CRANK advice needed please

[Pinhead]

I have just had two bikes fitted with 001 Bafang drives (UK)

The problem is that we have SHIMANO SLX and XT cranks which are circular fit, the Bafang is square

Is there any adapter for the Shimano please

Many thanks

 

[HumanPerson]

Can't you use the cranks that came with the bafang kits?

 

[Pinhead]

The reason is that if you see the ones we have they are 100% better and better looking check them out, not cheap black

 

[HumanPerson]

Just remember that sometimes we must go with what works

Hopefully someone that knows this will see and help here

 

[DieselTech]

Are the shimano cranks round with splines?

 

[Pinhead]

100% just a shame that I spent £120 on hem and now have Bafang

 

[DieselTech]

I think your best bet is to buy crank arms or ha

100% just a shame that I spent £120 on hem and now have Bafang

Can you swap out your bottom bracket cartridge, for the style of crank arms you purchased. That is another option I think.

 

[Pinhead]

It come with the Bafang e motor so no

 

[munirider]

No there isn't any way to adapt square taper/cotterless to Isis or vis a versa.



You used to be able to buy premium mountain unicycle cranks that were square taper but they stopped being available because mountain unicycles also went to Isis cranks except for crap unicycles, so you can still get crap unicycle crank arms.

I know this, Munirider is short for Mountain unicycle rider.

 

[munirider]

You can still find used cranks that are of high quality, also to be completely accurate. The cranks that I have are still actually bike cranks they just have a removable spider instead of it being forged and part of the crank arm. The two sets that I have like this are, Rock Werks, and KOOKA. I also have a pair of Specialized cranks that have a removable spider.

Like this set, https://www.ebay.com/itm/334986850440?hash=item4dfec5b088:g:-yoAAOSwDxdk2GGX&amdata=enc:AQAIAAABAHR9/w5RimWaXMjYg/7EYnGseBszffR6yg2fjFWaazkbTNarn2w5LQFcI76iOroXm6JgMUcsbP9dSVb7IYyXZQAEHhWBKLrFu8nZ2XKduCMsJ9rEH6kusZ7mCOzxyheH/oHv/gBLAJiawAAQHh6O4UcmK8Ev1MjQN1Rn9TBwh5Q6NQ0WbO2VUudZYv2KlD5aqpP5LTThiF0xEReojDpxhvQ4jKFQd9EMw/SkVWKkzfd6j3syTKHw2EH3nuUNXADBo92UNMxlQFAFrJXyGTjm380cI7TN5dFHMmYj7lGGUMqDjjyimrmRpkl6Ibm2zLXTpQuS/1Dw89ddnD1molcLevc=|tkp:Bk9SR9aovLTWYg

These are only 150mm. If you look at the pictures you can see that the chainring spider comes off and then the right crank is pretty much the same as the left.

So anyway you can't use your Isis cranks but you can find square taper cranks that are better than the ones that come from Bafang. That said the Bafang Cranks are actually pretty good I'm using them on one of my two bikes.

 

[m@Robertson]

As noted by Munirider, there is no such thing as an adapter to adapt ISIS crankarms to the old-school Square Taper type favored by Bafang (that is also compatible with an almost identical standard known as JIS).

You have a few options over and above the kaka bottom of the barrel quality Bafang crankarms. But before you explore them, you have to recognize that a Bafang motor often kicks out the drive side crankarm by about 18mm. To correct this, Bafang arms have a non drive side crankarm that has an 18mm outboard offset... it spreads out wide and is not straight. Gives you a much wider overall Quack Factor, but this wider stance is now centered underneath you thanks to the non drive side width correction.

By '01' motor I think you mean a BBS01? 01's don't have this issue IIRC. But trust no internet expert. Become one yourself. Measure your inside edge of your pedal (not your crankarm) over to the chainstay and see whether the measurements match side to side (I'm assuming symmetric frame design here). An extra pedal washer on one side and removing one on the other can give you a 3mm correction.

With that out of the way, what are your choices for decent crankarms? I agree the Bafang models and their various no-name clones are junk. Unicycle crankarms can be an option, but their short length is best limited to serious e-mtb's that are playing in rock gardens, or a cargo bike you really want to be easy to pedal up from a stop (I've done 165's on one and it was a neat feature).

