11/22/14 6:14 PM

I bought a pair of these for one of my touring bikes, and have been quite favorably impressed. They're made in the UK, are available in multiple lengths, and use a separate spider that bolts to the back of the RH crankarm. You can get four- or five-arm spiders for most bolt circles (94, 104, 110, 130), or you can use (as I have on this crank) their own chainrings, where the small chainring acts as the spider and the large chainring mounts to it. And in spite of being quite light - I weighed these at 558g including the 42t and 29t chainrings - they're pretty stiff: I don't see any wander of the chainrings at all when riding out of the saddle.

These are Middleburn RS7 cranks, and when mounted on a Phil Wood 103mm square taper BB, give me a pretty perfect 45mm chainline for the 135mm OLD rear hub on the tourer.

11/22/14 7:36 PM

...for them to come out with the external BB crank that they promised a couple of years ago. I love the idea of interchangeable spiders so I can use MTB gearing on a road crank. So far, nothing.

11/22/14 8:17 PM

They do make an external BB crank called the RS8, but for MTB rather than road, so presumably the chainline would be too wide: http://activesport.co.uk/shop/article_RS8XTYPE-041/MiddleBurn-RS8-X-Type-External-Crank-Arms-_-Spider-68_73mm.html . The RS7 cranks I have are also for MTB, but as it's square taper I could get the chainline I wanted by using a 103mm BB rather than the 113mm they recommend for MTB use.

For an external BB road crank that can take small chainrings, the Sugino OX801D is probably your best bet...

11/23/14 3:32 AM

Doesn't the bump out in the middle rub your shoe?

11/23/14 1:59 PM

That's just a bit of an optical illusion. Here's a shot showing the profile of the cranks: