bmx cranks on a road bike?

10timesbetter

I have a single speed road bike, and was curious, if i found some bmx crankarms that were made to go on a square spindle, would they work fine on my road bike? I'm just curious because of the sprockets, a lot of the sprockets made for road bikes just look too machined and weak, for the sake of saving weight, and i'd really like to put a good sprocket on there

Spoke Stick

I was just looking into that this evening. Sorry i dont have an answer yet but ill get back to you when i figure it out. I was fixing my single speed road bike and at the same time dismantling my bmx and i was trying to fit my gt 3 piece on the road bike. as far as i could tell the spindle for my cranks wouldnt work, but they are square and i dont know if an appropriate spindle could be found.

cee3pee0

What about putting one piece BMX cranks on a road bike?? Currenty building a SS from a mid 80's Fuji Club. Coming from a BMX background, I have a crapload of older parts. I just want to build up a hack on the cheap for around town errands.

10timesbetter

I don't think 1pc cranks will fit into a euro bb, you'd have to look into that one, I'm trying to use the bmx crankarms so i can build up a stronger drivetrain, so using 1pc cranks would kinda be pointless from that aspect

Shannon Hooge

Hi,
Harris Cycling sells some Bulletproff BMX cranks for fixie/single speed, I think primarily because they can be easily had in 165mm lengths. They also aren't as spendy as some of the road cranks. Go to Sheldon Brown's site and click on the Harris link. http://www.sheldonbrown.com. They look chunky, but kinda cool.

Shannon

hippy

How many pro roadies have you seen lose a race because of cranks failure?
I've not seen any. I will take a stab and suggest that they might be producing a smidge more power than yourself?

My point is that I see no reason to use BMX cranks on a road bike, whether or not you can actually find any that will fit without modification.

__________________
hippy
http://www.thehippy.net/

10timesbetter

they're not riding a fixie through downtown traffic locking up their back wheel with the pedals, I think I give my sprocket a pretty good run,

If i had as much money as those guys, I wouldn't care about my sprocket either, but considering I could fold one in half by hand, a bmx sprocket sounds pretty good to me,

hippy

Initially you said singlespeed. I usually assume that means freewheel not
fixed.

As for being able to fold them in half with your hands - what sort of
chainrings are you talking about? I find it very hard to believe that
something other than a K-Mart bike's chainring could be folded by hand.
Also, you are not taking into account the fact that the ring is installed onto the crank spider which would make any folding almost impossible, especially since the forces on the chainring don't act in the direction needed to fold it.

As for locking up a fixie.. you're more likely to strip the threads off the hub than fold a chainring.

I'll stick to what I said - BMX chainrings aren't necessary. If you are concerned, why not run track gear? You know 1/8th chain and chainrings, rather than the road-style 3/32th.

There are heaps of people riding fixies with a 3/32 setup.
Checkout www.FixedGearGallery.com

__________________
hippy
http://www.thehippy.net/

lifehasnovalue

3 piece bmx cranks will work with most road frames as long as your not using a spyderless type crank (the kind that would take a chainwheel as opposed to a chainring)

__________________
gears make me sad...

10timesbetter

why can't you use a spiderless one? unless there's super tight clearance between the crank arm and the frame it shouldn't be a problem,

you need to check out the bottom bracket too, road bikes have square spindles, and a lot of bmx ones do too, but some of them have round ones with teeth in them, unless of course you're gonna put a bmx bb in the road frame too

illogique

hi

since i was asking myself the same question, here what i've found so far.
first i don't ride fixie, i have a cassette wheel with spacer for single speed.

if you want to change only the chainring then check
Rocket Ring BMX Chainrings
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/harris/chainrings/110.html

if you want a complete bmx crank and chainring, i found that truvativ have one that requires a 113mm wide spindle ISIS Drive Euro BB. But that require you to change your BB.

i have an Envy Exo chaingring with a Shimano DX sprocket and a Sram PC-1 singlespeed 1/8 chain.
way better than 3/32 multi-speed chain/sprocket

4112

1 piece cranks wont fit a euro bb

-because the 1 piece crank requires the large usbb in order to thread the 1 piece through

-bmx bikes are now being fitted with euro bb

-check out the haro sx 20 inch
-it has isis truvative cranks - standard

-but if a extra strong crank is what you are after
-then profile/redline are chromoly
-you can get titanium spindles for thr profiles
-the bearings and cups are extra strong
-profiles are made in all lengths
-even 150!!!!! - for the kiddies
the chain ring is the same bore as the spindle - 19mm
-profile make a dozen different styles-in all sizes from 30 to 50

some bmx cranks although looking similar, and even being euro bb
-have different sized spindles-headache
-ie fsa the pig spindles are 20mm

-etc

-there are real cheap cranksets available 30 pound up
-chromoly
PLUS - absolute bonus for you single speed boys
-YOU CAN ACTUALLY SPACE THE CHAIN RING OUT OF THE BB SHELL - TO OBTAIN A PERFECT CHAIN LINE!!!!

IEatRice4Dinner

bmx uses isis and square taper bottom brackets the old spindle and arms 3 piece cranks are still there too. an advantage i see is u have a larger gear selection you can run all the way down to a 30t front chain ring, and if use a modified rear bmx hub u can get to a 9t cog. keep relitively the same ratio and loose some weight. and it gives you something unique.

dale ditzler

i have one of the bulletproof cranks on an old mountain bike i use for a single speed beater. it's square taper, cheap and works fine. so far so good even with my 240 pounds and mashing up steep hills, though it doesn't get daily use.