Chinertown
Chinese Carbon Road Bikes => Road Bike Frames, Wheels & Components => Topic started by: adam900710 on May 22, 2025, 02:22:12 AM
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Hi,
There are already quite some lightweight dub carbon cranks with aluminum axles, like Cybrei GP3 and skypivot ones.
There are also some seemingly rebranded ones, like the one from PassQuest, RockBros.
All of them seem to have around 2000~2500 CNY (on Taobao, a little more expensive on Aliexpress), similar weight, 320g ~ 350g (cranks + axle only).
But this pair, branded LEESE, only costs me 1000 CNY (excluding shipping/tax), and the weight seems more than reasonable.
(378g for 165mm).
Considering how cheap it is, as long as the pair doesn't creak during a ride, I'd call it a win.
And even if they are craps, I can still go trying another brand, with the same spider PM and chainring.
Despite the value, there is really nothing else included in the box.
No docs, no branded box, even no grease pre-applied to any threads.
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Some feedback after riding would be highly appreciated! I find those the most promising AliExpress cranks regarding value for money.
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Considering how many of these lightweight Cybrei-like cranksets on the market now and how they discussed all around the forum, would be great to have unified thread with all current options, quality, pros and cons and, sizes, spider interfaces etc.
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Not bad basically £100GBP. Hopefully it performs!
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Installed and will give it a climb tomorrow, so far no obvious problem. But still not ideal:
- No manual
Thus you're on your own to figure how many spacers needed for each side.
- No pre-applied grease
Every thing is shinny clean, no big deal, I'll just apply my tried-and-true Shimano grease to every thread.
- No torque specifications AT ALL
This is a little scary now, but it should be the regular 35-40Nm for the main axle bolts.
- T9 screw for the preload ring
I'm already ordering a new preload ring, the T9 screw is already slippery.
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Do keep us posted. A recent video of Madpec on the light colnago build showed that the chinese crankset spindle had dubious tolerances, resulting in poor spin in the BB. I think he ended up using a different BB than planned to accommodate for that, and i think at least some of the fault was the spindle, not the frame.
That video annoyed me, because if both spindles and frame BBs are out of the spec, and you then need to try 5 different overpriced BBs to find one that works, all the while being high end and super light kit, well it just sucks.
So i guess question #1 is: is that spindle within spec / consistent / does it interface well with the BB you have, or is it draggy?
We've collectively put over 20,000km on the raceworks carbon cranksets (24mm axle, 170mm), and other than cracking one NDS arm, because there were no torque specs and i was at like 8nm (i think less, even), they've been flawless (we now do 5.5nm + loctite, and re tighten regularly). I looked yesterday, i couldnt find a cheap 165mm 24mm version. Seems that most of the 165mm offerings are in DUB format.
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Installed and will give it a climb tomorrow, so far no obvious problem. But still not ideal:
- No manual
Thus you're on your own to figure how many spacers needed for each side.
- No pre-applied grease
Every thing is shinny clean, no big deal, I'll just apply my tried-and-true Shimano grease to every thread.
- No torque specifications AT ALL
This is a little scary now, but it should be the regular 35-40Nm for the main axle bolts.
- T9 screw for the preload ring
I'm already ordering a new preload ring, the T9 screw is already slippery.
Had this yesterday when installing my 165mm 24mm Ti DFS crank and was told they had not produced one yet!
Was told to use Cybrei manual which did not work in regards to spacer placement so I used the Eililee Install instructions and these seemed to work.
Pass quest sent theres for there Sprill crank but they are crap
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So i guess question #1 is: is that spindle within spec / consistent / does it interface well with the BB you have, or is it draggy?
We've collectively put over 20,000km on the raceworks carbon cranksets (24mm axle, 170mm), and other than cracking one NDS arm, because there were no torque specs and i was at like 8nm (i think less, even), they've been flawless (we now do 5.5nm + loctite, and re tighten regularly). I looked yesterday, i couldnt find a cheap 165mm 24mm version. Seems that most of the 165mm offerings are in DUB format.
So far that's what surprised me, no problem related to spindle and BB, at least during installation and a quick spin test.
The BB I'm using is also some cheap Chinese ceramic BSA DUB BB. Branded as "Kactus".
The spin is good, thus I pushed the preload a little tighter than usual, but still very acceptable.
Will keep you updated after a short 35km climb.
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Had this yesterday when installing my 165mm 24mm Ti DFS crank and was told they had not produced one yet!
Was told to use Cybrei manual which did not work in regards to spacer placement so I used the Eililee Install instructions and these seemed to work.
