New crank?

[Doug Van Cleve]

Howdy folks.

Have there been any pics or any info (other than it’s less chunky) about this new crank set that’s coming out?

Thanks, Doug

[Johnny Alien]

I have zero info but I am excited to see what they are like. The only thing keeping me from using the Silver crankset is the chonkiness. I stuck with Sugino even though the Silver has some better features mainly because of looks.

[Michael Baquerizo]

agree on it's chunkiness, i thought it was funny will suggested the current silver crank wasnt all that chunky. it has grown on me though, like a lot of things seen over and over again.

[Garth]

I ended up ordering the Andel RSC6 110/74 silver crank arms directly from Andel in Taiwan. I ride 150mm, and these come in a huge variety of lengths. They are the silver crank that formerly came with some Surly bikes before they went to the dark theme of recent, and they're sold in America in gloss black as the Dimension Cross Cranks. I love the regular 5 arm design.

Riv likely wouldn't import these because they're not subjectively narrow enough in tread width for them. I measure about 169mm width as a triple with a 115mm BB.  The funny thing is, I read all that jazz from GP about the virtues of the narrow tread width, and bought into it.  In reality though, I like the width of the RSC6 as a triple. It's notably stiffer than an XD, which again, is one of those Riv favorites that I bought in to, but didn't find them so great. If the standard for svelte is a TA Cyclotourist, then the RSC6 wouldn't be that. Andel has other cranks though that are svelte and narrow, and who do think makes many of the boutique brands of cranks, including the Riv Silver ? That'd be Andel. So who knows if the new Riv crank with be made by Andel or not, or a rebranded Andel from their vast catalog or something else. 

[John S]

Doug - There's more info, including a schematic, in the 8/25/22 "Blahg." It's near the end.

https://www.rivbike.com/blogs/grant-petersens-blog/done-done-wrong-proably-still-doing-wrong

[Johnny Alien]

I had missed that. The drawing looks really nice! 

[Garth]

Oh, the print from the blog post about the upcoming crank, it comes with "conditions" ? It appears like the underestimating of the Susie. It's not like once the crank is sold they have any say in how it's used. For sure there's lots people who want the crank for their bikes that include off road riding.

 It's lighter, skinnier, weaker, not for off-road use and big riders off the saddle standing on pedals, concentrating 3x their weight and threatening to rip out the end of the crank at the pedal hole. It's for road riding. where you'll certainly stand on the pedals when you're climbing off the saddle and airing out yourr crotch on smooth gradual descents, but not while you're riding big bumps, and you aren't going to ride off ledges or do anything of the sort. The current all-purpose Silver crank is lighter than it looks, thanks to a scooped-out back of the arm. It's about a cm wider than this one. The original passes the ISO Mtn Bike test, which assumes a certain amount of weight and reckless riding. This one probably won't, but it will pass (it shall be tested and we'll change it if doesn't), the ISO Road test. It's a 110/74 bolt pattern, same as now, same as the XD-2, same as the mtb cranks of the '80s and probably '90s, too. Rings widely available, but local bike shops probably won't stock them. They know where they can get them, lots of sources.

[Bill Lindsay]

I agree that it looks really nice.  I'd upgrade my Quickbeam from a Silver 1 to a Silver 2, since my Quickbeam never gets an abusive off-road beating.  

BL in EC