This post updates a previous report from FSA’s Sea Otter booth.
I spoke with FSA’s rep to find out what the deal was with moving to a 3-bolt chainring pattern for their new 2×9 mountain bike cranksets, and ended up with some updated info for the new setups.  Here goes:
- The 3-Bolt pattern is necessary to get a small enough chainring.  The inner ring is 27T versus 29T on their current 2×9 setups.  They wanted a smaller ring on them, presumably to broaden their appeal to non-racers, and the 3-bolt layout is how they achieved it.
- 3-Bolt pattern is 86mm, versus 94mm BCD standard.
- The Aluminum Afterburner version won’t be available until September.
- MSRP for the Aluminum Afterburner expected around $300 $400, not $290 as previously reported.
- The Carbon 2×9 K-Force Light crankset (pic after the break) will be avaialble in about 3-4 weeks as a BB30.
- The Mega-Exo (regular outboard bearing) bottom bracket version will follow about a month after the BB30.
- The BB30 crankset will be about 20g lighter.
- The BB30 bottom bracket will be about 35g – 40g lighter.
- MSRP for the K-Force light will be about $825 (BB30) and $769 (Mega Exo)
Hit ‘more’ for a pic of the carbon crankset…