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Gettin' cranky

Sandwich

Sandwich

Pig my fish!
Staff member
May 23, 2002
21,676
6,900
borcester rhymes
help me make up my mind:

I know the new saints are the be-all end-all of downhill cranks, but the Atlas FR comes in anodized purple. They're about the same price, with the Atlas coming in slightly cheaper, for arms and BB only.

I really really want that chi chi purple stuff. Am I setting myself up for epic fail?
 
Uncle Cliffy

Uncle Cliffy

Turbo Monkey
Jan 28, 2008
4,490
42
Southern Oregon
That's funny. I have a chance to get a set for cheap and I've been on the fence about getting them too. (I also dig the purple. Matching Sunline bars would be pretty flossy.)
 
D

davep

Turbo Monkey
Jan 7, 2005
3,276
0
seattle
If you dont need to take them off, they will be fine. :disgust:


The arms are plenty strong...it is just the interface that sucks. Repeated on/off cycles will wear the interface and leave you with inopperable cranks in my experience (2X diabolus, 1X atlas, sold the last warranty pair of each after that....). Each lasted ~4 instal cycles. This same interface is IMO the cause of the bad rep for bbs. It is nearly impossible to not overload the bearings while reefing the crank bolt to bottoming as required.


Get the saints, watch a video of old, crappy, 80s disco sh1te colors if you need........
 
miuan

miuan

Monkey
Jan 12, 2007
395
0
Bratislava, Slovakia
davep said:
If you dont need to take them off, they will be fine. :disgust:need........
Click to expand...
Yeah exactly. Basically the X-type interface combines 2 issues commonly found on cranks:
1. wearing crank/BB spline
2. incorrecly preloaded bearings
As the spline wears, you have to tighten it more and more, thus overtightening the bearings. Plus you can't choose the preload amount since the shims are too wide to let you remove one of them just cause your spline wore 0.2mm or so. You would probably kill any other BB this way, nothing wrong with RF I believe. If the purple is so much important, do your best to install the cranks at first attempt and don't touch it afterwards. That's what most of us do afterall, so RF still keep making the stupid design.
 
w00dy

w00dy

In heaven there is no beer
Jun 18, 2004
3,417
52
that's why we drink it here
no skid marks said:
LOL, yeah those cranks look great. Square wheels would look cool to, but I wouldn't run them. To me looks should come second to performance.
Click to expand...
Whoa there, Debbie Downer. Just trying to show some love for our mountain bike heritage. Of course performance is first, but it's not a real mountain bike unless there's ano purple on it somewhere. You can't see it from the pictures, but I'm running purple cable ends. It's a tradition, a tribute and a lighthearted joke at the past of the sport, not a fashion statement. Sandrew started the thread to ask about the durability of the Race Face before he bought something based on looks. You can't fault him on that.
 
Sandwich

Sandwich

Pig my fish!
Staff member
May 23, 2002
21,676
6,900
borcester rhymes
It's a fine line between overkill and just goofy enough. I actually like those wheels, but I don't want to completely purpleize the bike. I may end up picking up some I9s, but hopefully they'll be gold.

Sorry to hear that the RF interface is sub par. I had hoped they would have figured it out. Looks like I'll have to 3d violet something else.

For what it's worth, I'm around 195-200.
 
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