The Analyzer Presents: Top Fuel Diet Series – Crankset & BB
Have you ever seen those Facebook contests that are like “Share/Like this post for a chance to win XYZ”? Yeah, me too. I pretty much ignore them cause I figure it’s a scam or ploy to get my personal information or something, call me a pessimist. Anyhow, a while back I saw the folks at Rock & Road Bike shop in Weston were doing a contest around Fakawi, so I figured I’d give it a shot because at least I know those guys are legit. After an epic day at Fakawi I was exhausted, so we missed the Fakawi after party at the shop, but as I was driving my phone started blowing up with people telling me I’d won. My first thought was “what was the prize again?”, as I remembered it was something awesome but couldn’t remember what. Turns out it was only one of the lightest MTB cranksets on the market, the Race Face Next SL G4 crankset. WHAT?!?!
While a crankset like this was on my dream wish list, it’s a bit hard to justify when your bike already has a SRAM Carbon XO1 crankset. One thing I had planned on doing was going from a 32t ring to a 34t ring, so I guess this is one way to do that. Picking it up at Rock and Road confirmed in fact that this was a real contest and not some sort of Facebook scam thingy, and the guys down there were so great. Big shout out to Rock and Road, definitely stop by next time you’re at Markham Park and check em out. I got home and of course immediately put it on the scale. With a 34t Direct mount ring, the crankset came in at a feathery 439g.
One cool feature of these cranks is integrated crank boots to keep rocks and roots from scratching up your fancy new cranks, which come in at 12g. Since the stock crankset uses a 24mm spindle and this crankset uses a 30mm spindle, that means a new bottom bracket as well. After over 1000 miles of racing and riding, that maintenance item was up on the docket anyhow, so I picked up a new Race Face Cinch BB92 designed for 30mm spindle cranks, coming in at 71g.
As I don’t have a bottom bracket puller or press, I dropped the bike and new parts off to my guys at Beyond Bikes and left the job to the experts. It was tempting to get the tools and do it myself, because who doesn’t want more tools? However I know press fit bottom brackets are often a source of creaking, and so I didn’t want to leave that up to my amateur skills.
I picked the bike and old crankset up from the shop and was just floored at how good it looks. Putting the old SRAM Carbon XO1 crankset on the scale showed a weight of 653 grams with a Steel 32t ring on it. The old PF92 bottom bracket was pretty close to the new setup at 83 grams.
So saving 202 grams on the crankset and 12 on the bottom bracket gives us a 214 grams savings for the crankset upgrade. That brings the bike down to 22.77 pounds. While the fact that I won this throws off the cost per gram below, in actuality it would have worked out to $2.23 per gram ($450 / 202 grams).
| Part | Weight | Difference | Price | $/gram |
| Carbon 34.9mm Clamp (eBay) | 12g | 17g | $20 | $1.18 / g |
| 2x Ashima Ai2 Rotors | 139g | 84g | $40 | $0.48 / g |
| Delete Remote Lockout | 0g | 118g | $0 | N/A |
| Mt Zoom 720mm Flat Bars | 138g | 41g | $90 | $2.20 / g |
| Trim Steerer | 0g | 15g | $0 | N/A |
| Mt Zoom Top Cap | 5g | 10g | $10 | $2 / g |
| Race Face Next SL G4 – 34t & crank boots | 451g | 202g | $0 | N/A |
| Race Face PF92 Bottom Bracket | 71g | 12g | $51 | $4.25 / g |
| Total | 499g | $211 | $0.42 / g |
