Surly became the first bike company to mass produce fat bikes back in 2006 with the Pugsley. Initially, the bike was a total pain in the arse for one major reason. It was only available as a frameset. Fat bikes were new at the time, and putting a build kit together for them wasn't as intuitive as road or mountain bike. Fast forward to this very moment that we're living in, and both Surly and Salsa have three complete fat bike options. It's largely because of this that the fat bike scene seems to be blowing up. Now, instead of searching around for parts to build a fat bike, more and more people are looking for parts to either upgrade or replace worn out components. The part I've been fussing over lately has been the crankset, so for those of you that are in the same boat as I am, here's a rundown on some cranksets that will work well with the 100mm bottom bracket shell.
FSA Alpha Drive ISIS ($65): Pair it up with a 100mm ISIS bottom bracket (either FSA Platinium DH ISIS BB, or TruVativ Giga Pipe Team DH ISIS BB), and this budget option can't be beat if you're just replacing a worn crankset. There are a couple gearing options, but for riding through snow and sand, the lower 44/32/22 gearing might be the best call.
TruVativ Hussefelt ($75): Another well priced fat bike crankset, the Hussefelt is an absolute beast. It is available as a 44/32/22 triple, and can be paired with TruVativ's Howitzer Team 100mm bottom bracket, which like the ISIS bottom brackets, will run around $50.
Surly Mr. Whirly ($325): It's not often you see something from Surly priced in the high end range. The Mr. Whirly crankset is pretty neat considering you can customize the crap out of it. Everything from the crank arms, spider, rings, and spindle can be purchased separately to fit whatever bike you need it to run on. In this case, you will want the long spindle for the 100mm bottom bracket shell. After that, it's all up to you.
RaceFace Atlas FR ($350): If you're looking for a relatively lightweight and super tough crankset, the RaceFace Atlas FR is worth checking out. It could be the best looking fat bike crankset out there. It may be hard getting this with triple gearing, but it will accommodate a 44/32/22 gearing.
e*thirteen XCX+ Snowbike Triple ($350): One of the lightest fat bike crankset options out there, and you will want to make sure you get the option with the 145mm spindle for your 100mm bottom bracket. The price does include the outboard bearing bottom bracket, which is definitely appreciated.
That's about all I'm aware of for now. Feel free to post other options that I didn't mention.
2 comments:
Is there some sort of White Industries option with a Phil bottom bracket? I would replace my e13 with that in a heart beat if I knew what worked and what didn't.
-ka!
Yeah, it looks like you might be able to pull that one off. You would want to get your spindle in a 145mm length in a JIS square taper, and then pair it up with their 100mm bottom bracket shell bearing cartridges. The White Industries MTB crankset looks awesome. Definitely call the manufacturers up to make sure it would work, but it looks like that would do it.
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