How To Remove Praxis Cranks

The Praxis Works Alba M30 48/32 is a cleverly-designed chainset that drops your gear range a little with no discernible deviation in weight, stiffness or shifting quality compared to the criterion Shimano chainset you probably already have.

For a bit more a decade, meaty chainsets with 50- and 34-tooth chainrings have been standard issue for a cyclists who don't race. You notice them on endurance/sportive bikes, gravel bikes, hybrids and apartment-bar road bikes, and even some cyclo-cantankerous bikes.

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But some chainset manufacturers would like you to consider an culling: the sub-meaty, with 48- and 32-tooth chainrings or smaller. We explored the idea in a fleck of detail in this start look at the Praxis Works Alba and from the comments there it'due south an thought many of you welcome.

What nosotros have here, and then, is a adequately conventional pair of cranks, with a five-arm spider and 110mm commodities circle diameter (the same as a meaty) cunningly tweaked and so that a 32-molar inner ring will fit. To achieve that, Praxis Works screws the chainring bolts directly into the inner ring, dispensing with the usual nut, and machines a cutaway in the crank spider arms so there'southward room for the concatenation.

The right hand crank is permanently mounted to a 30mm hollow aluminium axle, and the whole lot spins on Praxis' ain bottom bracket bearings which you lot'll need to buy along with the cranks. They're £34.99.

Read more: Which chainset is right for you?

Fitting

Replacing my previous Shimano chainset with the Praxis Works unit was straightforward; the instructions are articulate and easy to follow. You'll need the Praxis tools to fit the bottom bracket, but they're simply £fifteen, and so if you're a competent dwelling mechanic that's probably cheaper than paying a shop to practice it.

I constitute the Praxis chainrings saturday slightly closer to the frame than the Shimano rings they replaced, so as well as moving the front end derailleur down and taking upwardly the resulting excess cable, I had to slightly tweak the cease screws or the chain would come up off the inner ring when downshifting.

It doesn't make any divergence to shifting, only the rear of my forepart mech is now a meaning altitude from the outer chainring. When compact cranks outset appeared FSA offered a forepart mech that better followed the shape of a 50-tooth ring, but it didn't really take off because Shimano tweaked the shape of its standard front mechs to work fine with compacts. If sub-compacts become popular I can run into specific front mechs becoming a thing again.

One trouble I tin foresee is that the front mech mount on some frames won't exist low enough to adjust a sub-compact. You need to be able to lower your front mech almost 8mm to go from a 50- to a 48-molar outer ring. On at least 1 of my bikes, that's not possible. This isn't an issue if your forepart mech clamps round the seat tube, but if you accept a mount that's brazed, welded or bolted straight to the seat tube, bank check how much elbowroom you accept.

[h3]Shifting[/h3]

Y'all press the left mitt levers, and shifting happens, exactly as it did with a Shimano chainset. That'south no pocket-size feat. Shimano is very, very good at the precise design of pins and pick-upwards teeth necessary for quick shifts under load. Praxis Works rings have a very similar-looking arrangement and they're cold forged from 7075 aluminium, a material choice that bodes well for durability.

Pedalling

If you can detect a 2-tooth difference in chainring sizes while Just Riding Along, and then you're a far more finely-honed measuring instrument than me. Notwithstanding, I think I spent more time in the big ring than usual with the Alba cranks, though that could only be confirmation bias. Or it could be the hours I've logged on Zwift in the last couple of months.

I certainly didn't miss having a 50-tooth large ring, even on a bike that has a 12-molar smallest sprocket. I like to go downhill fast, but that'southward best achieved by getting into a very deep constrict, with chin well-nigh on the stem, bum off the dorsum of the saddle, hands tight against the sides of the stalk. Coasting in a very deep constrict an 80kg rider can theoretically hit over 110km/h downwardly a 16% hill. Adding 250 watts of pedal power would add about 3km/h, but moving to the drops so you tin control the bicycle knocks that back down to merely over 100km/h. (Curt Austin'due south Bike Calculator is a fun toy for modelling these things. I've assumed an aerobar is equivalent to a deep constrict.)

In use, then, the Praxis Works Alba M30 48/32 is just similar a compact chainset, but with slightly lower gears. I similar it a lot.

Who'due south information technology for?

The Praxis Works Alba M30 48/32 cranks provide a handy reduction in gearing that brings a typical route bicycle transmission more than in line with what many riders actually demand, rather than what we imagine we can employ. It's a meliorate selection than a fifty/34 compact unless you're fit enough to hammer a fifty/xi gear and, lets face it, very few of united states of america are.

In combination with an xi-32 11-speed cassette or '' even better '' a Tiagra 11-34 10-speed, the Alba is likewise a neat chainset for gravel bikes, which can really benefit from having a lower lesser gear.

All that said I wouldn't rush out and replace an existing compact with a sub-compact like the Alba M30 48/32. But if you're buying a new bike, a sub-meaty is definitely a spec item you should consider.

