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SRAM cranks – they just require one 8mm Allen key to fit (The same one self-extracts). Lovely and also pretty idiot-proof… Even easier than HT2…
...apart from the 50 or 60nm torque to fasten them up. And that to get play out of them, you just need to put a bit more grease on the splines. And then there's the wavey washer, and stupid gap on the drive side designed to collect dirt. And the god-awful OEM GXP BBs which only last for a few weeks.
Otherwise, they're great 😉 (actually - the one thing going for them is that they do a 155mm NX crankset, which is great for kids. Just don't use SRAM bearings with it!)
Shimano cranks never get stuck on. That XT one i had to angle grind off because one of the hex bolts rounded must have been a figment of my imagination
To be fair, you're not the only one to round-off those bolts, which are alloy rather than steel. I have a nice bag of replacement steel bolts in the garage and they are the first thing I swap on any new HT2 crankset. Much harder to round-off then 🙂
rydster
MemberHope has always seemed like a lot of money for stuff which is mostly just cut from a billet.
You want to hear something funny? When they switched the brakes to forgings, they still kept marketing them as machined from billet, presumably because they'd spent so long convincing their fans that it was better than forging and it was embarassing to admit they'd upgraded.
So it looks like I may owe Hope an apology and accept the mea culpa...
I got the replacement axle a couple of days ago and decided to just give the things one more go. Turns out I'm a twerp and only used both bottom bracket spacers thus reducing the length the axle protrudes by enough to prevent the crank arm pushing all the way home. This is what caused the failure so I'm off to eat a decent slice of humble pie and give myself a good talking to.
Oops!
Fair play for owning up buddy. Hopefully won’t be a problem again.
Good on you for coming clean! Surprised it makes such a difference
Yeah, fair play to you for 'fessing up. At least you have the satisfaction of finding out what had gone wrong
Cranks are one of those areas where I pissed about with fancy bling shite for a while but now just stick to Shimano.
Whoops! Fair play though.
On HT2 pinch bolts, why would they round off if you are tightening them properly? Ever wondered why they are alloy?
THat's a job that steel was invented for.
Can we have ISIS back please, but with bigger external bearings.
On HT2 pinch bolts, why would they round off if you are tightening them properly? Ever wondered why they are alloy?
I would fess up to not cleaning the shite out them, getting poor engagement with an allen key then rounding off. The torque on the pinch bolts is quite high vs similar sized bolts on stems etc
D'oh! At least you know why it happened now, and kudos for owning up to your mistake.
In your defence I would say that they are fiendishly complicate to assemble correctly, so it's understandable to make a mistake.
THat’s a job that steel was invented for.
The torque on the pinch bolts is quite high vs similar sized bolts on stems etc
Do either of you use torque wrenches? Sequential tightening? I've run HT2 for about 15 years now and never once rounded a pinch bolt off. It never ceases to amaze me how much effort some people put into horsing up every little screw when several times less torque will do the job.
I admit the torque is higher than most tables specify but even then if it was detrimental failures would be commonplace.
I would fess up to not cleaning the shite out them, getting poor engagement with an allen key then rounding off.
In fairness, that's not really Shimano at fault is it?
On HT2 pinch bolts, why would they round off if you are tightening them properly? Ever wondered why they are alloy?
I think if you're undoing HT2 bolts and loosen the first bolt completely before trying to loosen the 2nd bolt, the 2nd bolt is not taking too much tension and is a lot tighter to undo. Compound that with muck/old allen key etc. and you can round it.
My buddy was an early adopter of HT2 and had exactly this issue.
I would fess up to not cleaning the shite out them, getting poor engagement with an allen key then rounding off. The torque on the pinch bolts is quite high vs similar sized bolts on stems etc
Been there done that, hacksawed the crank arm off!
But I definitely can't blame Shimano, nothing wrong with HT2
Oh yeah it's not Shimano's fault at all, HTII are a great design. I have a norbar torque wrench, a set of very nice set of allens keys and I have a fairly good level of mechanical sympathy. Sadly like most people I'm prone to the odd "hold my beer" moment where you just rush something.
Been there done that, hacksawed the crank arm off!
Couldn’t you Dremel the bolts and save the crank arm?
Honest question. The little plastic thing would be in the way, but a Dremel would happily go through that too.
Couldn’t you Dremel the bolts and save the crank arm?
Honest question.
They were old LX cranks and the bolts were quite well recessed. Whichever way I cut the bolt the cranks were going to get mangled.
I take 10 seconds to clean bolts out with a pick now!
Another failure
Approaching a small hip on a red run last night, my foot 'slipped' off the pedal during compression, looking down I was missing a crank arm! Could have been a much messier end.
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A plea to those of you who have had 1st gen cranks fail:
Would anyone like to sell me the Hope crank tools that came with them? The catch is you would have to post them to New Zealand (I'd cover the costs, obviously).
Currently I have a bike with a knackered chainring and no way to remove the cranks to replace it. Nobody in NZ or Aus, including the distributor, seems to stock the tools. Hope themselves have suggested I "Try Google, there might be some on Ebay".
Right now I'm slightly jealous of you lot who managed to remove the damn things so easily...
That's terrible. You're lucky not to be injured.
@arogers
Stick a wanted ad up matey.
That's a bit crap to say the least, that you can't get the relevant tool.
A plea to those of you who have had 1st gen cranks fail:
Would anyone like to sell me the Hope crank tools that came with them? The catch is you would have to post them to New Zealand (I’d cover the costs, obviously).
Hi Mate, Pretty sure I still have mine. Send me a private message with your email address on and I'll have a look and send over a couple of pics. If I've still got them you can have them for postage but we can sort that out over email
Carlos
Thanks Carlos, I've sent you a message.