Curious as to what people are experiencing with Rotor cranks. There are a few reports on various websites (e.g., dcrainmaker, weight weenies) with examples where the cranks have failed. It does not seem to be a consistent point of failure. Is this the tiny majority that happens to be vocal/blogging about it or are there real problems? There seem to be some additional people who have corroborated similar incidents. It seems almost never that you hear about a Shimano or Campagnolo crank experiencing total failure.
Rotor 3D, three years, close to 18,000KM, not a single issue! It’s a block of milled aluminum so I’m not sure what could go wrong.
I have two. Zero issues (other than scuffing). Pretty sure everything fails sometimes, and then people go online and raise hell.
Are these 3D, or 3D+ cranks, that have allegedly failed? The design of these 2 cranks is totally different, so it kinda matters.
Rotor 3d+ for 2 years - zero issues.
I have had 3 failures. First was a regular Rotor 3D crank that failed at the spider/crank arm interface while sprinting. Somehow managed to not lay it down. The other 2 were Rotor 3D+ cranks had stress fractures on the non-drivetrain crank arm by the milling plugs. I kept getting that awful, unidentifiable popping sound when pedaling hard until I finally spotted the tiny crack. Bad luck I guess but there aren’t many manufacturers that make solid 155 mm cranks. That third set is being warrantied as we speak. And they sure do take their sweet damn time manufacturing these things! It’s been on backorder for MONTHS.
I just got some Rotor 3D+ ones. No problems, but I have noticed a popping sound, so now I’m going to go check the whole thing for cracks!
I have had 3 failures. First was a regular Rotor 3D crank that failed at the spider/crank arm interface while sprinting. Somehow managed to not lay it down. The other 2 were Rotor 3D+ cranks had stress fractures on the non-drivetrain crank arm by the milling plugs. I kept getting that awful, unidentifiable popping sound when pedaling hard until I finally spotted the tiny crack. Bad luck I guess but there aren’t many manufacturers that make solid 155 mm cranks. That third set is being warrantied as we speak. And they sure do take their sweet damn time manufacturing these things! It’s been on backorder for MONTHS.
Your 3 events worry me! It seems that there are a few failure points as reported by the few people who actually report failures. It seems Rotor is at least good at fixing/warrantying them. I am not looking for an exotic size (170mm) so may skip on the Rotor opportunity (SRM version).
I have had 3 failures. First was a regular Rotor 3D crank that failed at the spider/crank arm interface while sprinting. Somehow managed to not lay it down. The other 2 were Rotor 3D+ cranks had stress fractures on the non-drivetrain crank arm by the milling plugs. I kept getting that awful, unidentifiable popping sound when pedaling hard until I finally spotted the tiny crack. Bad luck I guess but there aren’t many manufacturers that make solid 155 mm cranks. That third set is being warrantied as we speak. And they sure do take their sweet damn time manufacturing these things! It’s been on backorder for MONTHS.
You would think they might work a little harder to speed up the process if you have had 3 failures. How were they to deal with overall? Also curious if they offered explanations for the failures. Warranty or not I might be pretty leery of using their cranks again if I were in your shoes.
That said I have been using 3Ds and like them quite well, but then I don’t stress cranks too much.