FSA Gossamer troubles

N0bodyOfTheGoat

Cycled to work with no issues on the Felt, it has done ~400 miles since July and ~50 miles back in 2009 after a bike shop service (did not ride it for several years due to back discomfort following a 2008 injury).

Then on way home, I noticed the front derailleur was catching, so I changed to the inner ring (but had to use trim to get no chain rub).

Then noticed some wobble at top of non-drive foot stroke.

Then noticed the bottom bracket axle was sliding ~3cm left and right of the frame!

Decided to gingerly pootle home in lowest gear (34/28) as I was ~2miles from home with non-drive bike shoe not in Time ATAC pedal, when the non-drive pedal crank falls off completely.

I discovered the non-drive crank bolt had completely unscrewed! Put the non-drive side back together with my multi-tool and gingerly got home OK.

Really not sure what to do in the morning, not sure I dare ride it to work, especially not at normal speed in case this happens again and christ knows what will happen if I'm doing ~20mph at the time!

The paranoid side of me wonders if someone messed with my bike before home time... Or is it normal for this type of thing to develop so quickly?

UndercoverElephant

I doubt it had been messed with. They need to be really quite tight, surprisingly so, and have been known to loosen if not tight enough.

Pro tip: a multi tool won't give a long enough lever to get tight enough.

itboffin

do yourself a favour and get rid of it, have a look on the bargains thread planet x have a SRAM crankset & BB for £70 you'll be much better off all round with that, trust me after my fourth aborted ride due to the left crank arm falling off my FSA i just binned it.

N0bodyOfTheGoat

Thought I read the torque setting as something like 1.5nm for the screw cap, I was worried about over-tightening by hand with my multi-tool.

Typical for this to happen when I was thinking about trying to sell the bike again, my back has been mostly ok since July, but I'm going to commute on a racer I'd rather get true (not hybrid) hydraulics for extra confidence since last December's failed attempt to re-shape a stationary dustbin lorry!

Think I will play it safe and ride my better half's Saracen Zena2 into work this week, until I can get a LFS to see what they reckon about the Felt's BB (the screw cap threads did not look great it parts and the crank end of the BB splines looked a little worse for wear).

daddy0

I do mine up as tight as possible with a long arm allen key. Sometimes I do it up so tight that I have to put a metal pole (Henry vacuum cleaner attachment) over the allen key to undo it. Its never come loose on me and I have ridden my Felt over 10,000 miles...

mudcovered

NitrousOxide wrote:

Thought I read the torque setting as something like 1.5nm for the screw cap, I was worried about over-tightening by hand with my multi-tool.

If its the type that uses external bottom bracket cups then that cap should not be overtight as its only purpose is to preload the bearings before you tighten the clamp bolts on the crank itself.

Mike

jzed

I had the same issue. Constantly coming lose. Only way to prevent it was to use thread lock. In the end I got an SRAM chainset as got fed up with it working loose all the time.

apreading

over 10,000 miles on mine and never come loose (yet!).

If its like this: http://www.slanecycles.com/images/prod_32759.jpg then its purpose is not to hold the cranks on - as mudc says, it is only to hold it at the right tension for the crank bolts to be tightened. After that, the best thing is to remove it, because it does come loose and drop off otherwise.

You are left with this: http://answers.evanscycles.com/answers/ ... /photo.jpg which is perfectly secure.

tgotb

Is this one of the ones where everything is held on with a single massive bolt (like my BB386Evo one)? If so, grease the thread and splines before you screw it in, do it up very tight, as others have mentioned, and (this is the important bit) listen out for creaks, which are an early warning that it's coming loose. Once you've got it properly tightened and it's gone a couple of weeks without anything loosening, it'll most likely stay tight for ever.

mtb-idle

I've used these before I got fed up and switched to Shimano 105.

Had a set on my Bianchi when i bought it circa 2008. These wore out and I bought a replacement circa 2011. Fitted these as per the instructions and was similarly gutted when I noticed the non-drive side bolt had come loose and got lost somewhere.

Bought a replacement bolt from Ev*ns and secured it by the devious means of some black gaffa tape over the top of the bolt. Looked ugly but it worked for months.

Then the next time I replaced the BB I managed to overtighten the bolt and broke the spindle. you should never recommend overtightening bolts especially when i spotted today the Gossamer was subject to a product recall for that very reason

http://road.cc/content/news/27524-fsa-r ... crank-arms

Move to Shimano, it's so much easier

Gathering dust in the garage



The broken spindle