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Control Box: Do not buy FSA brand 'RPM' or 'VERO' cranks

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    Do not buy anything that looks like this:



    1st job of the day, wait and return from Legal & General to Natwest and back. After dropping at Natwest I went to pedal onto the road, and my chain came off. I went to put it back on and realised that the chainring had folded (and took a good chunk of my downtube out), and one of the 5 crank spider arms had broken.





    Two other arms had hairline cracks in. Cue an embarrassing walk back to Legal and General, carrying the bike, then to the bike shop with the bike in my bag (the plus side of this situation is that I found out you can use a messenger bag to carry a on your back). I've never crashed on that side of the bike and I've only had the cranks about a year. These are pussy cranks, not designed to withstand the stresses of riding everyday on a fixed wheel bike, or any bike for that matter.
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    Let us know whether you get a warranty on these. You should.
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    Hmmm... not sure who to send it to.


    The cranks come with the Pearson Touche that I bought. The drive side arm of the original set kept coming loose no matter how hard I tightened it, so I thought I must have fucked them up by not tightening them up properly in the first place, so I bought a new pair (although the day that I bought the new pair, the old pair stopped coming loose - its a conspiracy to make me buy more cranks). It is the new pair that completely destructified. I don't have a reciept for them. Do I send them back to Pearson and claim that they're the original cranks, or do I get the bike shop to write a reciept with a an approximate date on it then send them to whoever deals with FSA in this country... Or should the shop just give me a new pair? He's already replaced the frame I broke, so I'd feel a bit dodgy asking him to give me new cranks for free as well...
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    I almost brought a set of those arms, figuring they were made for BMX so they should be tough. Guess I should pop for the Sugino's depending on how much money I have left from a needed big ticket item.
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    A good way to spot crappy cranks is if the different sizing is done by drilling the pedal hole slightly further down the arm.
    Those RPM's look like they could get 175's out of the same mould.
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      CommentAuthorJanky
    • CommentTimeNov 2nd 2008 edited
     
    Some people will swear that "brand x" never breaks, but I have seen heaps of different brand aluminium cranks come through shops I have been working in cracked. Shimano hollowtech (almost killed me) tons of 70s campag and shimano, shimano Dura ace square taper, Sugino 75 (takes a while) and almost every cheap crank on the planet.. If you are heavy or ride it hard enough for long enough it will break, the better stuff just takes longer. Some will never break anything because they are light and/or smooth, but this does not describe very many couriers. Next time you get stuck on standbye, look yer bike over. I think I have resigned myself to buying new alloy components (handlebars, cranks, seatposts) every couple years just to avoid problems.

    here are some pictures of various failures
    http://pardo.net/bike/pic/fail-001/000.html
    http://pardo.net/bike/pic/fail-001/FAIL-001.html
    http://pardo.net/bike/pic/index.html

    the article on spinergy wheels is disturbing.. when they do go wrong, it is way worse than just a taco-ed wheel. almost as bad as having your fork shear off in Milport.
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    Time to go for chromoly / beefier alloy bmx cranks (profile, primo etc)?

    I've seen bmxers break them but would a courier break them, I doubt it...
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    another way to spot crappy cranks is to think about how much you pay for them.

    about 30 quid for RPMs, so you can't really expect them to be up to daily use and abuse on circuit.
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    Yeah you're right, but on the plus side, they were only £30 (I paid £42 with bottom bracket for a set)

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