2008 CrankBrothers (Part 1)

CrankBrothers, the company which is known for producing the best mud shedding clipless pedal in the industry. For part 1 of my 08 CrankBrothers blog posts, Im going to elaborate on their Cobalt SL crankset. Somehow the Cobalt SL crankset didnt get any limelight from any magazines. Partly is cause the Cobalt SL crankset is using ISIS BB and the price of the crankset aint cheap. Riders dont want to spend that amount of money on a ISIS BB when they can get a XTR crankset which is currently the best crankset out there by spending slightly more.

So for 2008 CrankBrothers is releasing the Cobalt SLi, i as it stands means integrated (not sure what are they integrating, but from the pics, it looks like the BottomBracket is attached at the non drive crankarm side). Also the crank will feature external BB. (pic below, taken from cyclingnews.com)



There is no official word why CrankBrothers decide to change to external BB eventhough they give comments why they decide to stick to ISIS in their Cobalt SL mini site. Below is a quote of why they stick to ISIS (taken from CrankBros Cobalt SL minisite)

Why ISIS, when everyone else is going integrated?
We choose not follow a trend just because everybody else is. We don’t consider the “new” external bearing two piece crank system to be the best solution to attach the crankarms to the frame. As we see it, these integrated cranks do not have any big advantages and in some cases they have disadvanages: Weight and stiffness is not necessarily improved in an integrated system. Integrated crank systems rely on the frame manufacturer for bottom bracket alignment, and misaligned bearings wear faster. We think that integrated cranks are yet to be proven. ISIS is already proven. The ISIS system offers flexibility, durability, stiffness, reasonable cost, and choice. ISIS bottom brackets have evolved and improved since they were first introduced. With the Cobalt SL, you have the freedom to choose your BB, which gives you the flexibility to customize the weight, durability and price of your setup.

Overall, whatever the reason is, changing to external BB is a good move for CrankBrothers cause riders never liked the idea of ISIS crankset since external BB appear in the market, furthermore external BB is much stiffer then ISIS. Hopefully CrankBrothers have fixed the cracking issue which are found on the current Cobalt SL cranks. You can read all bout the cracking issue here.

So for those who doesnt know about Cobalt cranks, to make it short and simple, its chainring is created by Truvativ and the crankarm is made by a combination of 2 materials (outer side: steel, inner side: aluminium)

Oh yeah, CrankBrothers is also releasing a SingleSpeed Cobalt crank for 08 which is known as Cobalt S. There is no word if CrankBrothers is planning to keep the current ISIS Cobalt SL cranks for 2008.

Be sure to check back for more extensive 08 CrankBrothers coverage, only at MTBNNetwork.tk.

P.S: Registration for 2008 Kayuh Lasak MTB Jamboree is still open (see bottom posts), so be sure to join if you want to skip winter for a couple of weeks and to enjoy a well deserved holiday.