value. C'est dommage, it is 170 mm for both captain and stoker.

http://www.xxcycle.com/marques/stron...act_tandem.jpg


It is what the World Champion French Cyfac team uses.

http://www.cyfac.fr/uploads/Large/wo...andemb_584.jpg

http://78.img.v4.skyrock.net/787/tij...3_f3SnUrvJ.jpg

Thanks for the info everybody. Does anyone know of any used cranksets that are for sale?

Check with BikeSmith Design and Fabrication.

Too bad TA no longer makes tandem cranks. They used to make very nice looking cranks in lots of lengths but they were never cheap.


http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=251225

http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/imag...hyrtandem1.jpg

Does anyone import the stronglight impact tandem crankset? I can only find them from oversea suppliers.

For those crank lengths you are looking for it may be tough. No doubt I'll post this and a set will immediately become available.

FWIW, you may be more cost effective to build a set. You have seen mention of re-threading and heli-coil inserting standard crank arms. As an even simpler solution, there have been some off-road tandem cranks converted from standard cranks, where just new threads were cut, or the pedal axles converted.

I am not sure of all your build details, you may be able to use an all right side drive utilizing the inner ring for timing chains.

Middleburn makes a worthy product. Many tandems run them off-road. Middleburn stuff is available through Alex at MTBTandems.com. They offer the sizes you need.

http://mtbtandems.com/

Scroll down to the Middleburn info section and open it. This is quality stuff at a reasonable cost. The package price includes chainrings. If Middleburn is true on their word, they now offer 130mm spiders also. So this could be a quality, lightweight road alternative for some teams.

http://www.middleburn.co.uk/cranks_tandem.php

PK

The stronglight look good just wondering about dealing with vendor from europe.

That's the problem. The one place that has most everything Stronglight is XXCycles, which is haughty and French. I describe the deal with them here. There are a few internet UK retailers (e.g. Ribble), that sell some Stronglight, speak English, and have good prices, but they don't list the Impact tandem crankset. Worth emailing them to se e if they could get you a set.

It is a shame there is no US Distributor, because the Euro types that post on the Weight Weenie forum really like Stronglight stuff. If anyone wants to get involved in the bicycle business, the US Stronglight distributorship is a wide open opportunity!

I think the best thing to do is to email XXCycle, and see if you can get an intelligible response. Then proceed cautiously. The prices are really good, and so if it didn't work out it wouldn't be the end of the world. And it would give you a story to tell when tandem cognoscenti admire your drivetrain.

I have ordered a few times from XXCYCLE.COM and the products always came as i expected. They were slow to arrive. I think they take about four weeks to get to me but I choose the cheapest shipping option. I have not had much luck with email contact so while I have had no problems there is some risk involved. I would not hesitate to order from them again.

I ordered once from XXcycle and my parts arrived in about 2 weeks and were as I expected. Their website is confusing, so you have to be careful to make sure you are ordering what you think you are.

Stronglight.com lists two tandem cranksets - Impact (square taper) and Z'Light (ISIS). Spa Cycles shows they can get the Z'Light, and you can get it with 170/165 cranks. I'm not sure if Spa will ship internationally. You might also consider a contacting a European shop that deals in Stronglight and ships to the US. They may be able to special order something for you.

However, if it were me, I would probably be looking at the DaVinci cranks.

Good Luck!

I've got a set of used 170 mm captain cranks available. They are Shimano 105-level, probably about 15 years old, but I bought them as new-old-stock last year, so they've had very little use. Model number is FC 1057. They are about the 10th item shown on this page, with photos (I've got several other bike parts that I'm selling that are all listed on that page). Price is 60 Swiss Francs (63 USD) for the cranks, and 20 francs more for the bottom bracket. Shipping to N. America from Switzerland would be about 30 USD.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=252861
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=252865

Chris W, thanks for the offer but I am really trying to avoid the overseas shipping.

Hello Bostic,

I noticed your post asking about 170 mm Captain's cranks.

I have a set of 170 mm FSA Carbon Pro Team Issue Captain's cranks that use an ISIS bottom bracket for sale in the Tandem Classifieds. It does not have a Timing Chain ring. You would need to purchase a 130 bcd timing chain ring and chain ring bolts. I don’t think that this timing chain ring (and chain rings bolts) would be too difficult to obtain from a tandem dealer.

I listed it for sale on 4-12-2012 in the Tandem Classifieds. (http://www.tandemmag.com/classified/)
I even have an ISIS bottom bracket or 2 laying around that you could purchase as well, if you are interested.

No pressure, but, I just wanted show you that there is a 170 mm Captain's crank option available.

NOTE: I don't think there is any issue with the Captain's crankset using an ISIS bottom bracket and the stoker's crankset being something different. I don't really see why this would cause a problem. You could use this Captain's crank and then pair it with a 165 mm stoker crankset which might have a different bottom bracket interface and may be a different brand and I don't see why this would not potentially work.

Let me know if you have questions or want to see pictures of the cranks. They are in good shape.

Thanks,
ghoundz

Ok it looks like my options are limited. I can order overseas for the stronglight or go with an FSA gos in 172.5mm capt and 165mm stoker. Neither is exactly the ideal size but will work. What is everyone recomendations? I am kind of shocked at the limited availability of tandem cranks, exspecially used takeoffs.

SRAM Force, bullet proof and high quality. Could try S600 too.