I’ve done my best searching for answers to this question, but haven’t been satisfied as of yet.
The Power2Max Type-S power meter is the same price for FSA K-Force Light and the Rotor 3D+ crank options. I like the lightness of the FSA over the Rotor, but FSA doesn’t have a great reputation. I have also read that carbon cranks get chipped (the clear coat at least) and scuffed more easily than the aluminum Rotor, although it’s doubtful that performance might be affected. I’ll be swapping this setup between a 2015 Shiv and a 2010 Allez.
Can anybody shed some light on either of these options?
Regarding the cranks themselves, no performance difference at all.
From a long term perspective, the Rotor is all alloy where as the K-Force Light uses carbon crank arms with bonded inserts for the pedals. Have not read about this much recently but the inserts had a past history of the bond loosing integrity outside of warranty requiring costly replacement of the crank arm.
Wow, pretty extreme lack of endorsement for either solution here.
Initially I was leaning toward the FSA because of weight, then I swung to the Rotor side because of the reliability of aluminum, but now with the past and present Rotor problems, I’m back to FSA.
If it’s good enough for Sagan, I’m sure it’ll be fine for me
I was making a choice between those two a few months ago (power2max). I chose the rotor cuz I wanted a BB30 and the FSA wasn’t available in a BB30
I’m going to be using it in a 2015 Shiv (61mm OSBB) and a 2009 Allez (68mm BSA HTII), so I’ll be going with the BB386EVO. There will be a couple spacers on the Shiv, but none for the Allez.
will the 24mm FSA not work with HT2 Shimano BB?
Not easily as my experience with both FSA K-Force Light cranks and SRM K-Force Light left no choice but to use the FSA bottom brackets. The spindle diameter(~25.5-25.7 mm) typically ran larger than Shimano and even then was stiff when inserted by hand into FSA’s bottom bracket - it could not be installed by hand with a Shimano HT2 type bottom bracket. Sure some will say put the crank in the freezer or spray the spindle with a cryo type cooling aerosol, then bang it in with a rubber mallet, but I tend to ignore advise that suggest hammering on the face of $2500+ powermeter.
Even if you hammer it in there, you won’t be able to tighten the arm on all the way because there won’t be enough clearance.
ask me how I know!
will the 24mm FSA not work with HT2 Shimano BB?
Not easily as my experience with both FSA K-Force Light cranks and SRM K-Force Light left no choice but to use the FSA bottom brackets. The spindle diameter(~25.5-25.7 mm) typically ran larger than Shimano and even then was stiff when inserted by hand into FSA’s bottom bracket - it could not be installed by hand with a Shimano HT2 type bottom bracket. Sure some will say put the crank in the freezer or spray the spindle with a cryo type cooling aerosol, then bang it in with a rubber mallet, but I tend to ignore advise that suggest hammering on the face of $2500+ powermeter.
you won’t be able to tighten the arm on all the way because there won’t be enough clearance. ask me how I know!
Yeah, forgot to mention that little gem as I also learned the hard way - once. The FSA Mega Exo bottom brackets use narrower bearings (6mm vs. 7mm) and the threaded bearing cups are also narrower than Shimano. The same is sort of true for the BB86 bearing cups as the outer flange is half the thickness of the delrin cups of the Shimano BB86 bottom brackets. So even if you do hammer in the spindle, the Shimano bottom bracket adds to an already narrow spacing and will not protrude far enough through the NDS bearing cup and as Jack alluded, unless the ‘shoulder’ of the spindle is exposed, it is not possible to properly torque the non-drive side crank arm.
If you haven’t made your purchase yet, I would recommend looking into the issues Etixx Quick-Step is having with the K-Force Light. Cav has dropped his chain off the big ring twice now at key moments in races while not even shifting (Tirreno and Milan-San Remo), and Tom Boonen had a similar issue earlier this year. I believe they are looking into it in the EQS camp…
EDIT: As has been pointed out, this is more a chainring issue. May still be something to keep in mind when choosing your chainrings though I guess. My mistake…dumb…
You don’t have to use FSA chainrings on the FSA crank.
In fact, you can’t use the FSA inner ring on the power2max
If you haven’t made your purchase yet, I would recommend looking into the issues Etixx Quick-Step is having with the K-Force Light. Cav has dropped his chain off the big ring twice now at key moments in races while not even shifting (Tirreno and Milan-San Remo), and Tom Boonen had a similar issue earlier this year. I believe they are looking into it in the EQS camp…
