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Question: Crank Spacers

Axis

Monkey
Jun 9, 2004
471
0
DO I need to have the metal washer that sits between my madera cranks and the cone spacer? Can I just remove them? If I do remove them I won't have any clearance with the bolts hitting the spindle, just checking.
 

BikeSATORI

Monkey
Apr 13, 2007
720
0
one world...
usually the only reason you would have spacers in there is to make sure your arms clear your chainstays... and to keep the non-drive arm spaced out the same as the drive-side with the sprocket...

just spin your crank arms and try to get them a nice equal distance from your chainstays. Pretty easy to tell.

and like you mentioned, to keep your crank pre-load bolts from bottoming out on the spindle...
 

Axis

Monkey
Jun 9, 2004
471
0
usually the only reason you would have spacers in there is to make sure your arms clear your chainstays... and to keep the non-drive arm spaced out the same as the drive-side with the sprocket...

just spin your crank arms and try to get them a nice equal distance from your chainstays. Pretty easy to tell.

and like you mentioned, to keep your crank pre-load bolts from bottoming out on the spindle...
OK thanks. I was concerned that the cone spacers wouldn't deal with the compression from the crank arm directly against it. I wasn't sure what they were made out of. I installed the fsa ti spindle and everything lined up great and fit well. I dropped a half a pound off of my Molly!

I am replacing my gen2 with a gen4 in the next few days and that should drop another 3/4 to a pound off too.
 

Cru Jones

Turbo Monkey
Sep 2, 2006
3,025
2
Hell Track
OK thanks. I was concerned that the cone spacers wouldn't deal with the compression from the crank arm directly against it. I wasn't sure what they were made out of. I installed the fsa ti spindle and everything lined up great and fit well. I dropped a half a pound off of my Molly!

I am replacing my gen2 with a gen4 in the next few days and that should drop another 3/4 to a pound off too.
Sounds rad. Post up pics when it's done!!
 

BikeSATORI

Monkey
Apr 13, 2007
720
0
one world...
OK thanks. I was concerned that the cone spacers wouldn't deal with the compression from the crank arm directly against it. I wasn't sure what they were made out of. I installed the fsa ti spindle and everything lined up great and fit well. I dropped a half a pound off of my Molly!

I am replacing my gen2 with a gen4 in the next few days and that should drop another 3/4 to a pound off too.

yeah, you should be all good with the arm next to the cone spacer, actually that set-up is ideal, that's why they now make cone spacers of different sizes, so you can have a skinny behind the sprocket, and a fatty on the non-drive side.

And that's awesome, the Gen 4's are dialed... almost decided to get one while they had 990's left, but I was too late apparantly... decided to mod my trusty ol' Gen 1 instead, but I'm happy.
 

Axis

Monkey
Jun 9, 2004
471
0
Oh your mods are rad! I really like what you did.

990s... yeah I agree much better brake choice.
 

Mr Tiles

I'm a beer snob
Nov 10, 2003
3,469
0
L-town ya'll
my stricker is sooo weird with the cone spacers. I got a fat one on the non-drive and non on the drive...it just worked out that way...
 

DirtBag

Monkey
Feb 1, 2006
648
0
The FSA Ti spindle is stupid light. Much lighter than the Profile, as they are hollow. Great weight savings.

I wish I could use a FSA but I need a 5.75". BikeSATORI knows my situation :busted:. Waiting for the Shadow Torrid Ti spindle to get back into stock.

I actually removed the cone spacer on the drive side so I could slam the Tree splined chainring as close as possible to gain more spindle/crank overlap. Just a small spacer between the chainring and the BB bearing.
 

Axis

Monkey
Jun 9, 2004
471
0
The FSA Ti spindle is stupid light. Much lighter than the Profile, as they are hollow. Great weight savings.
Just an FYI. The guy sent me a BB and the long threaded bolts you install with a socket wrench. These bolts saved my a$$.

OK so I tried two different crank tools to get the arms on all the way but I couldn't get the arms to snug up the last 4mm on each side no matter how hard I tried even with a breaker bar.

So... I pulled the tool off and checked to see if the tool was bottoming out on the crank and spindle. Nope or at least it really didn't look like it.

Then I gave up and noticed the super long heavy "cheap" bolts for the arms and thought what the heck.

Threaded them in and got the wrench, everything went together perfectly with the right amount of "feel" for the torque.

Perhaps try some of these bolts on your profile? I just reused my flush profile 5.5mm bolts anyways.
 

DirtBag

Monkey
Feb 1, 2006
648
0
That's good that you were able to get them on. I could not get my cranks past 1/2" onto the spindle. The Profile spindle measures about 0.3mm larger diameter than the Shadow spindle. For now I will wait for the Torrid Ti spindle to get back in stock.
 

Stoked

Turbo Monkey
Nov 28, 2004
1,809
1
LI, NY
yeah, you should be all good with the arm next to the cone spacer, actually that set-up is ideal, that's why they now make cone spacers of different sizes, so you can have a skinny behind the sprocket, and a fatty on the non-drive side.
really, who makes the different sized cones? profile?
 

BikeSATORI

Monkey
Apr 13, 2007
720
0
one world...
really, who makes the different sized cones? profile?
oh sorry, didn't mean to say one specific company makes several different sizes... that wasn't what I was trying to say.
...although I do have several different cone spacers from Fly that are all different sizes, the newest versions (cnc grooved look) have a super fat one and a medium sized one (I had to grind down actually for the fatter Tree Lite), and I also have several of the old simple cone spacers with a printed old school fly logo which consists of a medium sized one, and a super super skinny one, almost just like a fat washer with a hair of taper on one side.

But what my original point was aimed at saying was that most bb sets now all come with 2 cones spacers of different widths, one meant for drive side and one meant for non-drive side, or the other way around, using only the skinny if space is tight. Having these two different sizes should essentialy eliminate the need for any other regular washers as spacers on the outside... :clapping: