Getting Serious with Team Robot - Video

I know we have a lot of fun and make a lot of jokes on the internet, but I'd like to get serious, if we could, for just a moment. Talking with the folks at Gravity Components, they're deadly serious about their carbon Gradient crank. I'm deadly serious about my racing. Take a step into our world, and see how serious we are.

As an athlete and paid brand ambassador for Gravity Components, I was a natural shoe-in for an objective product test of their new carbon Gradient crank. I know what you're thinking, 'Charlie, you receive a paycheck directly from the company whose product you're supposed to review.' I get it, it may seem like a conflict, but that same conflict hasn't stopped Pinkbike, VitalMTB, NSMB, MTBR, BikeRadar and almost all other online MTB sites from delivering hard-hitting, honest, no frills reviews while receiving ad revenue from the companies whose product they review. I think you'll agree, there's no conflict here: you can count on nothing but the straight truth from TEAM ROBOT.


Specs:

Full carbon construction with hollow crankarms made by robots.
BB392EVO has super long acronym AND adapts to all major standards (threaded, BB30, PF30, and BB92) via 30mm spindle.
598 grams with BB.
Available in 165, 170, or 175mm lengths.
Includes MegaTooth chainring, sizes 32-42 tooth.
$499 available now from local dealers and RideGravity.com.

Here is a picture that illustrates stuff.

Here's another picture that illustrates stuff. This is probably engineering related.

Serious Two-Year Extended Review:

Mike Albright photo.
Oregon Enduro Series, Mt. Hood 2014. In Europe and Canada, 'enduro race' is code for, 'incredibly rough, brutal trails that you can barely get down and which require otherworldly skill and vision to win on.' In America, it's more commonly translated as "flat and pedally." Realizing this, my 29er became my go-to race bike for American enduro racing, and these cranks got a lot of miles.

I'm standing still in this photo, leaning on a small rock with my back foot and trying to balance. Epic. Ptarmigan trail, Silverthorne, Colorado.

In this one I'm holding the rear brake and balancing in place. Starting to get this industry thing down. Still on the Ptarmigan trail, Silverthorne, Colorado.


After the Port Angeles Cascadia Dirt Cup this year, we had some time to kill before podiums while Trey, Scott, and Casey were adding up the results from the last two days. There was promptly an informal huck to flat contest off the shuttle truck loading ramp. Product testing.

More huck to flat. I was ecstatic when my rear tire blew off the rim, because it meant I didn't have to keep trying. Eric Ashley photo.

Joe Lawwill photo.
My trail bike hating life at downhill national champs at Mammoth this year. I heard the course was really flat and easy, so I left my downhill bike at home. Six flat tires, one shock rebuild, and two wheels later, I lost both races but my cranks were still attached. So that's cool.


Non-driveside crank, showing wear marks from being crashed and dragged over stuff. You can also see where I used a flat file to create some "extra clearance" for the oversized BB shell with the long acronym to fit around my Felt's lower pivot.

Let's take a look at how serious these cranks really are.

Stiffness

I don't know how else to say it: these cranks are seriously stiff. They're so stiff that my feet and back hurt constantly when I'm riding, but I've never mentioned that pain until now, because complaining is for humans, not ROBOTS. I don't have an exact measurement of how stiff they are, because science is what nerds and engineers do. Compared to the competitors cranks, I'd guess they're roughly 250% stiffer. Seriously.

Durability

I've been on the same set of cranks now for 2 years, which I never expected out of any set of carbon cranks. At this point in the review you're probably wondering, "can this guy be serious, or is this a joke?" Yes, I am serious, and no, this is not a joke. I didn't even replace the bottom bracket bearings for the entire two year test. Sure, in the past month or two they've started to sound like a hundred year-old wooden staircase, but I'm so serious about my reviews I just kept riding the original bottom bracket. That's serious durability.

Traditional 104 BCD spider

A lot of people want the option of a direct mount chainring so they can mount 28 tooth, or even 26 tooth, chainrings. During the product development stage I asked Gravity not to offer that option, to weed out the weak people. If you can't turn over a 30 tooth chainring, maybe you're not serious enough for these cranks.

Made by robots

Gravity was so serious about these cranks, they wouldn't entrust the careful manufacturing process to weak, faulty humans. Robots built these cranks, and as a ROBOT, that's a product I can trust. While it's true that humans were tangentially involved in the production of these cranks, its important to emphasize that those humans were always under the cold, scanning, emotionless gaze of their robot overlords. Because Gravity is that serious about quality.

That's not to say I liked everything about these cranks. There were definitely some areas that could use improvement.

Robots are made of metal, but these cranks are made of plastic. If there were a way to get the same stiffness, strength, and weight out of a more metallic, robot-worthy material, it would be a big boost to this already stellar product. Like perhaps titanium, adamantium, or a mimetic polyalloy "liquid metal" as used in T-1000 in the ROBOT documentary "Terminator 2." All good options.

They aren’t all black

This one goes without saying. They were very close to being all black, but they weren't.

The bearings only lasted two years

Sure, two years is a pretty good lifespan for a bottom bracket in the Pacific Northwest, with mud, rain, and pressure washers being regular facts of life here. But ideally I'd like to see this bottom bracket last indefinitely. I realize "forever" is a pretty high bar, but that's what I expect from the products I ride. Again, this might be a good use for an alternative material, like adamantium.

Dylan van Wheelen photo.

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