The Gravel Cranks have slightly more refined corners and extra chamfering on the edge of the arm going further up the arm from the pedal to towards the extraction bolt. But, upon closer inspection, you can see the subtle differences between the Trail/Enduro and Gravel cranks. There aren’t a lot of cosmetic differences between the two different cranks. The Trail/Enduro cranks weigh in at the claimed weight of 525g (w/ 30mm spindle) with the Gravel Cranks weighing in at 491g with a 29mm spindle. They are built to be both light and strong. ![]() Actual Weightīoth the prototype Gravel Cranks and their Trail/Enduro Cranks are made of 7075-7651 billet aluminum. ![]() The prototype Gravel Cranks us the SRAM 8 bolt pattern to attach the chainring, They didn’t have any chainrings for these cranks when I got the arms, so they sent me home with a set of their Trail/Enduro cranks and their 12% oval chainring for my Surly Krampus (that I brought with me).īut there are two chainrings available on the website now, called Road Gravel Classic Chainrings in 40t and 42t. ![]() 5DEV Cranks On the Bike Out with the old… In with the new… Shiney. They are as pretty as they look in person. I got the arms right off of the machine and will be using them on the bike as they are, with the raw aluminum and no finish. The machine effortlessly cut the final shape of the arms while smoothing all of the edges, and threading the spots for the chainrings and pedals. It was fun watching the CNC machine do what it does, putting the finishing touches on the cranks. The crank arms went into their 5th Axis proprietary tooling and they queued up the machine. Once I got there, they put them back in the machine and let me watch them finish the process. My Gravel Crank arms are not entirely done.ĥDEV did most of the machining on the pair of crank arms that I was to take home prior to my arrival. We wound our way through a maze of (what seemed like) countless CNC machines to get to the one that would be cutting the new cranks. We walked out of the 5DEV office area, and back into the shop. As I walked through the 5DEV office area where I got to meet some of the behind-the-scene 5DEV crew, I started seeing bits and parts that I actually recognized… in other words, bike stuff. The facility, although neat, clean, and quite organized, initially looked like a typical, albeit, high-end machine shop. When I got down to the San Diego area, I met Will Talbot at their facility, and we started the tour. With the shortage of parts during the pandemic causing huge wait times to receive new components for their bikes, they decided to start building their own stuff.Īll of the products 5DEV offers are designed and manufactured in-house out of aerospace-grade billet aluminum using a patented tooling system using efficient processes while managing the design and construction from the start to the finish. The co-founders of 5th Axis/5DEV are cyclists that have been mountain biking for over 30 years. 5th Axis is a leader in the manufacturing of complex components for the aerospace and medical industries. Because I’m local to them, they reached out to invite me to their facility to try a prototype of their new gravel cranks… and they said that they were going to cut them on the CNC machine while I waited.ĥDEV is the younger bike division of a larger, and more established machining company called 5th Axis. ![]() Last year, I made a trip down to San Diego to visit the manufacturing facility for 5DEV.
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