The Cranky Crank

Aerozine X-12 Crank with Tioga flat pedal fitted.

This is Aerozine X-12 crank. Scores well in the look and weight department. Nothing peculiar about this crank as depicted by the picture, right?. I bought in Feb 2008. For RM260, it should be the best deal of the century. NOT!

Aerozine X-12 Crank with something not quite right.

Now take a closer look at this picture? Anything peculiar? Compare with picture 1. Come on...it's very obvious. Something is VERY wrong in picture 2. Look at the supposedly integrated shaft. Yes...the shaft is disintegrated from the crank. Something that shouldn't have happened.

From day 1 of installation, this crankset spells nothing but trouble and dissatisfaction. First, it was the frequent loosening of the left crank arm. What was thought to be a mistake on my part for not torquing it enough during installation turned out to be incorrect. The blame should go to its design. Aerozine made only a single tightening bolt to secure the left crank arm which appeared to be insufficient. Other Aerozine crank users that I know of reported similar problem.

The second problem is the disintegration of the shaft. It started of with creaking sound under hard cranking. And, just to note, I'm just an XC rider. The crank was not abused. Just a normal XC rides, which was endured fine by my LX HII crank. Initially, I thought the creaking sound cam from the pedal. I took the trouble of re-packing the bearing of the pedal coupla times. The creaking sound wont go away. It got louder instead. Still, I thought that my re-packing was not properly done, knowing how horrible my mechanical skills is. Only on the last inspection of the pedal I realized that the crank has a bit of play. I thought it was the BB. Just so happened that I have a spare BB, I wanted to replace it. Once removed from the BB, the shaft dropped, flop! from the crank. My jaw dropped in unison in total disbelief.

So, if you happen to have one of this installed onto your bike, and you are getting funny creaking sound, better check on the "integrity" of your shaft. Hopefully, your fate is better than mine.

But...all is not lost. The nicely CNCed chain rings and BB can still be used. Kinda ease my crankiness because of the cranky crank.

A closer look at the shaft. I'll keep em as a grim reminder (or maybe use it to pelt the mangy dog who like to snarl and gnarl at me)