Comments on: Lightning Crank Photos

By: Nico

Nico — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 17:14:59 +0000

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.

By: Andy. M

Andy. M — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 00:35:31 +0000

Nico,

Will this crank work with a Pressfit BB 30 frame?

By: Nico

Nico — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 00:30:49 +0000

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?

By: Rich_W

Rich_W — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 00:23:04 +0000

Sweet Nico — can you speak to the Q-Factor?

By: Nico

Nico — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 17:52:41 +0000

Thanks JJ for pointing out my mistake. I’ll fix it now.

By: JJ Domingo

JJ Domingo — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 17:01:23 +0000

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