These Cranks Are BETTER Than Shimano and SRAM

Do the stock Shimano and SRAM cranksets not work for you? Here are some better alternatives!

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[altaloma]

Glad you have addressed this subject. Gearing has always been a problem for some of us, especially us mules that wind up hauling trailers or other people's stuff on tours. I gave up on aspirational gears after considering the tourist's number one rule: "Never go faster than you are willing to crash". I'm running a Shimano triple 46-36(?)-22 with a highly modified rear cassette 14-50. People who don't pull trailers don't know why I'd want such low gears, but when towing 100 lb. (45 kg) it is absolutely necessary.

[mattdelcomyn]

A GREAT vid Russ. A badly needed overview of non aspirational/realistic cranks for adventure cycling. I’ve not seen such a great synopsis anywhere else. Thanks.

[davidbabcock]

for heavier touring, I set up my Surly Troll for Latin America trips with an old school 44/32/22 and 11-34, Gevenalle shifters which work great. I have spent months on the bike on all kinds of roads, all kinds of gradients, all kinds of surfaces--and still feel a triple like this works so, so well for the type of touring I've done riding through Central America, Mexico or France or wherever. Gearing range 17- 103 g.i. I dunno, with front friction shifting being so nice, smooth, silent, etc the positives of a triple still really appeal. And I'm not a grumpy old retro grouch, I love riding my STI bike, and my 1x fatbike too, but I have always had the same view as yours regarding lower gearing. Been touring since 89 and even lightly loaded, most bikes have stupid high gears, so these smaller doubles really make sense.

[jacobatherton]

Square taper has been around so long, it just works. Looks better than hollow cranks imo. love my old 130/74 triple. I run it 39/28 with a 44 outer chainring as a bashplate. I can manually shift to the outer ring if I really want to use it.

[johnfowler]

I have been using spa cycle chainsets for three years now and find them excellent, unbelievable value, very versatile and well made.

[ZensōMusic]

Great video!

I love the Silver low/low in 34/24, perfect for an old guy like me who turns 61 this month. If I max out 34/11 I just coast. 😅

I installed the VO Grand Cru 46/30 on my daughter’s Pass Hunter. It’s a beautiful crank but one thing to be aware of is the minimal clearance between the crank arm and the outer ring, which is great for the knees but pretty severely limits which front derailleurs will work.

Another classic is the Sugino XD2 triple, probably my favorite of all time and still a super deal. I don’t believe it’s rated for off road use, so it may not be useful for many in your audience, but it’s hard to beat for road use. Remove the big ring and replace it with a guard and you have a really nice 34/24 + guard.

[trevekneebone]

I have created my own Campagnolo 46/30 sub-compact from a Record Triple crankset. 46T 135bcd ring in the middle position. 30T 74bcd ring in the inner position. Of course, I can go much lower with 74bcd. To keep things looking nice, I have a chainguard in the outer position. Looks lovely 👌

[nickporter]

Glad to see Spa getting a mention! I have a set of 42/26’s from them. Excellent value and great quality crankset. Lots of other very useful stuff of their website.

[trueartvandal]

I'm in a big triple groove right now. Got a 52-42-30 on my all road bike and a classic 42-32-22 on my ATB, both used from my local co-op. Middle ring and largest cog is a good combo for max efficiency, and shifting to a smaller chainring after that as a bailout gear makes for an easy shift

[herethere]

Splurged on a Silver 2-piece 32/22 a while back and am delighted to no end. Spends most of its time on the local singletrack trails (which are expansive, technical & year-round here in Gorham, Maine thanks to our local army of NEMBA volunteers :), but also commutes/runs errands, etc. Outer guard is thick enough to bash into occasional fallen trees without issue while smooth enough to slough off my slacks with nary a tear as well, and was able to align chainline to my 11-spd BridgeClub no problem (plus included rings run 11 without issue). Paired to albatross bars (with pogies:) & microshift thumby (indexing a bit touchy with Deore, but a fraction of Shimano's 11 plus multiple adapt's: $$$). Happy, happy!
My other fav is the samox crank for direct-mount rings. May be a square taper but cost me $25 and I was able to mount a WolfTooth camo bashguard spider with elliptic s.s. ring! Sand it down and drill a few holes with shallow countersinks and it even looks retro-modern!!

[SteveSmith-bqrk]

The Sugino cranks and Stronglight chain rings from Spa Cycles are excellent and very good value too. I used them to fit a Powertap C1 power meter to a 1991 Rossin Matrix. So that's a left/right power meter on a square taper crankset with toeclips - and it works a treat! My Audax bike had a Stronglight 80 crankset running 46+32T, long before it was fashionable. Those cranks will allegedly take a 28T inner also available from Spa Cycles.

