5DEV R-Spec RaceTrail/Enduro Crankset [Rider Review]

Imagine if a really cool Aerospace company started manufacturing bike parts. That's exactly what 5Dev did. They're known for making very eye catching alloy cranks and other cool machined parts. See what one of our customers thinks of the cranks!

Overview

Since I've been seriously riding mountain bikes for about about 10 years now, I've done just about every modification to my bikes to get a better ride. Whether it's; new bars, stems, saddles, brake-pads, rotors, tires, rims, hubs, angle headset, re-tuning my shock, etc. Whatever it's been to upgrade my bike they have all made a difference.

I'm a heavy rider at 230lbs, so I always had problems with pedal strikes, heel strikes, and toe strikes. The way I had to adjust this was to run less sag in my rear suspension which was less than ideal. Still, on occasion with less sag, I would get pedal strikes. For those of you that do have pedal strikes, you know it can ruin your pedal pins, not to mention scratching up your nice pedals. Besides that, striking your toe or heel can be very uncomfortable for many days afterwards.

I have always ridden with 170mm cranks. I was of the mindset that longer cranks give me more leverage, which in principle, yes they do. However, if you're always pedal striking, running less sag, and having the occasional crank strike, it can definitely mess up your flow, and climbing rock gardens. In the back of my head I never knew when in the next compression I would hear the crunch! Sometimes I would have to dismount the bike on a climb because my pedal caught a rock.

So now I have a new bike that is very capable and it's an awesome trail bike, but when I want to do park days or hard riding I was still getting pedal strikes! I then decided to do a few upgrades for really fast hard decents so I bought a WRP YOKE, and a CASCADE LINK. This was a game changer to my mixed wheel set up!

Now that I went from 150mm to 158mm in my rear shock because of the Cascade, running 30% sag and taking bigger hits, I was loosing focus because of pedal strikes.

The only way for me to fix this was to get shorter cranks. I did some research and found more positives than negatives.

I decided to give it a try. Because my bike came with carbon cranks the equivalent in carbon was about the same price as 5Dev. On top of that Worldwide had a discount which put 5Dev at the same price.

Here's what happened after going from 170mm to 160mm. I no longer get pedal strikes! Ever! I realized that, for me 170mm was too long. With 170mm I would have to use my hips and get up out of the saddle and literally stand up and pull on the bars for leverage. Now with shorter cranks I stay seated or at least centered over the saddle. The difference with climbing steep rocks is better because of the clearance. Some people will say, no way I'm going shorter because they are losing leverage. For me this is not a factor because I can easily compensate with an easier gear. It makes ZERO difference in torque. The other thing I've noticed is in-between jumps when I need to get in 2-3 more pedal revolutions I get there easier, more centered, and a bit quicker.

I can say for me going to a shorter crank is 100% noticeable in a positive way! Also with 5Dev it looks absolutely unique. There's no mistaking that these are 5Dev, which makes a statement of aftermarket bling!

If I would have got the most expensive carbon cranks, or even a anodized crank it is impossible to tell what they are from a distance. These 5Dev makes the bike pop.

If you are considering a solution to pedal strikes or actually getting a crank set that fits your leg length or want a pair of sick looking cranks 5Dev fits all the boxes. Yes they are expensive, but I just broke it up into payments. I'll always have these cranks so paying this price is really nothing over the lifetime use.

Final Thoughts

Lastly, I have to mention that the customer service was awesome at Worldwide. I had a question about which size was for my bike. I had what I thought to be the right size but I sent an email to verify. I actually had the wrong one in my basket. They told me exactly which one I needed. Since then I've bought several other things from Worldwide which they were able to verify specific questions I had before ordering. I've really been happy with the customer service, and really happy with these 5Dev cranks!