Pass quest sent theres for there Sprill crank but they are crap
The same here, the SRAM doc is useless, 3mm spacer means I can not even rotate the preload ring.
And no spacer on the NDS also means the preload ring rubs the BB cup.
I eventually go one 0.5mm NDS spacer, and 0.5mm + 1mm DS spacer, the result is perfect, even no need to adjust the FD (previous crankset is R8100, thus the chainline must be perfect now).
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The same here, the SRAM doc is useless, 3mm spacer means I can not even rotate the preload ring.
And no spacer on the NDS also means the preload ring rubs the BB cup.
I eventually go one 0.5mm NDS spacer, and 0.5mm + 1mm DS spacer, the result is perfect, even no need to adjust the FD (previous crankset is R8100, thus the chainline must be perfect now).
I had the same recessed spacer on the drive side, approximately 1 mm, as in the Elilee instructions.
However, I still need to fine-tune the drive side spacing, as I currently have a 1 mm and a 0.5 mm spacer installed.
My bottom bracket, with the BSA BB installed, measures about 90.6 mm.
To check alignment, I measure from the outside of the crank arms and use the bottle cage boss (hopefully centered) as a reference point to ensure the distance is equal on both sides.
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I just measure distance from the bottle cage screw to both Crank arms and use as many spacers as needed to get both distances even
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A short climb back, I didn't feel or hear anything out of ordinary.
Despite the hassle during installation, this crankset just rides like any regular one so far.
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A short climb back, I didn't feel or hear anything out of ordinary.
Despite the hassle during installation, this crankset just rides like any regular one so far.
Well that’s positive news.
The installation appears of the crank I have appears to be as expected.
Next, I’ll check the chainline. For Ultegra 12-speed, it should be 44.5mm. Significant deviations from this could affect shifting performance.
From what I can see, the crank looks centred, and the Q-factor is listed as 149–151mm according to the information I found.
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Well that’s positive news.
The installation appears of the crank I have appears to be as expected.
Next, I’ll check the chainline. For Ultegra 12-speed, it should be 44.5mm. Significant deviations from this could affect shifting performance.
From what I can see, the crank looks centred, and the Q-factor is listed as 149–151mm according to the information I found.
For the chainline, I didn't even adjust the FD, and the shifting is still as good as usual, so the chainline should be totally fine.
Although there is no official docs on the spacer configuration, and different vendors go different ways.
E.g. Fovno shows 2mm spacer for DS, meanwhile SRAM claims 3mm DS.
The included spacers are 0.5mm x 2, 1mm x 1 and 2mm x1.
Fovno's configuration looks more sane here, but I have to go 0.5mm NDS to prevent the preload ring from rubbing the BB cup, thus 1.5mm DS spacer.
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One point to note, the preload ring is not compatible with SRAM DUB cranks.
The SRAM one has a moveable part that carries the thread, meanwhile all the chinese cranks (LEESE/CYBRE/PASSQUEST/FOVNO etc) all have the preload thread on the ND crank.
But on the other hand, the preload rings for chinese cranks seem to be compatible with each other.
My FOVNO one works fine on the LEESE one.
The problem seems to be with the repair part availability, so far I can only find the preload rings from WEIR (another crank priced very similar to LEESE) sold alone.
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One point to note, the preload ring is not compatible with SRAM DUB cranks.
The SRAM one has a moveable part that carries the thread, meanwhile all the chinese cranks (LEESE/CYBRE/PASSQUEST/FOVNO etc) all have the preload thread on the ND crank.
But on the other hand, the preload rings for chinese cranks seem to be compatible with each other.
My FOVNO one works fine on the LEESE one.
The problem seems to be with the repair part availability, so far I can only find the preload rings from WEIR (another crank priced very similar to LEESE) sold alone.
Sorting out my crank tomorrow now that I’ve finally got a proper torque wrench coming!
Just wanted to check — for the main axle bolt (drive side), which I believe is steel threading into a titanium spindle:
Have any of you applied anti-seize, grease, or maybe Loctite 243 (blue) before torquing it down?
I’m thinking galvanic corrosion risk here — especially steel/Ti contact, plus potential thread galling.
Plan is:
Clean threads
Anti-seize or Loctite 243 on the bolt threads
Grease under the bolt head
Torque to 40 Nm
Sound solid?
Also working on crank spacing:
I currently have 1.25 mm on the drive side and 1.5 mm on the non-drive. After torquing everything, I might need to shave off 0.25 mm to get perfect symmetry — measured roughly from the middle of the bottle cage mount with a tape, so not super precise, but close.
Trying to dial in the crank alignment as cleanly as I can — yeah, I know it’s probably OCD but half a mm feels like a mile once you’re aware of it