[donnyo]

Interesting video Russ, I am still running 3 x 9 on my tourer as it just refuses to fail! this has 11-36 Shimano on the rear and 42 - 32 - 22 on the front. This gives a huge range even running 29" x 50mm tyres but I rarely use the 42 apart from on the road and unloaded. I keep threatening to convert the bike to a super low two ring x 11 speed mtb setup using one of those huge rear rings but this system just keeps going!

[icenijohn]

Another option, especially if you want/need true low gears for loaded touring, is to buy older Suntour XC Pro/Expert MicroDrive cranks with the 94/56mm BCD, then you can easily achieve a 6:1 or greater overall range of gearing. I have this on my 531ST touring bike, and using a 12-34 cogset and 20/32/46 chainrings I have a 15.9" low to 103.5" high with a 6.5 overall range, just right for getting heavy loads over the mountains without destroying my knees, yet the higher gears are good for unloaded rides as well. The 56mm inner chainrings still show up on eBay, and being steel they last a very long time.

I rode across the US many years ago with a SR Apex 5TG crankset (a copy of the Stronglight 99) with 52/36 rings and a Regina 14-28 freewheel, and my knees are still hurting from that. By the time I later toured India and Nepal I was using 44/28 and 13-34, so my present gearing is just a logical evolution from that.

[PghPA]

So glad to hear you mention a 42-28 on a Salsa Vaya. I have been running a 42-28 with an 11-36 cassette on my Vaya for about 8 years putting thousands of miles on this set up including 6 loaded tours (yes of course replacing chain rings, cassettes and chains). This gearing has been perfect for me. Anything bigger than 42 teeth on a chain ring is unnecessary for party pace. Unloaded I spend most of the time in the 42 tooth chain ring and loaded I spend most of the time in the 28 tooth chain ring.

[philhouck]

I used square taper cranks for years because that was all that was available back in the 70's and 80's. When Shimano came out with Octa-link, I switched in a hurry because it was the first time I didn't have to live with "chainring wobble" that made trimming the front derailleur frequently necessary. Sadly Octa-link is history now.

If one is contemplating a crankset that uses a square taper spindle, make sure the bottom bracket and the crank are compatible. The current standard is JIS spindles and cranks that provide a more stable connection, that's to say, less wobble.

[MisterAndyS]

I splurged on the René Herse 46/30 and have no regrets. I'm at 12000 miles and still on my first set of sprockets, first cassette, second chain. These suckers are lasting!

I did recently buy a replacement 46T ring when they came in stock, just so I'll have it when I need it. I'm in the 46T 95% of the time.

[jonbingham]

The Spa cycles are a touring triple crank adapted into a super compact double with a chainguard in the outside position - great quality for the price and the square taper allows chain line to be easily adapted

[lostisleminstrel]

Thank you for talking about the tremendous overgearing on bicycles. My 1x10 has a front 34 tooth, rear 11-36. Yes it is low geared but I have spent more time in 34 11 while riding. I spends my money and want to use all those gears instead of saving them for the day I plummet off a cliff. Keep up the good work demystifying the hype.

[mattebrittenham-jones]

I just wanted to say that while I agree that the SunXCD crankset is a fantastic crankset. I have one on my Bridgestone RB-T set up 3x with the 110 BCD spider with a VO Drillium 48t, TA 36t, and an old Suntour 24t in the granny spot. I'd like to get another one to run 1x on my Gorilla Monsoon, which is how I know they are not available seemingly ANYWHERE. I really hope SunXCD does another run of them, because I love them and that 50.4/110 BCD spider is also a great piece they should make more of. With it, you can use old TA and Stronglight 50.4 bcd cranks with the vast array of 110 and 74 bcd rings on the market.

The VO Grand Cru 50.4 is a reasonable alternative, but they don't sell it without the rings, so you'll have to pay $200 and throw away the rings if you want something different than what comes on them. I wish VO would sell more chainrings, but also I wish they would sell their cranks sans rings so we could buy our preferred combo elsewhere, and I wish they would sell a 50.4 narrow/wide single ring in 38t or 40t for 1x

[CrustyRusty]

I tried the Rene Herse crankset two years ago and love it! It is a high price but the quality is unbeatable. I bought the crankset to tour, I am setup with an 8 spd cassette with 11x34. The rings I chose are a 46 and 26. Last year I was on a long tour of 8159 miles crossing the US east-west and then west-east. I carried 50 pounds of gear on my bike and the 24 tooth ring lasted 20, 000 miles before replacing. I will be touring again this year and wanted a fresh set of rings so I changed them with life still in them.