SOC18: Rotor debuts affordable road, ultralight MTB & direct-mount INpower meter cranks

The new modular cranksets from Rotor give them options for every rider, from price conscious upgraders to those looking for sleek integrated power meters and mountain bikers wanting one of the lightest cranks out there.

Starting with the road, the all-new VEGAST cranks blend the name of three famous climbs -VElata, GAlibier, STelvio – and is their most affordable crankset to use the modular chainring design. The arms are forged AL6082, which saves some costs, but still get their Trinity internal machining to reduce weight.. They’re available in 165, 170, 172.5 and 175 mm lengths, retail is $450.

The arms connect with any of their single or double chainrings, which also fit their higher end Aldhu arms (which also have a power meter option). The spindle is modular, too, so you can mix and match to get the combo you want and that fits your bike. And there are lots of options:

Choose from round or oval, double or single, or even a spider on which to mount other chainrings and sizes. Their spindle has small notches to let you clock the ovality to your favorite position, which you can see below on the new mountain bike cranks.

Their one-piece double chainrings provide light, stiff alternatives to bolting individual rings to a spider. These, too, are available in both round and oval, and in various tooth combos. There are a lot of options, check their website for all of them.

2019 Rotor Kapic & INpower Mountain Bike Cranks

The new Rotor Kapic (named for the Cape Epic) is now their top of the line mountain bike crankset.

The mountain bike cranks are also modular, giving you standard, Boost and fat bike spindle lengths, and easy swaps between sizes, round and oval chainrings. While it uses the same OCP (Optimal Chainring Position) interface for their direct mount rings, it gets its own lighter spindle compared to what ships with their Hawk and Raptor cranksets. Claimed weight for the Kapic is 536g without chainring, but with the bumpers installed.

Price is $390 and includes a direct mount 1x ring, making it one of the more affordable lightweight cranksets out there.

New Rotor 2INpower & INpower power meters

Rotor’s single-sided INpower power meter system is now transmitting on the driveside, a redesign for both road and mountain bike versions. It’s still measuring your left leg, using two strain gauges inside the spindle, but the electronics are all point to the right to create a more consistent look with their dual-sided 2INpower sets. They run off of a single AA battery for ~300 hours of use. It’s a sealed system, so it’s very waterproof, and transmits. The more practical reason for the redesign was to make it compatible with their direct-mount chainrings, helping them move to a completely modular universe. Retail is just $799 for the arms with spindle, claimed weight is 510g without rings. Check this post for the technical details on how INpower measures your watts.

Their 2INpower cranks (not shown) receive a similar update to become direct mount chainring friendly, but upgrade to four strain gauges inside the axle and four inside the right arm, giving you separate right and left leg measurements with up to 200 data points per second. It also gets a rechargeable LiIon battery for 250 hours of ride time.

The INpower mountain bike crank arms also run $799 and are 1x compatible only. Same details as the road version otherwise, weight is 544g without ring. They ship with black bumpers, but red and blue are available separately. Both road and MTB versions transmit in ANT+ and Bluetooth.

RotorBike.com