However, you may feel that for a sub-meaty, the Alba isn't sub enough. Other chainset makers offer 46/30 and even 44/28 sub-compacts. Praxis Works has been very clever in getting a 32-tooth ring to fit a 110mm bolt circumvolve, but there'southward no mode to go whatsoever lower. FSA'southward Hazard and Sugino's OX cranksets get round the problem past having a smaller commodities circumvolve for both rings, or a diddy one merely for the inner.

But if a 48/32 chainring combination is exactly what you lot want, then the Praxis Works Alba M30 48/32 is an fantabulous choice.

Verdict

Cleverly tweaked cranks that give slightly lower gears than a compact

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route.cc test report

Brand and model: Praxis Works Alba M30

Size tested: northward/a

Tell u.s. what the product is for, and who it'southward aimed at. What do the manufacturers say almost it? How does that compare to your own feelings nearly it?

Information technology'south a chainset. It'south for, er, people who need a new chainset.

Facetiousness aside, what we're focussing on here is the chainring sizes, 48- and 32-teeth instead of the usual compact 50/34 philharmonic. The idea is that this gives y'all slightly lower gears for those long, steep climbs. Praxis calls this Micro Meaty. We more often than not refer to this course of chainset as sub-meaty.

That attribute aside, Praxis has this to say about the Alba crank in full general:

"Every weekend deep in the hills of Santa Cruz, cyclists are brought to their knees by a nasty, four mile, 1800 ft. climb named Alba road. This respected climb was the inspiration for our brand new Alba road creepo. With its shapely forged alloy arms connected to our M30 BB and spindle system, the Alba is ready for anything yous pedal upwards against."

Tell us some more about the technical aspects of the product?

It'south important to annotation that the 48/32 rings here won't work with anyone else's cranks. Praxis machines a footstep on the crank spider to make room for the chain when it's on the small ring.

Praxis says:

Solid forged arms with 110BCD 48/32, 50/34 , 52/36 options

170 / 172.five / 175 lengths

M30 AL Spindle – 30mm with 28mm pace-down

Requires Praxis M30 BB : BSA, BB86, BB30/PF30 (30mm Drive/28mm NonDrive)

Works with Shimano™ ten/11, Campy 10/eleven, SRAM x/11

Estimate weight 775g +/- (172.v with 50/34)

Forged creepo arms

Praxis Cold Forged rings with LevaTime® shifting tech

M30 Spindle/Lesser Bracket Organisation

Rate the product for quality of construction:

viii/10

Fit and terminate is all very tidy. Cold forging is the correct style to make cranks and chainrings. Screwing the chainring bolts straight into the inner band, and machining the spider arms to make chain room is all very clever.

Charge per unit the production for performance:

9/10

Shifting is smooth and quick. Having a slightly lower gear range is nice when you hit a hill at the end of a ride, and I didn't miss the acme end of a 50-tooth ring.

Likewise early to tell, but the materials used and blueprint details suggest it'll be reasonable to expect a long life. What kills chainrings is concatenation vesture anyway. Look after your chain (clean it completely earlier lubing it, replace it before it gets likewise worn) and your chainrings last ages.

Rate the product for weight (if applicable)

viii/ten

A pair of Shimano 105 cranks weighs 737g and has an RRP of £150, and then the Alba M30 is well in the ballpark. Anyone who thinks they tin can pick upwards a 12g difference in the weight of their cranks should study to the nearest mattress factory for duty every bit a pea detector.

Rate the product for value:

8/ten

Tell us how the product performed overall when used for its designed purpose

Very well. Shifting is smooth amd quick and the slightly reduced gear range is overnice to have.

Tell u.s.a. what you particularly liked near the production

The looks, the shift quality, the slight gear reduction.

Tell usa what you particularly disliked about the production

Nothing.

Did you enjoy using the product? Yes

Would you consider buying the product? Yeah, if I were building a new bike.

Would you recommend the product to a friend? Yeah

Use this box to explain your score

I really similar the Praxis Alba M30 48/32 cranks. They do everything a crankset at this price level should do, and provide a small-scale but handy reduction in overall gearing too. That said, they're decent but not extraordinary value compared to, say, Shimano 105 cranks, especially given how heavily Shimano components are normally discounted, and they don't do anything unusual or special, aside from the facility to fit small rings. They'd be a solid 7/10 without that feature, just it lifts them to viii/10.

Overall rating: 8/x

Age: 48Height: 5ft 11inWeight: 85kg

I usually ride: Scapin ModeMy best bicycle is:

I've been riding for: Over 20 yearsI ride: Most daysI would course myself equally: Expert

I regularly do the post-obit types of riding: commuting, touring, club rides, general fitness riding, mtb,

Source: https://road.cc/content/review/219120-praxis-works-alba-m30-4832-chainset

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