The Sram Truvativ X0 Carbon Crankset

Carbon fiber crankarms used to be the ultimate thing, and there was exactly one company who made them. When they debuted, crank cranks were exotic in every sense of the word. They were one of the most expensive sets of cranksarms you could think off, they were incredibly lightweight because of their hollow carbon construction, and they has a reputation of being a finicky product that required extremely precise setup.

Now it's mid 2010 and while not everybody makes carbon crankarms, most manufacturers due, sure all leading part manufacturers make them. And tough competition is now-a-day the name of the game.

Sram with the Truvativ brand is one of the companies that currently produces some carbon crankset for mountain bikes. The Truvativ X0 10-speed crankset, ever since we saw this beautiful crankset, we've been dying to get our hands on it for a trail test. Well, we finally did, and here's what we found out.

Carbon fiber has been a wide variety of applications on mountain bikes over the years, but carbon crankarms have been with a slow start. There's a reason for this. It's extremely difficult to produce a carbon crankset that is properly aligned and can withstand the beating its surface is bound to encounter on the trail.

Sram/Truvativ build their crankarms with the latest Carbon Molded Technology. Sram/Truvativ claims their all new light weight carbon crank is strong enough to handle the epic all mountain adventure. The carbon Truvativ X0 10-speed crankset is gorgeous. A highly glossy black paint finish on the carbon crankarm makes it look extra special. It's one of the trickiest-looking crankset we've ever seen. A pair of carbon crankarms with a forged alloy spine weighs 788 grams. This isn't the lightest crankset made, but it's up there on the list of lightweights.