---

12.03.2004

After two hard seasons, my 2002 FSA X-drive cranks were worn beyond repair. I thought about trying something new, but based primarily on price I stayed with the X-drive cranks. I like the cranks for stiffness and durability and they are cheaper than most other bmx style cranks.

I put them on my pitbull at the beginning of this summer. After about 3 months of hard freeriding I noticed play in the bearings and a wobble in the cranks. I really started to notice this, after one afternoon at Plattekill... one drop in particular seemed to do it - a 6ish foot ladder bridge drop to what looked like a decent transition, but turned out to feel like a flat landing. Later, when I took the cranks/bb apart to check out the damage, I found that not only were the bearings shot, but the bb spindle, which is a virtually solid piece of chromo, had bent...

In this video, you will first see a few shots of the bent spindle - one just spindle, one with a long allen wrench (to better show the wobble) and one of the spider and chain rings wobbling due to the bent spindle... then you will see two video clips of the drop at plattekill. It will quickly transition to a drop on one of our local trails that I feel captures the kind of drops that really beat up a hard tail and components like cranks - a 6 or so foot drop to a tight landing, which is best landed 50-50 to be in control for a quick bermed turn. (this is a beta test of the video component and I made it as small as I could, so the quality is poor and I am still working out the bugs on the overdub audio, but it is a start. The video is best viewed at 160X112 size - if you view it larger or full screen it will be quite grainy)

download the video

---

01.14.2005

Either I am riding harder and going bigger or these FSA cranks aren't up to snuff. After only 1 season of freeriding, these X drive cranks bit it... after a freeride season a couple weeks ago the bearings, finally went completely leaving the cranks / bb wobbling around... took them apart and they were toast. The spindle is bent, so I had one hell of a time just getting the cranks/bb out and there is no saving these or replacing parts, etc. Part of me is really happy with the overall performance, but part of me is getting kind of fed up with messing with cranks... oh well...

Now, I am stuck trying to figure out what they hell cranks to buy, so I can get back riding. I really like the 3 piece BMX style, chromolly cranks - super stiff and strong, but damn I am getting tired of tweakin' around with the setup and blowing bearings every couple months or so... what to do? hmmmmmm

stayed tuned.