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EB17: Praxis debuts Girder Carbon mountain bike cranks, Zayante X road & quieter BBs

2018 Praxis Girder Carbon mountain bike cranks
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The new Praxis Girder Carbon is their second carbon fiber mountain bike crankset, following the Lyft Carbon introduced at Sea Otter earlier this year. This one slots in just below the Lyft, being a bit heavier, but it introduces an entirely manufacturing process that helps them get to a very attractive price point.

Praxis’ Adam Haverstock provides a nice overview in this video, but there’s a lot more to the story. They’ve been working on a new design for a couple of years that’ll let them produce carbon fiber cranks “for the masses”. Meaning, very affordable. The Girder Carbon comes in at just $310, compared to the $500 Lyft cranks.

2018 Praxis Girder Carbon mountain bike cranks

Available in 170mm and 175mm arm lengths. At 542g with a 32-tooth chainring, it’s incredibly competitive on both weight and price. Adam says they’re exploring patents on their manufacturing and construction process for these cranks, so he’s not willing to share details on it, but the result is impressive on paper.

2018 Praxis Girder Carbon mountain bike cranks

Their alloy Girder M30 received an update to direct mount chainrings a few months back, and this one follows suit. It fits their Wave Tech direct-mount single chainrings, with all the usual tooth count options. It uses the SRAM-compatible 3-bolt attachment pattern, so most aftermarket rings should fit, but Praxis does use the wider axle spacing option. Meaning, double check that your rings were designed for SRAM’s wide BB spindle for best chainline. Praxis offers two versions of their rings, “A” for standard and “B” for Boost bikes. Available later this year.

2018 PRAXIS ZAYANTE X

2018 Praxis Zayante X four-arm crankset

For the road, their Zayante carbon crankset gets a complete makeover. The original has a 5-bolt, fixed arm spider that’s built into the crank arm. The new Zayante X uses a direct mount spider based on the same 3-bolt mounting pattern as their mountain bike cranks. The new spider has a 160/104 BCD pattern, which means all-new chainrings are coming along with it. Adam told us they’ll have every option currently available for the 5-bolt system offered for this new design, too. They chose this BCD combo because it lets them fit all of their offerings, from a 46/36 and 48/32 all the way up to 53/39, and everything in between. And any power meter spider compatible with SRAM’s direct mount will fit here, too.

2018 Praxis Zayante X four-arm crankset

2018 Praxis Zayante X four-arm crankset

Claimed weight is 610g for a complete crankset with double chainrings. For cyclocross, just sub in a 38, 40, or 42 tooth single chainring, which also uses their Wave Tech tooth pattern to prevent chain drops. Base price is $325, goes up based on chainring selection. Available this winter.

THREAD-FIT PRESSFIT BOTTOM BRACKETS UPDATED

2018 Praxis thread-together bottom brackets with new elastomer to eliminate creaks

Praxis’ threaded pressfit bottom brackets switch to an elastomer ring to give them a snugger fit, reduce any potential creaking, and treat your frame a little nicer. The prior design, shown on left, used an expanding wedge style that would lodge itself into the frame as you threaded it together. The idea is the same, but now it simply expands an elastomer as it’s snugged up, which does a better job of eliminating any noises and won’t dig into carbon fiber BB shells.

PraxisCycles.com

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Thomas
Thomas
6 years ago

Will Praxis be looking to add 46/30? I’ll be interested when that happens.

Champs
Champs
6 years ago
Reply to  Thomas

Seconded. That would eliminate the triple on my commuter bike, and down the road I’m not getting younger.

Bob G
Bob G
6 years ago
Reply to  Thomas

Thirded! There is very little difference in the low end between a 50/34 and a 48/32. But a big difference going down to a 46/30 with the 30t small ring. Particularly with gravel riders running much bigger tires than they typically do on a regular road bike the small tooth 30T option on a gravel/road double is a gear gravel riders are screaming for, yet for some very weird reason very few crank makers offer it. Maybe they don’t want all the extra gravel crowd sales? Since this new crankset is a 160/104 bcd format, adding a 46/30 option should be a piece of cake since a 104 bcd can easily accomodate a 32T inner ring.

Bob G
Bob G
6 years ago
Reply to  Bob G

Last sentence should say 30T, not 32T.

David O'B
David O'B
6 years ago
Reply to  Bob G

Bob G, NOPE Praxis screwed the pooch with this one. Just a way to vendor-locking to their, and only their chain rings.

There was NO need for a 160BCD — There are plenty of nice 53/52/50T 110BCD large chain rings.

104BCD is *stupid*. It only allows a 32T small chain ring. The 30T on 104BCD you refer to is only for single-ring setups and uses special chain ring bolts.

So Praxis is giving us nothing new at all. Their Zante already supported a 32T small chain ring.

As you said having a small 30T (or even 28T) would be golden, but it isn’t possible on the 104BCD.

John Bones
John Bones
6 years ago

Thank you Praxis. You folks always work hard to produce product that fills important gaps.
Thank you especially for bucking this trend of more and more hyper expensive bike parts.

Go ride.
-JCBs

Heffe
Heffe
6 years ago

Is it true that the new carbon Zayante uses SRAM direct mount configuration, so you could put SRAM chainrings on there? It also looks like this crank is equivalent to the Girder carbon, not the Lyft? One more thing, these guys are actually licensing MRP’s Wave Tech, aren’t they?

Marin
Marin
6 years ago

542gr for carbon? My midrange aeffect sl with ab oval chainring is 560gr and you can get it for like 100 euro take off.

Carbon fiber cranks are pointless. It’s just bragging rights and having to worry about snapping and/or destroying them on rocks.

While they have bonded inserts for pedals, metal axles there’s no point in cf arms.

You’ll save more weight and money going with carbon railed saddle…

Bob G
Bob G
6 years ago
Reply to  Marin

The aeffect crankset with a 32t direct mount chainring is north of 650 grams, it is not even remotely close to 560. 540 grams is very respectable by Praxis at this pricepount. CF is a perfectly fine material for cranks, in fact a far smarter application than for clamped saddle rails. My SLR ti railed saddle weighs 135 grams. The same saddle body with CF rails saves almost no weight. Almost all big saddle weight savings come from reductions in the saddle seat components and build, not the rails.

Ron
Ron
6 years ago

If you want a Praxis road 1 x option that is light you can just use the Lyft crank instead and put on a Wolftooth 40 etc tooth chainring, or the MRP/Praxis equivalent if they ever come out wth it.

Bob G
Bob G
6 years ago
Reply to  Ron

No serious roadie would do that because they’d be forced into a silly wide 172mm Q factor with that crank.

Flatbiller
Flatbiller
6 years ago

I must say that these guys are killing it. I have the Lyft crankset on my bike, and for the price and the performance I don’t think it can be beat.

I also have the Zayantes on my gravel crusher, and their conversion BBs on my other 5 mountain bikes.

Fire and forget. Goodbye Chris King…

Matt M
Matt M
6 years ago

Any idea when the updated bb’s with the elastomer will be available?

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