My Bike Shimano Crank Upgrade

Hello Cycling Community,

Last month I covered some maintenance and upgrades that I made. Well, with the heat I still managed to upgrade the crank on my bike and I am glad I did as the performance is brilliant. Not only that, I managed to clean the not so easy to reach parts around the crank too, so it is looking nice and spick and span.

It may seem complicated, but upgrading the crank is a nice and easy job and although this was the first time I have done it, I can say it was a pretty simple job and no messing about like if you are working with bike brakes or something.

Tools needed were a number 16 spanner, nr.5 allen key, i used some cared and a heavy hammer although a gummi hammer may have been better. I also used a flat-head screw driver and some grease for the internal crank part and some wd40 I put on the chain at the end.

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First of all I used the allen key to loosen up the 2 retaining screws on the opposite pedal to the crank. I loosened them both up before unscrewing them completely.

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Here you can see them after they fell on the ground. I won't be needing them anymore as I have new ones with the new crankset.

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Next I put in the shimano preload tool into the preload cap to remove it. It is made of plastic so turns easily and removed very quickly.

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Here you can see with the grease still on it once I removed it.

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Next, with the flat head screwdriver, I moved the retaining clip away from the inside spindle.

I am now ready to remove the non-drive side crank arm. It can easily just be pulled off with no trouble now.

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It is easily removed and I put it to one side. Next up I grabbed a big hammer.

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Before I started to hit the spindle, I removed the chain from the crankset. Once that was removed I gave the spindle a few taps and it came out easily. If you are planning to reuse the same crankset, maybe use a mallet or some card in between hitting the spindle to avoid damaging it.

Here you can see it comes off easily.

My hands started to get covered in oil here so I was trying to use some cloths to remove completely. I recommend some hand wash that can remove oil and grease easily.

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Next I started cleaning the frame around where the crank goes, removing the grit, dirt and sand that I couldn't easily reach before. I grabbed a brush from the kitchen and hope my wife will not notice that it is missing and now covered in oil in my workshop in the cellar.

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With everything cleaned up, I next started putting the new crankset on. I made sure the spindle was greased up and tapped it in.

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Next I put the non drive side on with the plastic preload cap and tightened it with the shimano preload key tool. Be sure to put it on the opposite of the drive side or you could have an interesting time trying to cycle! ahaha

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Here you can see the old one against the new one. The new one is slightly longer so it should be improved performance for me. Next I tightened up the retaining screws and took the old crankset to my cellar and workbank to remove the pedals.

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Here I used my nr.16 spanner to remove the pedals from the old crankset to then put onto the new crankset.

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With the pedals added on, I then went on the grass and added some WD40 to the chain to make sure it was nicely greased up and then took the bike for a short spin with my son around the block.

So far I noticed the performance was very improved and the longer arms on the crankset are more comfortable and will give me a better performance.

The gear changing problems I have been having seemed also better, but I still need to look into this abit more to see what might be the cause of this. Generally it seemed better so far and smoother riding with the new crankset. It can also be that it is cleaner and running better than the old one.

Have you done any bike upgrades this summer?

Credits:
All images and photos are my own.

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