Hey everyone, welcome back!
Unless you're buying a bike with an XX1 groupset,
more often than not the cranks you're gonna get are gonna be something like this - SRAM X1.
Are these cheaper carbons any good? Let's take a closer look!
My first X1 crank was an aluminum, 11 speed back in the days when X1 was the budget version for XX1 and X01,
it was coming with a cassette, shifter and derailleur,
but to the frustration of many new MTB buyers these days,
the X1 cranks come with a lot of X01 builds!
In case of this bike I guess I got lucky because this was an Eagle GX bike from the get-go and it did come with the X1 carbon crank.
Now while the X1 is not a series or a groupset for SRAM anymore,
if you scroll down on this SRAM crankset offerings you're going to find this, the X1 carbon DUB crankset,
which is pretty much what I have.
But you will also find this new design or new graphics for it.
Surprise surprise, not long ago SRAM introduced their carbon GX,
they're pretty much the same, what do you guys think?
You want to make it even more interesting?
Here's the GX, here's the Descendant, the Truvative Descendant crank, so Descendant, GX, X1,
if you ask me they're all the same.
They all use the new DUB spindle design and bottom brackets,
and they do use the Eagle 12 speed chainrings because these are 12 speed compatible.
Also, while X01 and XX1 come with this nicely sculpted aluminum chainring, this CNC ring,
these cheaper cranksets come with a cold forged aluminum chainring that should be a bit heavier if nothing else.
Now let me take this down to take a closer look at it.
You're going to need an 8 millimeter hex and quite a bit of leverage to remove this.
They are tightened to 54 Nm, and I have a video where I had to use this big mama pry bar to remove a DUB crankset,
I will make sure to link it in the corner.
And yes, I had to use that same pry bar to loosen this up but here it is.
Then just tap or push on the spindle to remove the left side crank.
DUB bottom brackets have a seal right here that's supposed to be blue, it was covered in gunk.
And on the drive side you also have a spacer,
just pull it out and clean everything nicely.
I also cleaned up the cranks and in the process don't be afraid, once you loosen up this preload adjuster,
don't be afraid to unscrew it all together and clean this piece of plastic.
And now you can also see the three T25 Torx bolts. So again, T25 Torx,
here's the last bolt, here comes the chainring.
And I assume you're dying to find the weight of these,
this is 170 millimeter crank, the weight is 468 grams.
If I add the chainring, that makes it 547g,
if I add the 3 bolts right here on top, here's your 552 grams.
And guess what? That is the weight of all the other cranks that we found on their website.
That is about 50 grams more than an X01 crank
and apparently the difference comes from the beefier spindle that they provide with these budget carbon cranks.
As for the chainring, the CNC chainring is 68 grams, that's a 32 tooth,
the cold forged one is 79g, or you can save an extra 10 grams
if you were to use a fancier chainring like this oval from absoluteBlack.
Crazy thing is, using the same lighter absoluteBlack chainring
on a Shimano Hollowtech II current generation, so M7100 SLX/ XT, this is 567 grams!
Guys, this is 15 grams heavier than the cheaper SRAM carbon!
So maybe that's why Shimano's not making carbon cranks?!
Here on the back you're going to see the color-coded arm length,
it's purple for 170, yellow for 175, and you do have a protective film here on the front.
You have this adjustment, preload adjustment which is now common with all the DUB based cranksets.
And here on the drive side crank arm, you can see the 8 millimeter needed to install this,
and the 54 Nm torque that is required.
I did show how to install this in a separate video, so again I'm going to link that up in the corner for you guys.
Cranks do come with a pedal washer and I recommend you guys use that,
and you also have crank boots.
Now be careful, if you were to buy new ones of these, SRAM has quite a few sizes so they are not all the same.
And this is what I decided to install on my cranks, and before I do that I'm going to use some Loctite blue on the 3 retaining bolts,
then tighten them up using a T25 Torx, 8-9 Nm as mentioned here on the original chainrings.
Do you guys have any experience using X1 cranks from SRAM?
My experience has been very good, I've used them in aluminum form, these are carbon,
I've used other SRAM cranks, carbon cranks, and I've never had issues with them.
And if you don't like the X1 here on the arm, well, remember you can buy decals
so you can make it look or say anything you want on it.
Obviously if you don't mind the extra 50 grams from an X01 to something like this.
So what do you guys think?
Good deal or not?
Are you going to be looking on Kijiji or online for fresh takeoffs of these?
Let me know what you think in the comments below,
I know for me this would always be a viable alternative.
If you found this useful don't forget to like, subscribe, keep an eye on social media,
and until next time, hope to see you folks on the trails.
Cheers guys, cheers!