The splines of the ISIS interface inside my cranks have been progressively deforming themselves during the last couple of months, and now they've reached a stage at which I'm almost afraid to ride. I'm trying to figure out what was the cause for that, the cranks have been somewhat problematic from the start (about 8 months ago). The first sign of trouble came when I was getting back home after a ride, when all of a sudden I could feel a little play in the pedal-cranks-BB assembly. At first I thought it was my new pedals which I have just bought, but a hundred meters down the road later and the driveside crank almost fell off the spindle (I checked it before the ride and it was tight). After cursing at the bike for a while I tightened the crank bolt and proceeded to return home. When I got back I removed the crank from the BB to inspect for damage, but the splines looked fine. I was spinning at a very easy gear when I noticed the play and I wasn't applying much force to the cranks, so I just put them back on without much worry. After one of the next couple of rides I did my routine check of the crank bolts, and they were not as tight as before the ride, so I decided to tighten them as hard as i could with a wrench with about a 5" handle. A week or so later I noticed some slight play even when the bolts were tightened down well, so I pulled the cranks off to check for damage again. They seemed to be okay, and after I put them back on, the play was gone, only to reappear a couple of weeks later. At some point I got pissed at them again, and removed them from the spindle once more, this time to see that the splines inside the cranks have begun to deform at the contact surface with the spindle splines. The weird thing is that the splines on the non-drive side were deformed much more than the ones on the drive side, and the non-drive side crank bolt never got loose enough to allow play in the crank/spingle interface to appear. So, as I see it, there are three possible reasons for the problem. The first is that at some point I had both bolts loose enough to cause damage. But I'm quite positive that the non-drive side bolt was never loose enough to cause play, as it was tight when the drive-side one got loose, and I checked it regularly after that. The second reason could be that I got a bit too enthusiastic with the tightening after the drive-side crank got loose. But I don't see how overtightening the bolts can damage the splines, is that possible? Lastly, the cranks could just be crap. Many people have had problems with them, although I've only heard about stripped pedal threads, not mashed ISIS splines... I'm currently considering getting 3pc cro-mo cranks, but if I knew I just did something wrong, I could buy another set of the Hussefelts and take proper care of them. I haven't had any other issues with the cranks, so if this turns out to be my mistake, they could actually be strong enough for me, and not getting 3pc cranks could save me from spending an unnecesary amount of money....
Hussefelt ISIS interface problem
- Thread starter AgentOrange
- Start date
i wanna make u a deal on some 3 peice cranks, pm me. i have some used kona bulges, if you have stuff to trade, or money, pm me, if ya dont, pm me anyway.
Sorry dude, I don't trust second hand parts made for aggressive riding if i can't check them out first, especially when the seller lives on the other end of the world and shipping would not be cheap 
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i have pics if you want, but if not its understandable.