Crank blowout

[stephenmarklay]

Over the last few rides I notice my cleat felt a bit loose. I increased the tension on my pedals and torqued down the cleat on the shoe but nothing.

I was riding my rollers on Saturday and finally I figured it out

This may have been a result of a crash early in the season. I guess it is about time to upgrade the bike.

[Chris]

mmm...carbon

[skijoring]

Alloy cranks break also... but FSA hasn't the best record with cranks and their inserts.

[Seott-e]

Originally Posted by skijoring

Alloy cranks break also... but FSA hasn't the best record with cranks and their inserts.

I 2nd that, I have a set of FSA Carbon mtb cranks that I had insert problems with. As a matter of fact, I putting my replacement set on right now !

[jhcakilmer]

Originally Posted by skijoring

Alloy cranks break also... but FSA hasn't the best record with cranks and their inserts.

Really, show me. The only alloy cranks that I've seen failures with resulted from a crash, or 15 + years of use. Those carbon cranks are how old?

You need to compare apples to apples......alloy cranksets have a much better track record than do carbon. I can find you dozens of photos of failed carbon cranksets, but not many alloys.

[rice rocket]

Originally Posted by skijoring

Alloy cranks break also... but FSA hasn't the best record with cranks and their inserts.

FSA hasn't had the best record with much.

[bfd]

Originally Posted by jhcakilmer

Really, show me. The only alloy cranks that I've seen failures with resulted from a crash, or 15 + years of use. Those carbon cranks are how old?

You need to compare apples to apples......alloy cranksets have a much better track record than do carbon. I can find you dozens of photos of failed carbon cranksets, but not many alloys.

You must be young?! Alloy cranks have been breaking for years - prime example, old Campy Super Record. Here's a list of many types of broken ALLOY cranks:

http://pardo.net/bike/pic/fail-001/000.html#Crank

Good Luck!

[MattTuck]

stephen,

lay off the gym this off season, ok? Your strength has clearly exceeded the bounds of human engineering



Seriously, glad you were indoors and not sprinting up a hill. Could have been a lot worse... as in, serious bodily injury instead of just serious bike injury.

[AndrewS]

Originally Posted by bfd

You must be young?! Alloy cranks have been breaking for years - prime example, old Campy Super Record. Here's a list of many types of broken ALLOY cranks:

http://pardo.net/bike/pic/fail-001/000.html#Crank

Good Luck!

You know, I just looked through that list. While 1970s failures and exotics are very common, 1980s and later Shimano, Sugino (Suntour) and Campy are pretty under-represented. Despite their popularity amongst racers, not a single Ultegra or 105 crank is shown. I've spent a lot of time in shops, and have seen more cracked frames than cranks - in fact, I can't remember ever seeing a nice alloy crank broken.

[csm]

I think it's safe to say that alloy cranks are used much more than carbon cranks and still the number of alloy cranks that have failed is easily exceeded by the number of carbon cranks that fail.

[dvs cycles]

My friend just had the pedal inserts on bothe sides of his FSA cranks start to wiggle before a ride and decided to quit before having what happened in the picture happen out on the road.

[skijoring]

Originally Posted by jhcakilmer

Really, show me. The only alloy cranks that I've seen failures with resulted from a crash, or 15 + years of use. Those carbon cranks are how old?

You need to compare apples to apples......alloy cranksets have a much better track record than do carbon. I can find you dozens of photos of failed carbon cranksets, but not many alloys.

Over on V-salon someone posted a new-ish set of TA cranks with a crack right above the pedal hole. 18,000 KM on 'em. That is a low number for an alloy crank. Like the pardo pictures, there are quite a few older alloy cranks that had sub par design features and forgings, and we all hope the manufacturers learned from those lessons - certainly Shimano does their homework.

[godfrey1112000]

Originally Posted by rice rocket

FSA hasn't had the best record with much.

their customer service leaves much to be desired, I had a crank, that would not tighten on crank arms, they would be loose after 200 miles, just 3 years into the deal, when I had the lbs contact them, the response was "tough luck", funny never heard of a DA or Campy problem like this,
oh by the way I love my DA 7900

would not buy FSA ever again

[Peter P.]

Stephen,

I'd shy away from carbon cranks, regardless of all the positive feedback you read about them.

Cranks are easily scuffed up and scratched at the pedal end, and carbon doesn't like that one bit. Not saying that's what happened in your situation, but that carbon cranks don't like it, but the WILL see it.

If you upgrade, I suggest an alloy crank. Sure, they can crack, but the reliability factor is much greater.

[konstantkarma]

Speaking of alloy crank failures, does anyone remember the Ritchey WCS compact failures a few years ago? Although Ritchey replaced and staged a recall.