Style 43

Some people seem to have good luck with cranks. My friend Jay has had his Primo Powerbites for years now without so much as a hint of a problem. Other people seem to strip, bend and snap ‘em at a rate of knots. I have had mixed luck with cranks. From my first set of 3 piece which were Demolitions, to my ebay purchased Profiles which subsequently ended up with one 175mm arm and one 180mm arm, to my Odyssey Elementary cranks I have had constant problems. Yet so far, my latest acquisitions seem to be holding up pretty well: Primo Hollowbites .

Anyone who has been riding for a while will probably recall the pasting Primo used to receive regarding the aluminium pedal inserts they used, with numerous horror stories of people threading them and rust creeping in. However, it seems they have perfected their technique because those gripes are well and truly in the past. The Hollowbites are a lighter, hollower version of their predecessors, the Powerbites, which used to be virtually synonymous with bmx. With, of course, a set of Supertenderizer pedals to boot. How times have changed! Although the embossed logo has gone, I think this is for the better. The cranks have minimal graphics, and the sharp edges have been softened. They are aluminium and the 175mm ones which I’m running weigh in at 35.9oz which as far as I can tell is fairly light.

The arms are flat and although they have pinch bolts, I bash my ankle knobble bone (you know the one on the inside of your foot which catches on everything and is dead sensitive) a lot less than I did with the Odyssey cranks. The pinch bolts are one of the best things about them. Cranks without pinch bolts are relying on the bolts which attach the arms to the axles to hold the arms in place and pre load the tension. Maybe it’s my style of riding, but I don’t think that this method works as well as simply having pinch bolts. In the time I have had them, there hasn’t even been a hint of looseness arising, and the same cannot be said for any of their predecessors.

Installation is another massive plus side. I run a Sunday frame with a mid bb, so the bearings went in without incident. Gone are the days you had to telephone Mighty Thor and ask if he was free to hammer your bearings in. Primo’s have square axles, so it’s easy to line up the arms unlike Profiles with their millions of splines, meaning the alignment could be one spline off and you wouldn’t realise until you’d already bashed ‘em on. Trust me, I’m speaking from bitter, bitter experience.

So far, nowt has gone wrong with the Hollowbites. They’re a bit creaky, but this is mainly due to me leaving them in the rain for 2 days and not re greasing them, but on a technical level they’re doing me proud. They’re not the cheapest cranks in the world, and obviously many peoples choice are governed by how much it’s gonna cost them compared with the alternative, but I would honestly say it’s worth spending an extra £15 - £20 initially, because you don’t want to have to replace them in 6 months times. Solid cranks, light, easy to install and running smoothly thus far. It’s been about 6 weeks and I feel like I’ve put them through their paces adequately enough to offer an honest review. If you’re a super smooth trails flower, maybe the trimmer Profiles will suit you better, but for street riders I don’t think other cranks compare. The amount of sideways thrust a street rider puts a bike through means the pre load bolts have to withstand a lot more tension, and as such come loose more often. Whereas with these, the pinch bolts mean you’re running a tighter set of cranks, and if I know my bike’s running well I feel much more confident on it. I know I’m not going to be blowing the arms off these in a hurry.

Bless

Back to News, BMX, Skate, Music...