3 piece crankset for travel bike?

[Clancy]

I’m in the planning stage for what I hope to be the ultimate travel bike. The goal is simple, to design as light and compact travel package as possible designed around a traditional style bicycle. (Not a small diameter wheel folding bike)

To make it as compact of a package as possible I’m thinking of using a crankset that can be easily removed. It’s not difficult at all for example to pop out a Shimano Crankset. With that in mind, is there a three piece compact crankset that might work? It’s really the drive side crankarm that prevents the frame from sitting flat. Ideally a crankset that allows the crankarms to be removed and packed separately.

Thoughts/suggestions?

[josephr]

Even with Shimano cranks coming off and easy, I'd be hesitant about frequently removing and re-installing, particularly the non-drive side has two that need to be alternately tightened/torqued. Seems unnecessarily cumbersome in order to achieve your goal. The real culprit here isn't the crank, but the pedals. A simple pedal wrench should be all you need.

[eddief]

you might consider a rear wheel that enables removing the cassette without tools like Ritchey offers. that could make for enough room in the stack in an S&S travel case so simply removing pedals without removing crank might work.

[fa63]

Check out the Rotor Aldhu with the direct mount chainrings. Extremely easy to disassemble. Plus lots of chainring options including subcompact.

[tv_vt]

Not sure what you mean by a 3-piece crankset.

I use an older Shimano setup on my travel bike: Octalink BB that stays in the frame, drive side that I unbolt and non-drive side that stays mounted to the BB in the frame. Newer cranks with spindle attached to driveside crank take up more space in the case and cause more wear and tear to the BB.

Pedals come off, of course.

Check out the Abbey Tools cassette tool: Crombie tool. I use the set that fits together. Great tool.

[Doug Fattic]

I made my S&S coupled travel bike in the 90's with 24" wheels. I would certainly do it again if I had to make another. 24" wheels are big enough to act like adult wheels but small enough so that my case is way smaller than standard bike travel cases. I do throw in an extra tire and tube but this size is not so uncommon in Europe. There is nothing about my bike case that reminds people of bicycles and it is so much easier to lug it around anywhere I go.

At the very least I would use MTB size tires in maybe a 38 width. When the tires are deflated, the rim diameter is smaller than its 700C cousins. I make my bike travel case out of double corrugated cardboard.

My bike was equipped with 90's equipment that had a square tapered bottom bracket axle. Shimano at one time a "one key release" crank bolt that acted as its own crank puller. That means that I can use a 6mm allen wrench to remove the cranks arms. There were a number of aftermarket makers that made a similar product. It is just so easy to take the cranks off and put them back on again.

[mokofoko]

Originally Posted by Doug Fattic

I made my S&S coupled travel bike in the 90's with 24" wheels. I would certainly do it again if I had to make another. 24" wheels are big enough to act like adult wheels but small enough so that my case is way smaller than standard bike travel cases. I do throw in an extra tire and tube but this size is not so uncommon in Europe. There is nothing about my bike case that reminds people of bicycles and it is so much easier to lug it around anywhere I go.

At the very least I would use MTB size tires in maybe a 38 width. When the tires are deflated, the rim diameter is smaller than its 700C cousins. I make my bike travel case out of double corrugated cardboard.

My bike was equipped with 90's equipment that had a square tapered bottom bracket axle. Shimano at one time a "one key release" crank bolt that acted as its own crank puller. That means that I can use a 6mm allen wrench to remove the cranks arms. There were a number of aftermarket makers that made a similar product. It is just so easy to take the cranks off and put them back on again.

For a dismantled S&S bike, is it really necessary to take the crankset off? Shouldn't pedal removal be enough to achieve a reasonably flat profile? At least with my S/M bianchi travel frame, it fits just fine in the S&S case with cranks still attached.

[dr.dre]

Easton cranks are not 3 piece, but it will meet your desire for easy removal of cranks/chain rings. The drive side arm (and ring) are designed to be easily removed, although their intention is for easy swapping of chainring sizes for CX racing, they do come in 2x configurations and will do what you want.

[Clean39T]

Originally Posted by fa63

Check out the Rotor Aldhu with the direct mount chainrings. Extremely easy to disassemble. Plus lots of chainring options including subcompact.

This is true. With the Aldhu you would pull the DS crank and leave the NDS arm and spindle attached - it takes 20 seconds and the one bolt you are using is a 10mm allen.

An FSA modular compact crankset would achieve the same, you're removing the DS crank/rings as one piece and can leave the rest there.

Both can be used with a BSA 30 BB in a standard road frame.

