About a week ago, I went out riding with my usual group of friends and my original crank finally decided to fall apart.
The history:
The crank that I had was the FSA SL-K carbon crank and after doing a lot of research as to what happened, it seems to be a common problem with this brand of crank. While I was riding, I found it weird that I couldn't get the chain to get up on the big ring, so we pulled over and check out what happened and the bolt that hold the crank together (and also the left crank arm) was completely loose. We slowly went back to my friend's house, took the whole thing apart, cleaned, greased, and put everything back together. Started to ride and everything seemed ok until about 10 miles later, where the same exact thing happened, but this time I brough with me the 8mm allen key just in case. So I went to go tighten the bolt and it would just spin and spin. And even with the bolt in place, for some weird reason, the crank arm would just slide right over the bolt and pop out freely. The only thing that was hold it in place was my legs and feet because they were attached at the pedals... lol.
So anyway... after doing the research and seeing the problems the FSA cranks have, I decided to go with Shimano Ultegra 6700 series compact crank, BB, chain, and pedals. Chain and pedals were a gift to myself since I found them for cheap... lol. So we put everything together and we gave the crank a push in reverse to see how smooth it was and it would only make it about 1/4 to 1/2 turn before stopping, where as my friend, with the same setup, would do about 1.5 turns before stopping.
Next day, I went out for a ride and the drivetrain felt so tight and stiff. I felt that I was exerting much more force to keep that pace that I usually kept with the other crank and also got fatigued much earlier than usual. Also... when pedaling, I feel a bit of a slight resonance coming through the pedals to my feet. I read somewhere that that usually means the bearings are bad or really worn down, but this components are brand spanking new.
What could be the cause of this tightness and non-efficiency?
1. Do you guys think that the BB might be on too tight? Would that make a difference? We didn't have a torque wrench for the spec torque. I called my one other friend that is pretty handy with bikes and he mentioned that maybe we put the BB on too tight.
2. Do the BB require a certain amount of miles for break-in?
I will be ordering a BB tool (3/8 drive) that can be linked to a torque wrench so that we can torque the BB to spec and maybe (hopefully) that will fix the tight issue. Can anyone think of anything else?
Also... while on the BB tool subject... what does BBT-9, BBT-19, BBT-etc mean?
Sorry for all the questions and appreciate the help.
Thank You.
The history:
The crank that I had was the FSA SL-K carbon crank and after doing a lot of research as to what happened, it seems to be a common problem with this brand of crank. While I was riding, I found it weird that I couldn't get the chain to get up on the big ring, so we pulled over and check out what happened and the bolt that hold the crank together (and also the left crank arm) was completely loose. We slowly went back to my friend's house, took the whole thing apart, cleaned, greased, and put everything back together. Started to ride and everything seemed ok until about 10 miles later, where the same exact thing happened, but this time I brough with me the 8mm allen key just in case. So I went to go tighten the bolt and it would just spin and spin. And even with the bolt in place, for some weird reason, the crank arm would just slide right over the bolt and pop out freely. The only thing that was hold it in place was my legs and feet because they were attached at the pedals... lol.
So anyway... after doing the research and seeing the problems the FSA cranks have, I decided to go with Shimano Ultegra 6700 series compact crank, BB, chain, and pedals. Chain and pedals were a gift to myself since I found them for cheap... lol. So we put everything together and we gave the crank a push in reverse to see how smooth it was and it would only make it about 1/4 to 1/2 turn before stopping, where as my friend, with the same setup, would do about 1.5 turns before stopping.
Next day, I went out for a ride and the drivetrain felt so tight and stiff. I felt that I was exerting much more force to keep that pace that I usually kept with the other crank and also got fatigued much earlier than usual. Also... when pedaling, I feel a bit of a slight resonance coming through the pedals to my feet. I read somewhere that that usually means the bearings are bad or really worn down, but this components are brand spanking new.
What could be the cause of this tightness and non-efficiency?
1. Do you guys think that the BB might be on too tight? Would that make a difference? We didn't have a torque wrench for the spec torque. I called my one other friend that is pretty handy with bikes and he mentioned that maybe we put the BB on too tight.
2. Do the BB require a certain amount of miles for break-in?
I will be ordering a BB tool (3/8 drive) that can be linked to a torque wrench so that we can torque the BB to spec and maybe (hopefully) that will fix the tight issue. Can anyone think of anything else?
Also... while on the BB tool subject... what does BBT-9, BBT-19, BBT-etc mean?
Sorry for all the questions and appreciate the help.
Thank You.
