Carbon cranks (of any brand) overrated?

[nbfman]

Yes. I had one on my Holdsworth ... it was one of the many 144BCD Campy compatible cranksets which were available -- i.e., it was basically a 'copy' of the Campagnolo (Nuovo) Record Strada crankset which is possibly why you thought it "looked ok at the time."

They STILL look good, IMO.

I still think they look great, too. Never owned one myself, but a friend had it on his Nishiki Professional. That bike is engrained in my memory as one of the coolest machines I'd seen at that time. BTW, Holdsworths were cool, too.

 

[Bigbananabike]

Re telling the diff between materials - my friend who has the carbon crankset says he can feel it flexing in comparison to the two alloy sets he has on other bikes.
He is a very strong rider.

What is wrong with Octalink & ISIS (I have both)?

NOBODY can really tell the difference from one crank material stiffness to another. They are 'feeling' other things if they are feeling anything at all. Same with all the hype about ceramic bearings. Crank is there to turn the chain to the rear wheel to propel the bike. 'Overrated' in that nobody needs a multi hundred dollar carbon crank to rotate the chain. Bearing design has evolved because of poor design in the past(octalink and isis). Way too much ado about bike parts these days but in a flat market, gadgets get recognized, talked about(in mags and in web sites) and then sold.

 

[Bigbananabike]

My oldest cranks are on my 'race' bike. Shimano 600 square taper. Its what I could afford at the time I had it built up and I've never seen the need to replace them. They perform fine for the 9 speed set up