I noticed a very good deal on a Rotor Kapic (= aluminium) two-sided power meter crank, it is on sale for less than 400 €. I don’t have a power meter on my commuter (an MTB hardtail), and I dislike the 175 mm XTR cranks on it.Two points are holding me back:
- Rotor 2InPower meters have not tested super well according to @dcrainmaker and GPLama.
- This is a MTB crank and I plan to get a gravel frame next. Can I use “road” chain rings when I put them on a gravel frame? This is important as there are zero mountains (think Netherlands) and I put a 38-tooth chainring on my hardtail.
What do you say? Worth it?
Primarily, I’d use the power meter to keep myself in check and to log power numbers to get better prediction of fatigue in TR. Occasionally, I might also train on it.
I’ve used my 2inPower for years and find it fantastic
I’ve tested it vs my Neo and Assioma’s and it’s pretty consistently +/- 1-2%. Plenty fine for my race bike
Only caveat w rotor is that their rings have different adapters to the crank than other brands. So they aren’t interchangeable And their eComm site is not very good.
I really like the configurability w rotor.
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I placed my order, thanks. I could have saved another 100 € or so if I went for a one-sided power meter.
I haves had a Rotor chain ring for my XTR M9000 crank, and the build quality was exceptional. Peak torque and other reviewers also rate them highly. The new rebranded Wheeltop groupset not so much, but the cranks and chainrings are great.
I have received my crank. I’ll be sad should Rotor go out of business, what I received oozes quality.
- The cranks feel great, the finish is top notch.
- All tools are included. The BB includes a sturdy plastic “socket” with for 3/8" ratchet. So no scratches on your fancy BB.
- Ditto for the fastener for the chainring, a machined metal thingi is included, which you tighten with a standard BB wrench.
- I won’t need a big torque wrench after all, because all torque specs are low (save for the nut/fastener for the chain ring, but you can’t use a torque wrench anyway).
I’ll mount the cranks this weekend. It should be easy enough, the “hardest” part will be cleaning the bike and making sure everything fits.
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So my crank arrived last week and I finally had time to install them across an evening and a morning (we have three kids). As usual, Rotor’s stuff is top quality.
Turns out, I needed a new crank anyway, I hit stairs with my crankarm last Thursday or Friday and this happened:
Hence, my XTR M9000 crank is toast. It was good, because this way I could tell my wife I replaced the crank because the old one was broken — and not because I wanted a power meter on my hardtail and I didn’t like 175 mm cranks and wanted to switch to 165 mm like on my road bike.
The installation was relatively easy, I just struggled a bit picking the right spacers. Rotor included all installation tools, including a handy plastic cup to install the BB.
My BB shell measured 71 mm and change (WTF?), so I had to play with spacers. But I figured that out (which is what I did this morning). One issue with the installation was that I needed a 8 mm bit compatible with my torque wrench, which I did not have. So I had to play by ear when setting the bearing preload. Not ideal, but I’ll remedy that.
The one strange issue is that the chain line sits much more outboard than with the native XTR cranks:
It gets very noisy and it doesn’t seem, hmmm, whatever the polar opposite of ideal is. Is my chain line too extreme? I cannot remove any spacers on the drive side, I have only included a 0.5 mm plastic washer to protect the BB from rubbing against the crank.
What’s going on? The cranks is marketed as being compatible with 11- and 12-speed drivetrains. I have an 11-speed Shimano drivetrain.
