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background

...of all the components on my bike, I have had (and continue to have) the most problems with my cranks. It is probably a combination of the way I ride, what I ride and the fact that I am riding a freeride hardtail. I am a brute force rider, which means many times I use strength to compensate for technique, hence I can land drops hard, 6-7fters to 60-40 concrete landings, etc. which is incredibly hard on the bike/cranks. I ride "all-around" freeride (drops, jumps, skinnies, singletrack), but love to drop most of all, so I do a ton of repeated drops - again hard on components. The hardtail just amplifies the first two - no rear suspension means all that force has to go into frame and components. Anyway, after trashing a set of shimano xt hollow-techs and truvativ hussefelt dh's, I moved to bmx style cranks. I considered profile's and on-one's, but went with FSA - same basic crank for an absolutely killer price.

My biggest problem prior to the FSA cranks was a rounding of splines and spline sockets at the BB / crank arm interface... this happened within a short period of time and made the cranks feel loose and "sketchy". Second biggest problem was pedal threads stripping out. NEVER snapped a crank arm or broke a BB.

The bmx style cranks are super beefy (and super heavy). Unlike standard mtb cranks, the BB assembly comes in pieces and you have to fiddle and tweak it to get the chain line setup right and the BB spinning freely. You get two set of bearings for each side, two cups, a super beefy spindle and a whole bunch of spacers - you will most likely need them all. This is a big pain in the ass and took me about a year and a whole bunch of tries to get it perfect for me - now, setup is a snap. FSA and their directions are basically no help.

I have to say after running these bmx style cranks, I don't think I would ever go back to standard mtb cranks. I might switch to a different brand of bmx style, but that is it. These cranks are super stiff, super strong and after two years, continue to stand up to all the abuse I throw at them. I have only had to replace bearings one time and take apart and clean the BB assembly twice in two years of hard, abusive riding. NO rounded splines, no pedals stripping out - nothing but beefy performance!

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03.19.2004

...after two years of abuse, I think I may be starting to have my first issue with my cranks. I got back from a hard urban ride last week and noticed the left crank arm seemed to have some play in it. Although minimal, you can feel it. The play occurs parrallel to the spindle - if I grab the crank arm and push back and forth along the spindle I can feel maybe a mm or so of play (see picture below). I am not really too sure, how this is even possible - seems impossible to bend these cranks arms or the spindle and the splines don't seem worn. I am going to take the assembly apart clean and inspect next week... will get back to you.

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03.25.2004

I didn't get a chance to brake down and clean my cranks yet... but couldn't resist getting out on another urban ride. The slop in the left crank arm/bb interface has not gotten any worse, but now the cranks/bb creaks like a son-of-a-gun. I mean to the point where I didn't even want to pedal - a lot of noise - creaky, creaky, creaky! I guess it is time to take everything apart, clean and check out "the damage"... the creaking has happened before and expecting the bearings to be shot, I took apart the cranks and found nothing wrong - cleaned, re-greased and re-assembled - and the cranks were quiet again. (from my experience) These BMX style cranks are super strong, but high maintenance - especially the bb assembly - could just be the FSA cranks, but I kinda get the feeling it might be all bmx style cranks. My thought is that because the bottom bracket is pieced together that eventually things get loose and/or tweaked and need re-set. When I take the cranks apart I will get pictures of the whole thing.

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04.30.2004

The last time I logged in about the FSA cranks they were creaking and had some play. Well I let it go - too busy or too lazy I am not sure - and went for my first real trail ride last week (week before the Reading XCFR race). I flat landed a 5ft drop and whammo - my cranks blew! When I got home, I took them apart to inspect the damage and this is what I found --



The outter most bearing on the drive side was shredded into mere slivers and bearings. What was worse was that the outter ring of the bearing was still wedged in the cup - how the hell was I going to get this outta there??? OH, I know bang it out with a hammer and screw driver!



What a pain in the a$$, but I got it out - luckily I had a spare bearing left over from the last time I replaced them. This will be the third time since the winter of 2002 that I have replaced the bearings due to failure. Not bad, all in all, beats the hell out of replacing whole bottom brackets or cranks arms - but still I am not sure if it is just a fact of life with the BMX style cranks or if it is a particular weakness of the FSA cranks. I am going to try to find out this summer - will keep you posted as I do. Believe it or not, after I re-assembled the bottom bracket, I am now getting play in the left side (non-drive side) cup - it doesn't seem to sit tightly in the bb shell... if you ask FSA they always tend to blame your install - like it is "rocket science"... none - the - less FSA is fairly responsive on the tech support side - hell some (most) companies make it near impossible to even find a contact number. A few more pictures for your amusement.

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05.05.2004

It seems as though my cranks have totally gone to hell since the bearing blow-up. Once I got the cranks back together there was quite a bit of play in crank arms / bb. At first I thought that it might be the fact that when I pounded the bearing shell out of the cup - it got "bent" out of shape and the bearings weren't sitting snuggly. On closer inspection, those bearings and drive side cup showed no play - HOWEVER, the left side cup seemed to be moving around a few mm in the bb shell?!?! and both crank arms seem to have play in the them at the crank/spindle interface - HOW and WHY, I have no idea at this point - but I am starting to wonder if 2 years might not be the X drive lifespan... will keep you posted - quick thought, if it is time to replace the cranks, then I will most likely try another style/brand of BMX style cranks, don't think I will ever go back to "standard" mtb style cranks for freeride.

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05.16.2004

Well after a couple weeks of messing with my cranks, it seems as though they are basically on their way out. Both crank arms have play on the spindle and the left (non-drive) side cup has play in the bottom bracket shell. I kind of thought this might happen... I had them just perfect and rode the hell out of them for a season and a half, but I knew once I took them back apart, I might just start to have problems. My thought is to just ride them until I feel they are unsafe or the play just drives me nutty and then replace them. If I paid $200-$300 and they broke down after two years I would be pissed, but since I only paid $130 not that upset... I wonder however, if the more expensive cranks (ie. profiles) would last longer - my initial thought is NOT and then I would feel worse about having to replace them after two years of riding... I ride hard and land hard, so I guess I am not suprised. These bmx style cranks are definitely the way to go if you abuse your bike and bike parts - last way longer and are way stiffer than the standard mtb style cranks/bb.

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06.08.2004

So as you already know by the reading above, my cranks are kaput - bb and crank arms have just too much play in them to feel good. I called FSA to ask them if they thought 2 years of hard riding was about the life span of the X-drive cranks... and for some reason they got real defensive about the fact that "parts wear out" ... yada yada yada... I am not sure why but it seems like these companies get real defensive real fast when you call about their parts and any sort of problems. Two for me this week, Planet-X and FSA... not sure if it is because they constantly get harrassed by people wanting free replacements or what. Seems to me, if you are out there marketing parts as "BOMB PROOF" and "INDESTRUCTIBLE" ... then when parts break, own up to it - your making sales on the marketing angle, step up with the customer support!

Well anyway, after I explained that I was happy with the cranks and kind of figured that two years was about a normal lifespan for the parts, FSA then calmed down a bit and set me up with a new X-drive crankset which should be here this week. I am not looking for handouts, just reasonable customer support - not defensive attitude. Will post photos and thoughts when the new cranks arrive and I install them.