Primo Powerbite cranks?

[PGR]

Hellö!

Does anyone have experience with these cranks? Are they square-tappered? Are they strong?

[toonces]

http://www.primo-usa.com/products/powerbite.htm

I don't think they're square taper. Prolly splined proprietary with pinch bolts. And yup, from what I hear, they're strong. Hope that helps!

[stino]

they are square tapered, they are strong as hell, they are stiff. they are what you want i'd say. (here in belgium, virtually all bmxers ride with primo cranks...)

[axel]

im pretty sure they are not square taper, but i could be wrong. there are better cranks out there for the buck(profile) my friend had the primos but they got all messed up after just a few months...there not bad, but ive heard better about other(profile, we the people, etc.)

[Lt.Dan]

yes you are rwrong. i had some and they were square taper. i never used them because i got out of bmx and took them back but they looked pretty bad ass

[jodysbike]

They are square tapper but don't think 1/4 inch like MTB BB's Think 1/2" Square!

Anything can be broken but these are the best BMX cranks in the price range!

Profiles are nice but the spindles are bad about twisting.

Solids, FBM, ect. are all nice in a way.

Anything can be broken but keep this in mind. With Primo you can easily buy just one crank are, spindle, washer or what ever you need real easy from any bike shop that even remotely has a clue. Any of the others will be hard to get parts even if you find a shop that sells it.

Buy the Primos and you will not regreat it.
I don't ride em but I don't have to.
I have a set of Haro cranks from 91 that are the same spindle size, arm casting, ect..
Basicly Primo coppied em. I've had to buy several sets of bearings but the same spindle and arms since 91!

[PGR]

The advantage with the Primos, would also be the weight I think. That's also why I looked at them in the first place.

[RideSiK]

there not to bad
a few of my mates hae them on there bmxs...
id go for profile or snafu if you got a bmx bb
you can get some square ones and some hexagonal ones.
i think the square ones are better just cos the hex bit isnt as big as the square bit

[Ir Dan]

super big square taper spindle, they look strong, tons of pros ride them so they have to be good, or are they

[bru]

I should have some on my ride in a couple days, so I'll let you know what I think if them soon. As far as I know, it is not a tapered square but rather a regular square (a 4-sided spline if you will) so you can adjust the chainline and width by sliding and clamping the arms down (pinch bolts) anywhere along the axle unlike a tapered one. In theory they sound okay and my buddies like theirs but I will see for myself in a day or 2.

[Sideways]

Primo PowerBite cranks:

Facts:

1) Total crap. Think: Sheared pedal threads
2) Complete rip off of old GT design
3) Total crap. Aluminum has no place in BMX crankarms
4) Pros use them because they get them for free
5) Total crap. Pinch bolts come loose without loc-tite
6) Square taper BB. Inferior to splined systems
7) Total crap. Just buy profiles

[stino]

Originally posted by Sideways
Primo PowerBite cranks:

Facts:

1) Total crap. Think: Sheared pedal threads
2) Complete rip off of old GT design
3) Total crap. Aluminum has no place in BMX crankarms
4) Pros use them because they get them for free
5) Total crap. Pinch bolts come loose without loc-tite
6) Square taper BB. Inferior to splined systems
7) Total crap. Just buy profiles

HAHAHAHAHAHA go home man.

1) lock your pedals good, and you don't have problems.
2) so?
3) no place? then why are so many people using them?
4) that's true.
5) so? use locktite then
6) there you could have a point, but not everyone notices the difference.
7) yeah we know the profiles are good.

[Sideways]

Originally posted by stino


HAHAHAHAHAHA go home man.

1) lock your pedals good, and you don't have problems.
2) so?
3) no place? then why are so many people using them?
4) that's true.
5) so? use locktite then
6) there you could have a point, but not everyone notices the difference.
7) yeah we know the profiles are good.

1) Even with locked down, the pedal threads are prone to fatigue failure.
Anyways, you know most BMXers don’t pay much attention to their gear. And if we do notice a problem, we tend to neglect it for some time. As a generalization, of course. But this stuff should be considered when designing BMX products.

2) So, the old GTs had similar problems. I don't know why they chose to make knock-off's of these cranks. Profile has been whooping ass for years.

3) No place because aluminum grinds through and fatigues. So many people use them because they have not learned the hard way yet. Besides, One uses aluminum to save weight. The Primo cranks don’t.

4) In agreement.

5) Okay. I'll take that. But refer to #1's design considerations.

6) In agreement.

7) In agreement.

BTW: I am home.

[M.W.]

Originally posted by Sideways


1) Even with locked down, the pedal threads are prone to fatigue failure.

For what it's worth, I'm pretty sure that the newer ones have steel inserts at the pedal threads...

I dunno, I'd get profiles myself...

[bru]

Okay, I just installed my powerbites so here is my very early report. The pedal threads now have big steel inserts in them to prevent stripping. The arms themselves are pretty light but the spindle is enormous. It's pretty light for it's size but it's still heavy. The hardware is high quality and the pinchbolts come with loctite already on them. The arms slide onto the spindle very easily and they haven't budged yet after tightening down the pinchbolts. I was impressed with the quality machining on the hollow spindle and hardware. We'll see how they hold up once I put some more time on them. They are way cheaper than profiles but I can't justify the cost of profiles for a bike that is supposed to be my "cheap" bike (compared to my MTB). I don't grind much and am not especially hard on parts so they seemed like the ticket for me. If you grind tons or break profiles, stay away.