FSA Pro Carbon Track Crankset

My new bike came with a set of these:

Which have been fine- however:

I popped into Scurgery yesterday and had a chat with the guys there, and they were of the opinion that it was a case of when, not if, they failed.

Does anyone else have any experience of these cranks?

If they were failing that regularly then FSA would recall them. They haven't so it would suggest the guys in Scurgery are talking out of their arses.

Hippy has some experience of FSA track cranks.

I doubt very much they're going to fail as a matter of course. What would break? The ring? The spider? The arms? Sounds like the same sort of bollox as when people say 531 steel is the best frame material, uneducated internet drivel creeping into the real world IMO. I'd have more confidence in these than a set of Campag cranks from the 60's.

I've used the Vigorellis and they've been fine but I don't skid much and I used a torque wrench to fit them correctly. I have these same cranks above but they are still unused in the cupboard..

Maybe they meant 'when rather than if' in the widest possible timeframe. Like 50,000 years.

It's just the same old bullshit like 531 is awesome.. because they're not square taper they must be evil.

Apparently the axle insert is bonded into the arm, and the bonding fails.

This leaves one in the invidious position of cycling along with a crank and pedal assembly attached to one of your shoes, but not the bike.

i've seen a pic of them breaking, can't remember where though

I've seen pics of lots of cranks breaking..

http://pardo.net/pardo/bike/pic/fail/FAIL-001.html

As Hippy has a pair which have been fine I am tempted to file this under "meh", just thought I would ask for opinions.

Hippy currently has 20kgs+ on me, which is a good sign in terms of crank strength I would think.

How did these work out? I'm after buying a pair as they look fucking awesome. Reckon they'd be alright for pure track riding and not hopping around or whatever?

I have a cheapy cheapy link if you're interested

Let's see that link Dov! Just built up my new frame and my current cranks doubled the weight of the bike...

Oh hellz yeah - link me right up.

638g complete with BB, that bloody light. The 75's on my track bike are 900g including BB.

Stiff they maybe, but stong? I'm not so sure.

I had a pair of the older Vigorelli's once, with a carbon disc to hold the ring instead of a spider.

The retaining bolt had loosened slightly and the splines in the carbon disc which interfaced with the drive side crank developed wear, which resulted in a little play in the crank. Apparently this was a design flaw.

I borrowed a big socket, removed the retaining bolt, cleaned out the splines and teeth, filled the worn gaps with a little JB Weld and torqued the hell out of the retaining bolt. The epoxy set solid, and the cranks were bombproof after that. Call me a charlatan, but there is a time and a place for things like epoxy and if applied sensibly it's quite legit. Joining a snapped handlebar, no. Filling small voids, to be suject to compressive stress - fine. Sorry the inner engineer came out a little there.

Your new Vigorellis look to be a slightly different design though...

Olly

Link.

My best offer of $147.50 was accepted. That is £97.86 in real money. Marked down the item so no charges too.

Ha - that's the item I was looking at which sparked my interest as to performance. I'll take it!

I had those (well double on my roadbike) they were excellent. Havent heard of anyone whos broken them

I have a set on the british leyland. they slip a degree or so (not fail), as the spider is not perfectly bonded to the crank arm.

if I was really bothered I would send them off for repair / replacement.

^pirat: aah the fort or? hmm i liked it.

I had those (well double on my roadbike) they were excellent. Havent heard of anyone whos broken them

My girlfriend is on her second pair of the road versions due to the first ones failing.

Sorry for digging up this old thread but I bought a Fuji track pro from 2009 and it came with these cranks.

Does anyone know if these are strong and still save to use? I'm a heavy guy...

Dibs