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Getting the Best BMX Cranks is a meaningful investment as they can outlast your frame, reduce weight, and feel good when riding. Plus if you get cheap cranks without considering the alternative, they’ll likely not last long, and make annoying noises every time you ride. No one wants that.
In this pick, our focus was on finding the best cranks for street and park riding as opposed to racing. This means we were focusing on weight, durability, and strength as you don’t want them breaking in half while landing a huge gap or grinding. Here was a list of our main attributes in the decision:
Contents
What to look for in the Best BMX Cranks
Weight
Lighter the better, as long as it doesn’t sacrifice strength and durability in a disproportionate amount.
Durability
A good crank should be able to outlast your frame, overall durability is key when choosing a crank. Aspects such as type/number of splines, technology, material, type of bolts can make a big difference in durability and lifetime.
Type
2 or 3 piece cranks were considered.
Material
Chromoly is preferred for arm strength.
Looks
We all know this matters to a lot of people. Clean and simple seems to be the most universally appreciated look.
Price
For a seemingly simple piece of equipment compared to a frame or wheel, the crank has a very wide price range depending on the quality and type. We only considered BMX cranks that were above $50 for serious riders.
Our Pick: The Odyssey Thunderbolt 175mm Cranks
After comparing numerous cranks side by side, and considering everything from the manufacturer warranty to the weight to technology and testing used to make it, we came up with the Odyssey Thunderbolt cranks for several reasons.
These are simply all-around awesome cranks. Starting with the weight, a majority of their comparable in quality and price peers made of Chromoly is over two pounds, when including the arms and spindles, while the Thunderbolts are only 1.74 pounds in total. But make no mistake the strength and durability are not sacrificed.
Their 41-thermal heat-treating process on the Chromoly is as strong as it gets. It gets better, they have a lifetime warranty on bending, cracking, and breaking. So by the time you have to replace a cheap and squeaky pair of $50 cranks three times, you could’ve been riding the best and lightest with virtually no risk except for possibly waiting a couple of days to receive them in the mail.
The Thunderbolt is by no means cheap at roughly $168. At the same time though the lifetime warranty almost makes it a no-brainer if you can front that. And although looks aren’t a big issue for many, a bonus is they have a clean and simple look with the black paint and non-overbearing logo.
Overall, Odyssey is a great brand, and they have not failed us with the Thunderbolt cranks whatsoever.
>>> See Specifications & Read Customer Reviews on Amazon! <<<
Thanks for reading and good luck! Feel free to drop a question, or comment and let us know what you thought of our selections and yours.
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