My Rotor Aldhu setup happens to be for sale in the classifieds if you are interested. I might be talked into selling the FSA sub-compact setup on my Seven alternatively..

[bikinchris]

My 58.5cm Indy Fab touring bike fits in my S&S case without removing my crankset.The rear axle is a 135mm and that fits just fine too.However, the fork must be removed because the steer tube is too long. But the whole bike AND a Silca track pump fit in the case.

[Bob Ross]

Originally Posted by mokofoko

For a dismantled S&S bike, is it really necessary to take the crankset off? Shouldn't pedal removal be enough to achieve a reasonably flat profile?

It's not the flatness that's the issue, it's the length of the chainstay + dropout + bottom bracket + the radius of the big chainring*. The closer that total dimension is to the length of the case, the fewer options you have for making everything fit.

On my ~57cm S&S coupled frame, that dimension winds up being about 21". To make that bike fit into a 26" x 26" S&S case, I have to remove the crankset. Believe me, I've tried. For 10 years.

*the length of the crank arms may also be a factor, I forget how they impact this geometry experiment.

[Clancy]

The issue with the crankset is the diameter of the chainrings so as some suggested removing only the drive side is really the main goal. Removing the chainrings allow the frame to sit flat n the carrying case.

I am not looking to use a Ritchey type case. I want to develop a bike that can be disassembled into a smaller package. The Rinko style of transporting bikes has always fascinated me. What I’m trying to brainstorm is a similar method of transporting a bike but again as small and as light as possible.

On our last trip we traveled to Annecy, France and I had two glorious weeks riding my Ritchey Break-Away. We then went to Paris for a week before returning home. Our rental was a 2.5 mile walk from the airport. I thought piece of cake, the Ritchey case rolls after all. That 2.5 mile walk, in a light rain over broken up crowded sidewalks, then up 6 flights of narrow stairs damn near killed me. That was the beginning of my desire to design a better bike for traveling.

A bicycle that weighs 18-20 lbs should be able to compact down to an easily carried bag. Removing the crankset seems to be part of the solution. I’m picturing removing the fork as well.

I’ve looked at Rob English’s version of a breakaway and it’s stunningly beautiful and well designed, and out of the box thinking. His bike and that exhausting experience are the drives behind this project.

Keep the ideas and thoughts coming!

[bicycletricycle]

I have been thinking along similar lines recently. I have a 2 coupler bikes, a fixed gear and a touring bike. After packing and unpacking them many times you start to imagine what an ultimate version of this kind of bike would look like. I always like taking the drive crank off, even if it is not strictly required. One reason is that i normally use a cardboard box and I want to keep the chainrings safe, the other reason is to keep the bike bits safe from the chainring. I have ended up using 1 key release square taper or octalink cranks on mine. This works pretty good.

For a more modern solution, I think shimano external bearing cranks with the pinch bolt on the non drive seem like the most ideal set up since they take small lightweight tools and rarely need any bashing or extra persuasion to remove or install. The plastic bushings also make grease less/not necessary which will help keep everything clean. The biggest problem with them is the size of the drive crank/spindle when taken off but I think it is easier to deal with than the possible down sides of the 3 piece 30mm set ups. I see those downsides as- repeated torquing of those large aluminum crank bolts, keeping track of small delicate parts for adjusting bearing preload (some systems have the preload attached to the arm which is better) and bearings that ride directly on spindle systems that seem to eventually cause some galling which then requires grease and some persuasion to get in and out (depends on bb though, some retain plastic bushing between bearing and spindle, I have not been keeping 100% up to speed on the 1 million different bb standards)

edit- looks like chris king t47 bottom brackets use an oversize bearing that utilizes a plastic "fit kit", even for 30mm spindles. I think most other 30mm bottom brackets use the 6806 bearing with a 30mm ID and a direct fit onto the aluminum spindle.

I think one could make a pretty good argument for the white industries cranks though. They have nice 1x rings for the system which I would prefer for a bike like this. I would just keep an eye on those big alloy cinch bolts. Maybe replace them after a couple dozen trips or something and make sure to use a nice sharp allen wrench to keep the hex in as good of shape as possible. The adjustable preload is part of the non drive arm which is convenient (less loose parts). I think I would take the arms off but leave the spindle in, maybe have a small padded strap or something that just holds it in place during travel and keeps it safe from impact. I might leave the pedals on the cranks or maybe use quick release pedals from MKS.

sorry for the long response, I am sure you have thought of most of this already.

[eddief]

comes off with one 8mm non-drive side self-extracting bolt. this guy takes many minutes to describe the 60 second process:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otcB-7Yy8a8