0mm MTB Cranks | Designed, Ridden, and Reviewed

WATCH the Video:

MTB Trends are a fickle thing. Adding or removing a few millimeters here or there has folks taking to the forums with huge claims in performance differences. I'm not saying they're wrong, but if you measure out 5mm, it helps put in perspective how small of a physical difference people are excited about. Every year it seems like cranks get a few millimeters shorter. It wasn't long ago that everyone was pedaling blissful circles with their 175mm cranks, and no one had a single complaint about them. When 170mm cranks hit the mainstream, many riders touted the increased comfort and control these new cranks brought to the table. It didn't take long for 165mm cranks to follow, and suddenly it's almost impossible to find 175mm cranks that were so popular not many years ago.

Some riders have gone further than the masses have dared, seeking out cranks originally designed for children, some going as short as 135mm in pursuit of novelty and unique performance. We decided that wasn't enough. What if we took it to the limit? What if we accelerated time, and projected where the crank length trend is heading, and went all the way to 0mm? Can we still call them cranks? Are they an entirely new genre of mountain bike product? Who's to say, but we did exactly that, designing, machining, and riding 0mm MTB cranks in the Whistler Bikepark. Check out the video below to get the whole story, or keep reading for a peak behind the curtains.

The spindle itself is incredibly simple. It's a 28.99mm diameter cylinder with a lip on one end, and a collar that we tighten in place on the other end. A friend of the shop did all of the machining and we got the fun job of riding the new fangled contraption. In the video, we also tested some 110mm Goldix crank arms we ordered from Alibaba, to also test incredibly short cranks that are still cranks. The Goldix were the first on the chopping block, and we took them down a mix of jumps, tech, and bike park corners to get a feeling for the incredibly short cranks.

Unsurprisingly, these comically short cranks feel very unnatural in the parking lot, and are borderline unrideable for anyone really trying to cover some distance or climb a mountain. Luckily for us, the Fitzsimmons lift is open for business and took us right to the top for some gravity assisted laps. All of the riders using mega short cranks are freeriders, looking to maximize smiles per mile on the bike, and the 110mm cranks do exactly that.

The narrow stance made the bike incredibly playful in the air, and tucking into shapes off lips is made a little easier by the Goldix. Pumping through corners was very different from what I'm accustomed to, and the timing required to get maximum boost is very different compared to 170mm cranks. For a dedicated park bike, the 110mm cranks are incredibly fun, and absolutely worth $30 to completely change how your bike handles.

For riders curious about trying different crank lengths without breaking the budget, the Goldix lineup has just about every length under the sun for about 30 bucks. They probably won't last forever, but should be good enough to figure out what works best for you!

Now for the exciting part of the article, the 0mm cranks. Expectations were non existant, as we had no clue what these were going to feel like. From the moment we stood on them, the 0mm cranks were unnatural and terrifying. Before we even went up the hill I was missing the relative comfort of the 110mm cranks, but we loaded up on the lift and went to the top of Whister.

A Line was first up, and while my feet were direclty in line with each other, it felt more like I was riding with my feet switch. The timing of dipping into a corner or carving off a lip had to be relearned, and the first few laps were a steep learning curve. With my feet right under my shoulders, my center of gravity was much higher, and I had to really get low to corner and chunder through rock gardens.

Something made immediately clear with the peg setup was how often I move my pedals out of the way of danger, something impossible with this setup. I was running my pedals straight into rocks, and the whole rear of the bike would step out because there was no give in the system. That's not to say rock gardens were all bad. I ended up zip tieing my cassette to my spokes to keep the rear hub from clicking, and the blissful sound of tires and suspension was all that was left. It's made me interested in trying a chainless setup with normal cranks sometime in the future, as the quiet bike is intoxicating.

Eventually, I worked up the confidence to hit Dirt Merchant, my favorite trail in the park. While I wasn't able to do the same routine I dialed in all summer, I was able to clear all of the jumps and survive the entire trail top to bottom. After spending a few days on the setup, riding the 0mm cranks was one of the highlights of my summer, and I can't wait to get more laps on the setup next summer!

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