• Lekkie Buzz Bars. Forged. Expensive. They have both offset and non-offset versions in 160 and 170mm. Self-extracting. This is the top of the line insofar as crankarms for a BBSxx is concerned. I have several sets of these, but they have gotten so expensive I have looked to alternatives in recent years.
• Shimano Steps FC-E6000 crankarms. These used to be easy to get cheap. I have a set of 170's and 175's. My 170's ran me US$50 for the pair. I got my 175's cheaper on Fleabay from someone getting rid of overstock. I see they are available individually as a right and left arm for more money. I don't want to know what shipping to the UK adds.
  Right 175mm: https://amzn.to/3rcQqAJ
  Left 175mm: https://amzn.to/44ZaaFM
  Right 170mm: https://amzn.to/3PJfPLG
  Left 170mm: https://amzn.to/3PKrYzM
• Miranda crankarms. I just replaced my Shimano 175's (one worked loose and I don't trust it) with a set of these. Self-extracting. Mind the different Quack Factors you can select. Not too expensive and seem to be of good quality. I only have a few hundred miles on one set of them. I believe these are the ones I bought. Not sure if this is the Q:width I picked.
  
  

  Delta Cranks 170 Q:8 Jis Cold-forged aluminium alloy Black Ruby for E-BIKE

  What's included: Right and left crank arms, installation bolts

  mirandabikestore.com

 

[munirider]

Interesting the Shimano Cranks that I have are Shimano Deore XT XC M750 and they are 175mm

Like these but mine aren't all scratched up. You can see they have quite a bit of Q

Shimano Deore XT FC-M750 Mountain Bike Crankset 175mm 44/32/22t Square Taper | eBay

Listed is a used Shimano Deore XT FC-M750, in good condition. They have 175mm arms, 44/32/22t rings, and are for JIS square taper. They show scratches and scuffs typical of use, but the chainrings are in good shape and the cranks have lots of life left.

www.ebay.com

I'm surprised you can still find any high quality new old stock square taper cranks like Shimano since high end bicycles haven't used square taper cranks for how long now? It seems they have now gone beyond isis splined and have hollow splines and other proprietary cranks and bottom brackets. I haven't even had a look at any new 1/12 drivetrains up close. It looks like those Delta Cranks are made for the Bafang market of people who want better than what Bafang provides.

They look nice, do the Delta Cranks also mimic the Bafang crank arms different offsets left and right?

 

[HumanPerson]

Hmmmmmm.....look into Unicycle cranks

 

[munirider]

Hmmmmmm.....look into Unicycle cranks

The problem with unicycle cranks, square taper any way is they are all crap, and they are too short. The only good quality square taper unicycle cranks were really bicycle cranks with a removable spider. They used to sell some on unicycle.com but not since all the higher quality unicycles now use isis spline. There are high quality unicycle cranks being made Kris Holm, and Nimbus are two examples but they won't work on Bafang. Look at the selection of cotterless unicycle cranks at unicycle.com they are all steel and between 75 and 150mm

Cotterless Cranks | Unicycle

Get here your unicycle cotterless cranks. We offer all types of unicycle cranks. Unicycle.com is your ultimate source for unicycle parts.

www.unicycle.com

Better to look on ebay for bmx or mountain bike cranks with a removable spider, or those Delta cranks m@robertson linked to.

 

[m@Robertson]

I'm surprised you can still find any high quality new old stock square taper cranks like Shimano since high end bicycles haven't used square taper cranks for how long now?

The cranks I listed were made for the Shimano Steps E6000 motors, which were square-taper. The motors were on the market (built into bikes) as recently as 4 years ago according to one review I googled up.

They look nice, do the Delta Cranks also mimic the Bafang crank arms different offsets left and right?

Nope. Fortunately I have two bikes with 68mm bottom brackets so the 68-73 BBSHD motors I use on them needs very little correction and I can do it with no pedal washer on one side and two on the other, bringing me within a few millimeters of center, which is close enough I can't tell.

I guess if you really wanted to you could get two sets of the Delta arms and buy them with different offsets. Chuck the unused arms, but that would take you into the same territory as a single set of Lekkie crankarms, so no point to that.

You can also use a single pedal extender. There are 16mm models out there: https://amzn.to/3PNkLz4 It seems like a goofy idea but bear in mind the goal is to center the pedals underneath you and the issue created by a single extender is purely aesthetic (which I can tell you from experience nobody notices). Still another option, only viable if your body mechanics like a wide Quack Factor like mine do, is to use two different pedal extenders. One short one on the drive side and a long one on the non drive side. A 16mm/26mm will correct pedals by 10mm. But thats not going to work for every cyclist's body by any means. Needless to say you need to do a lot of measuring to figure out if you need to do any of this at all, and results will differ on each build.