Although Cane Creek is primarily known as a suspension and headset company, they’re shortly releasing the new eeWings full titanium crankset that weighs in at a mere 400 grams and costs an extremely pricey $999 (170 and 175mm lengths). The hollow arms, 30-mm spindle, pedal inserts and fixing bolts are all made of titanium and come in a beautiful brushed finish. Who can’t resist and doesn’t covet titanium parts?
Back in the mid-1990’s the Sweet Parts company produced a lightweight set of Cro-Moly cranks designed by Craig Edwards named Sweet Wings. They had integrated arms, oversized bearings, and tubular CroMo arms. The complete set, sans a chainring, weighed in at 520 grams, which is pretty amazing since they were made of steel. The tig welded Sweet Wing cranks were uber expensive and were ahead of its time, but it was prone to failure at the splined interface that held the spindle together. Although Craig is an architect by trade, he still operates EE Cycleworks and was involved in the design of the eeWings.
Even with the uber lightness of the all-titanium crankset, Cane Creek say’s that the eeWings were made for All Mountain, Trail and Enduro use and can take the punishment and hits from rocks and other trail features that happen during rough riding. They toss out numbers of being 20-30% stiffer than carbon cranks, but I’d take that with a grain of salt. Their build quality, robustness, and durability are backed up by a 10-year limited warranty, which makes the price point a lot easier to swallow.
The left side crank arm is welded onto the 30mm spindle, and the drive side arm connects to the spindle with a Hirth joint or Hirth coupling, just like the upscale Campagnolo cranksets utilize. The Hirth is a mechanical coupling between two shaft pieces and is characterized by tapered machined teeth that mesh together on end faces of each half shaft, and this design saves space and weight.
The crank arms are made from Grade 9 Ti-3Al-2.5V titanium, while the 30-mm spindle, Hirth joint, pedal inserts, and chainring interface are made from Grade 5 Ti-6Al-4V titanium.
The 30mm spindle is compatible with BSA73mm, PF92, PF89.5, BB30 (External Bearing Only), PF30 (External Bearing Only), and 392EVO bottom bracket systems. It uses their own CNC machined 7075 T-6 aluminum preload adjuster, which is available optionally for $29 and fits SRAM and Race Face 30mm spindles. For the chainring interface, it’s compatible with the X-SYNC Direct Mount system.
For further information refer to canecreek.com
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