BBSHD crank arms: How heavy duty are they?

[paxtana]

I have spoken with some BBS02 users who believed that the stock crank arms that come with a BBSxx kit have a soft metal and therefore prone to working themselves loose. They recommended crank arms designed for the Shimano STePS. Do others feel that these crank arms would benefit from replacement, or is it more a problem of improper installation? Are the stock crank arms on the BBSHD the same as the BBS02?

[Eric Luna]

the crank arms on both the bbs02 bbshd are pretty much the same and both pretty much suck.

Of course any thing created by shimano would be better.

[k_oflynn2000]

the Stock crank arms are made of chocolate i think, absolute Garbage. ive had the steel pedal work loose and strip out the soft threads many times. its a problem to find a right hand square taper crank arm thats not from bafang so i just use LH and locktite the pedal in. Works great.

[Louis]

WOW! I stand up and ride past the lycra boys on the bike path and they've held up to my 220lbs. I tighten mine up with a generous dose of Loctite blue. Same with the pedals. I did over tight one set and they got loose. A lighter hand and blue loctite works for me.

[BBSHD FSR]

I weigh about 190# and my BBS02 crank arms were both destroyed within 120mi. on the odometer.
I have never previously destroyed a crank arm on any bike I ever owned. I cut the chainring mounting spider off of a Specialized right crank, sanded, buffed, Cerakoted it Graphite Black. Mounted up those FORGED cranks, and expect them to last forever.
They are slightly more offset, but I can barely notice.
I think the damage happen when the pedals impacted sidehill rocks on single track. But all my other cranks survived that abuse for years.

[Louis]

No sooner do I comment and I get a request for replacement. What are others replacing them with?

[BBSHD FSR]

Another avenue I'm considering, is using a thread repair kit with steel nutserts. Since my friend and I have built several "power bikes", both gas and electric, we have stripped out the pedal threads on a bunch of cheap import cranks. The thread insert kit is $111 on Amazon, and comes with 6 inserts for each side, and 2 special taper-reamer-taps.
I really think using red locktite to install those would make a long lasting pedal thread repair.

[Sisyphus]

I pre-emptively replaced mine with these Schlumpf 170mm crank arms in silver (because they were way cheaper for some reason). I haven't been able to find any specifics on what they are made from, but maybe stainless steel? (I'm only guessing that because there is a stamp on the inside edge that says SSTL)

[Nelsjourney]

Both sides had to be replaced within 30 miles of me riding. I replaced them with the aluminum crank arms of my previous bike. No more problems, except now I have to cut the spider off the crankset because I keep forgetting to roll up my pants on that side which keep getting ripped.

[Louis]

I still think the Bafang are fine if torqued properly and checked on the first few rides and retorqued. 5 installs on personal bikes and twice as many on friends and customers and no fails. I'm a believer in the, installer's are the failure category.

[Lance Tesla]

Unicycle cranks are steel and cost $15 a pair....... They also come in all sorts of lengths from the standard 170/175mm down to under 100mm! I have a couple of different sizes and haven't had any problems.

http://unicycle.shopgate.com/category/3635

[Louis]

Except there are no 170MM direct replacements. Every where I've gone the 170MM are out of stock!

[JPLabs]

These appear to be in stock, but are aluminum, not steel.

Torker LX aluminum alloy unicycle crank arms - halfway down page:

http://www.seriousjuggling.com/unicycle-parts.htm

[Lance Tesla]

I can't imagine ever using long cranks on an ebike again...... A pair of 147s will let you spin faster and allow you to more easily keep up with your mid-drive. The long arms are great for putting the highest torque into a pushbike, but a BBSxx has lots of torque for most needs, it just needs a bit of help over the very worst terrain. For this, short cranks let you spin a smaller circle at a faster cadence letting you keep your drive in the higher rpm ranges where it is the most efficient.

When I had my crash I was swapping between 147mm cranks and 120mm, the shortest ones felt strange at first, but soon seem "normal" and there is certainly no issue with pedal strikes! One caveat: I ride 99.99% of the time in PAS and very rarely ever actually pedal (put torque into the chain) simply slowly rotating my feet to keep the PAS activated. I don't ebike for exercise, but instead see it as way to get outside and into the wilderness with as little effort and noise/impact as possible.

[Terry]

I have spoken with some BBS02 users who believed that the stock crank arms that come with a BBSxx kit have a soft metal and therefore prone to working themselves loose. They recommended crank arms designed for the Shimano STePS. Do others feel that these crank arms would benefit from replacement, or is it more a problem of improper installation? Are the stock crank arms on the BBSHD the same as the BBS02?

The BMX people have a huge range of square drive cranks. I fitted 145's on my wife's recumbent tadpole trike with a BBS01. I left the spider on, looks great. It's one way to get a higher cadence to keep up with the motor