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Felt a bit of knocking from my cranks, checked to see if the pedals had play in the bearings. Nope. Both pedals inserts are visibly loose in the cranks. They’re a few years old now and not sure I have proof of purchase still. What’s the warranty like on these?!
Lifetime for the original owner I believe. You still ha e the receipt don’t you...
My riding buddy just just had to warranty his Next SLs as the metal cinch insert worked loose on the drive side
Ah- just read the bit about not having proof of purchase!
I've had 3 sets of Next SL all go the same way. Now on Next R's as they're stronger apparently. Time will tell I guess!
Credit card/bank statement would do as proof of purchase.
Lifetime of the crank for the original owner
That's what the website indicates for their top end alloy cranks, couldn't find anything on carbon, but its a starting point i guess
Mine went back recently at just under two years. I thought it was lifetime but retailer seemed to think it was two years. Cranks were replaced but technically, the original warranty stands so the replacements would only have a matter of months on them. Pretty shit really.
Swapped for turbines
Ironically the best crank RF make these days is the Aeffect, while their really expensive ones are all shit. What annoys me is people always go "oh, carbon"- there's nothing wrong with carbon, it's just that they make really bad carbon cranks. (source: broke 2 sets of Next SLs)
On the bright side, I have some decade old XTRs that weigh about the same as Sixcs and aren't made of rotten sticks.
I got my money back when my 3rd set of Sixc failed with the same pedal insert issue. Great cranks when working. But too fragile I’m afraid.
I’ve accepted I’ll just have to buy some new ALUMINIUM cranks. The carbon SRAM ones on my other bike have been fine for 3 years.
I'll be sticking with my Turbines then....
I just bought some new Atlas cranks for my new build. I have never had any carbon cranks due to posts like this one but I have had plenty of RF alloy cranks and never had any problems.
Anyone ever just Epoxied them back in if they've bought them 2nd hand and can't get them warrantied? Lots of good adhesives available for such a job. . . . . .
I had thought about it, if only because I have experience of dealing with epoxy and carbon and have a load of epoxy still within date. However in the end I asked. CRC for my money back. If I had of bought them used then 100% I would glue them
Race Face carbon crank warranty period is 3 years.
"Lifetime" warranty of any product means the lifetime of the product, which I would expect a manufacturer to state as 3-5 years maximum for any cranks but it's probably their decision on a case by case basis.
I don’t think I fancy glueing them, I don’t think I’d trust myself to do a job that I would trust! They’ll go in the bin.
Thing about gluing them is if it fails you just get the fault back that you had before, which in this case is generally rattly pedals.
I have visions of the whole lot disintegrating on a downhill leading to a spell in an NHS facility. I’m fairly weighty (14.5 stone) so not sure how confident I’d be in a shonky weight bearing component that directly prevents my nads interfacing with my top tube......
Coming back to this thread what glue would people recommend? I've a set that's also bitten the dust and out of warranty as brought when it wasn't lifetime (apparently changed soon after so LBS is seeing if they can do something but not hopeful).
Get a West or SP Epoxy resin handy pack from a Dinghy chandlers, also buy some colloidal silica to thicken slightly. Don’t buy B&Q epoxy or araldite it’s not the same thing. Worth buying the proper stuff. I actually think a proper epoxy repair will last as well as the original job at least!
I’ve glued a set of the RF Next ones.
<div>I used West System Epoxy 105/205. It’s low viscosity so flows into small gaps easily, although I also drilled 3mm holes into the end of each crank as far as the insert and injected glue under pressure. I don’t think that was necessary though. Any hi flow epoxy should work.</div>
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<div>I cleaned everything up first by spraying disc brake cleaner into the cranks around the inserts and letting it dry fully.</div>
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<div>I put glue around the face of the insert, making sure to keep the threads clean, and let it run through the crank to the other side. I didn’t attempt to remove the inserts.</div>
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<div>It worked on my RF cranks but I also have some SRAM ones with the same problem but couldn’t get those to glue. I think the looser the inserts the better as you can get the glue in better.</div>
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<div>As Northwind says, the worst that can happen is you end up with the same problem. They are unlikely to explode in a ball of fire.</div>
Thanks. Off to google.
Epoxy ordered.....
Right, West System epoxy mini kit has arrived. @hamishthecat-what process did you follow? Any tips from anyone on the best way forward?
^^
Might be worth PMing him mate, in case he misses this post.
Ta, I dropped him a pm so will see what he comes back with.
Evenin
Sorry, missed the pm. There’s not a lot more I would add to the earlier post - which was actually something I sent to someone who also pm’d me on the same subject.
My glueing effort was successful on cranks where the inserts were quite loose so there was space for the epoxy to flow in. I didn’t bother with the colloidal silica as I wanted it as liquid as possible.
