Here are some detailed photos of the amazing Lightning Cranks. I plan to write up a review of them when I get the time… But for now I’ll at least post these images:
-
- Lightning Crank weight sans chainrings but including bottom bracket and all mounting hardware.
-
- Cranks, BB, instructions, alan wrench
-
- The crank is installed/removed by inserting the included alan wrench.
-
- The Lightning Crank uses the same method of connecting the left and right cranks as the Specialized S-Works cranks. (Specialized purchased the patent from Lightning and gave a Lightning a license to use the design.)
-
- Lightning Cranks come in a huge range of sizes. 160mm through 190mm.
-
- Another view of the BB. The bearnings are BB 30 bearning mounted outside of the BB shell, just like Zipp does with the Vuma Quads. This means that you do not need a BB 30 frame.
-
- Detail view of the pedal threads. You can see some hand worked markings near the pedal threads if you look closely. Doesn’t bother me at all — I like that it was touched by a human hand.
-
- Wow! That’s pretty crazy light for a complete set of cranks with BB, chainrings, and all mounting hardware — way lighter than my Zipps with stock rings.
Hi Nico-
Those are sweet cranks but you have the patent license backwards. Specialized bought the patent from Lightning and gave a Lightning a license to use the design.
Thanks
Thanks JJ for pointing out my mistake. I’ll fix it now.
Sweet Nico — can you speak to the Q-Factor?
The q-factor is a little complicated on this crank set because the pedal threads are inset slightly from the outside of the carbon crank arm. What this means is that some pedals need to have a little pedal spacer inserted so that the flange or shoulder on the pedal doesn’t hit the carbon crank arm. And some pedals, ones without a big shoulder, don’t need a spacer and will sit nicely in the recess on the cranks. So Lightning lists the q-factor as:
149mm with pedal spacer
145mm without pedal spacer
Make sense?
Nico,
Will this crank work with a Pressfit BB 30 frame?
Yes is the short answer. Lightning makes (and we have) cups for
BB30 frames. This confuses people because the Lightning crank uses
BB30 bearings, and the cranks would slide into the bearings in your
BB30 frame. The problem is that the bearings in your frame are too
close to each other and contact the Lightning spindle in the wrong place.
So the solution is to use cups that press into your BB30 frame and place
the bearings further out. The cups are aluminum and don’t weigh much.
I’m not in the office (typing on my iPhone right now) but I’ll weigh the
cups on Monday.
One advantage of this setup is that you can use the same cranks
on a standard frame by purchasing another set of cups.