“Any fool can make something complicated. It takes a genius to make it simple.” -Woody Guthrie
I’ve seen this cliched axiom attributed to others, but since Woody was an outspoken anti-fascist let’s stick with him. As I’ve become more seasoned/mature/older I have embraced simplicity far more than when I was a young man that knew everything. This is in everything I focus upon be it work, art, music, or motility.
Speaking of motility, I am at best an armchair car enthusiast. My vehicle has plenty of modern amenities, despite being six years old. Of these there are only two I truly appreciate those being the brake hold system and the phone mirroring via Apple CarPlay. I employ these features daily. They are modern and complex in their function, but simple and convenient to use. In contrast to its modernity the car has a manual transmission usage of which dates to the earliest motor vehicles. Automatic transmission vehicles account for more than ninety-eight percent of the market currently. They are even better regarding performance and have become ubiquitous in super cars and now EVs over the last ten years. Manual transmissions are far from a necessity, but they are simpler and more engaging than any automatic transmission systems. I’ll just say simple and fun.
You can probably deduce that regarding transmissions my appreciation of simplicity carries over to bicycles. I got into single speeds forever ago and single chain ring drivetrains before SRAM flipped that apple cart over more than a dozen years ago.
Regardless of number of gears, derailleur designs, batteries, and other gizmos, at the heart of these systems is the crankset. All bicycles have some version thereof and they come in seemingly endless styles and compatibility interfaces. It is the primary point where power is generated and consequently subjected to the highest torque output any rider can muster. These take a beating on all bikes and especially mountain bikes wherein they are subject to forces of destruction not only from the high torque the rider is putting on them, but additionally from whatever said rider is banging them into. Cranks are all too often quick to protest the abuse via all manner of creaks and clicking noises. This is magnified if you are heavier and/or aggressive rider (hand raised).
Management of these galling sounds has been an ongoing effort for me for many years. Some cranksets have been worse than others, but all required routine vigilant maintenance efforts to keep the din to a minimum. More recently in accord with the plethora of changing axle and drivetrain standards over the last dozen years many cranksets added compression rings and/or spacers to mitigate these endless fitment possibilities. They do work, but it is more stuff one must futz with upon installation and set-up. It is with these bits that I found myself having to chase down the bad sounds all too frequently. I came to accept it as just part of the design engagement and routinely cleaned, regreased, and retorqued my cranksets to abate the dreaded creaks and squeaks.
Furthermore, I went down the shorter crank length journey starting a half a dozen years ago and settled on a 155mm length for all my bikes. This was challenging as few companies initially offered short options and most that did were of the boutique variety with commiserate pricing.
Canfield Bikes however were ahead of the wave, and they began offering short crank options awhile back. Short (stubby?) cranks are now spec’d standard on a number of bikes and e-bikes. I would have purchased them back when I had my last Evil, but they were not compatible with the Superboost spacing that bike had. Fast forward a few years and I had decided to put short cranks on my hardtail after enjoying the benefits thereof with a different brand on my full suspension bike. My hardtail had the more common Boost 148 rear axle spacing so I went with a set of Canfields. I was initially slightly perturbed having to purchase a different bottom bracket for the cranks to fit as they were designed for the older SRAM GXP standard. However, this was not a big deal as I simply ordered one directly from Canfield when I purchased the cranks.
I decided to take them to my LBS for installation not because of any oddball parts or complexity, but rather for the fact of the high torque of 70 Nm required for the axle bolt. This was before I was routinely employing a torque wrench and that number is nearly twice the torque force needed for most cranksets. Thereafter, I may have snugged it down once in the two years it did time on that bike. The damn thing never made a peep and shrugged off every questionable move in my attempts at rad-getting.
Meanwhile, I was still futzing routinely to chase annoying noises with the cranks on my full suspension bike as noted above. After a recent trip where I was having re-tighten my cranks before every ride I’d had enough. That along with similar complaints about the same cranks on friends’ bikes made me grab a new set of Canfield cranks.
The newest version of the Canfield AM cranks have been updated to fit any axle spacing (including Superboost). A custom precision fit spacer goes on in between the chain ring and the crank arm to moderate any spacing concerns. This is not some lilting little deal either, but a solid alloy piece. This goes along nicely with the rest of Canfield’s design ethos of keeping it simple and tough. To note, the aforementioned high-torque spindle bolt is the only one you must deal with. There are no pre-load collars, or other spacers to keep track of. The drive side crank arm employs the SRAM 3-bolt chain ring standard which is rather bulletproof and again simple. I installed the Canfields myself employing my beam torque wrench up to its 60 Nm ceiling and then using a cheater bar to give’r a final tweak. Not a 100% accurate, but close enough for government work as they say.
The Canfields have remained beatifically silent since I installed them. This set like the earlier ones look great, maybe even better with their skully logo and again are tough as nails. They are economical priced landing at or slightly above the big boys’ mid-level offerings and their weight for the gram-counters is actually less than those. I really can’t see why I would not put them on any bike considering their efficacy and simplicity. Maybe one could complain about the older bottom bracket standard, but again these are simple, inexpensive and readily available. The Canfield AM Cranks get my coveted five outta five Ozzy fingers. Yes, they are very metal.