I made sure nothing got on the threads and had the epoxy go off next to the wood burner. (#STW)
Good luck!
Thanks! Hopefully it’ll work. Drilled 3x 3mm holes at 90 degrees round the bottom of the crank into the insert and pumped epoxy in with a syringe. Also applied it to the faces of the inserts and moved them about to encourage the epoxy into the gaps. Time will tell!
Keep us updated bud!
Well the repair seems to have worked! No sign of any movement at all and I’ve given them some proper hammer! Result! Thanks for the advice folks 😀
Excellent!
I have the same issue with the drive side insert loose on my sixc drive side crank arm.
I've already had the same issue a few years ago just after purchasing the bike and canyon sent me a whole new crankset. The warranty is up this time unfortunately.
Wondering if you could give another update on how the repair is going before I order the epoxy?
Also where exactly did you drill the 3mm holes on the crank arm to put the epoxy in?
Cheers in advance
Sorry I missed this-repair still holding up fine. I drilled the holes in the outside edge of the crank, not the face if that makes sense. I did one at he very top, and the other two at right angles. Think the biggest benefit was dribbling the epoxy into the loose insert at the front and back. Worth making the epoxy as runny as possible.
Another update. Had a massive crash that cracked the pedal cage. The insert is still solid as a rock! Happy days.
Still going strong!
I'm wondering if pedal type - flats vs spuds - makes a difference here.
I'm on spuds and my SIXCs have been fine - three years in.
Left crank has debonded again, right hand side still fine. Re-drilled and epoxied so fingers crossed it’ll be fixed again.
Fix didn’t work-might be new crank time
Ah, that's a pain in the rear mate.
Does anyone want to buy a SixC non drive side arm? A few days ago I noticed my pedal was wobbly and checking confirmed the insert has separated from the carbon and the cranks are just out of warranty. I tried my luck with a goodwill gesture from raceface as it seems such a common problem but they said no.
Alloy cranks from now on for me then. The SixC's were a warranty replacement from an older set of SixC's and have only done 600 ish (admittedly hard) miles.
I have ordered some purple hope cranks as the replacement.
I'd stick it on the Classifieds/ eBay mate. Someone somewhere is bound to want it.
My Next SLs died yesterday in the same way and I'm tempted to try this repair. @kneebiscuit have you got any idea why the second repair didn't work? Also, someone mentioned the looser the better earlier in the thread - is it worth riding it a bit more (pootling around town maybe) to loosen it up more to allow more space for the epoxy?
Personally I think the best way to repair it would be to drill out the pedal threads and insert a top hat shaped insert with new pedal threads in them from the rear, with a large washer on the pedal axle. Effectively a chainring bolt for the pedals that would clamp either side of the arm. Unfortunately that would involve a friendly machinist and I don't know any.
If you epoxy the inserts try warming cranks first and using a hair dryer to warm the epoxy to get it to flow into the gaps more easily... its what people do on snowboard repairs... was gonna do it myself on some FSA cranks but windwaves lifetime warranty was a proper one... new cranks bb and rings too!
I was tempted to fix mine- after all I ended up with 2 broken sets, thanks Raceface. But then I realised that even if the repair is perfect, all the unfailed bonds are still waiting to fail. And then I stuck 'em on a set of scales and realised they're barely any lighter than my ancient XTRs. So the only real drawback of going back to fantastically reliable metal cranks is losing the ability to fit a tiny ring, so I did that.
(35g difference incidentally between a 32T Sixc with Raceface ring, and a 32T M970 with Raceface ring and steel bolts, a little less if you go ti. Doesn't look as nice, but will work for decades and uses a proper 24mm BB)
It's just not worth the hassle of another messed up ride. Mine managed to mess with a race I'd been looking forward to for 6 months and then cause a massive stress and annoying unplanned expense in the middle of a bike holiday, sod that.
@munrobiker- No idea why the second repair failed, I suspect there was not enough contact between the epoxy and the insert, but its all in the bin now so who knows. I don't think my prep was ever great either-if someone with more patience than me had a crack at it they'd arguably do a much better and long lasting job. I was about 100kg too, and fairly indelicate/useless in my riding style, so that probably had something to do with it too.
If anyone is in need of a Left Hand RaceFace Next R Crank (175) then I have one. Or alternatively if someone has a Right Hand Crank that they would like to offload then I am interested. As you have possibly guessed I have damaged my cranks 🙂
smashed the pedal into a rock at high speed - probably would have killed any crank to be fair - thought I had broken my toes at the time!
Not looking for big money (or to pay big money) - Its clear from this thread that the cranks are not up to much but better than having it sat there idle 🙂