Praxis Works Turn Zayante Crankset Review
Note: In this article, I will refer to the road based Praxis Works Turn Zayante crankset, but most everything applies equally to the mountain based Girder crank as well.
One Crank to Rule them All
The plethora of bottom bracket “standards” and cranks on the market has created a great deal of confusion and compatibility challenges. Thankfully, one company realized that a by-gone design from another company provided a great bridge, allowing a single crank design to not only be one of the stiffest on the market, but also fit bikes using older style threaded bottom brackets as well as the newest BB30/PressFit frames. Even more impressively, they managed to include some of the best shifting chainrings in the business and one of the most secure (thus least creak prone) bottom brackets into the package and do it all for around $400. Enter the Praxis Works Turn Zayante & Girder M30 crank/bottom bracket systems.
So what makes the Praxis Works Zayante crankset different from the wide variety of crankset on the market? The defining difference that the Praxis Works Turn Zayante crankset offers is actually the brilliance of the M30 system design that allows one crank to work well in a very wide array of frames (from threaded to BB86/92 and most things in-between). The M30 system not only simplifies a lot of the compatibility issues PressFit and BB30 based frames can have, but also allows owners of smaller threaded bottom bracket frames to reap the benefits of the bigger BB30 axle. Haven’t we seen this before? Why yes…
Back to the Future
A moderate number of years ago, Zipp manufactured their lamentably gone-but-not-forgotten Zipp Vuma Quad crankset, a truly exquisite piece of carbon and aluminum sculpted bicycling componentry if there ever was one. Zipp built the Vuma Quad with a big 30mm crank axle, but they built the axle longer than a standard BB30 design and they simply offered a few bottom brackets and associated spacers kit for it, including an ultra-thin threaded alloy cup that allowed the crank to work in any standard 68mm threaded bottom bracket. Thus eliminating many compatibility issues while bringing the benefits of BB30 stiffness to most any bike. The Praxis Works Turn Zayante crankset basically takes the same approach, while bridging many of the newest frame bottom bracket sizes and being substantially less money than the somewhat exotic Zipp.
Frame Compatibility for the Praxis Works Turn Zayante Crankset
So, what frames will the Praxis Works Turn Zayante work outside of a standard threaded frame? Praxis makes their excellent “creak proof” bottom brackets for use with the Zayante in bikes with BB30, PF30, Specialized OSBB, and BB86/92 bottom bracket shells. They also make a crank to fit a BB86 bottom bracket shell. This is what makes the Zayante different: it will fit all of these bikes, and a threaded bottom bracket shell, without having to resort to clunky spacers/adapters that can move and creak, or a different crankset altogether. Unfortunately, Praxis does not make a crank and bottom bracket combination to fit Cervelo’s BBright frames at this time.
Construction and Specs of the Praxis Works Turn Zaya
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The Praxis Works Turn Zayante Crankset is hollow forged aluminum, with hollow forged crank arms. It is available in crank arm lengths of 165, 170, 172.5, 175, and 177.5, and comes in either 110 mm and 130 mm bolt patterns, meaning that these cranks will work with 50/34, 52/36, or 53/39 chainring combinations. The chainrings are, obviously, Praxis Works Cold Forged, so no problem there as these are some of the only rings on the market that can compete with Shimano in terms of shift quality.
The weight of the Praxis Works Turn Zayante crankset, with the threaded bottom bracket, is about 830 grams, or a little over 50 grams heavier than a Shimano Ultegra crankset and bottom bracket. The weight not being super light is one of the only knocks against the crank. However, the upside to the M30 design of crank and the M30 bottom bracket is that it is one of the stiffest available anywhere, regardless of price. Independent testing has demonstrated that the Praxis Works Turn Zayante M30 System was not only stiffer than the 6800 Ultegra, but also 9000 Dura Ace, Campagnolo Super Record, and host of other benchmark units. In fact, the only crank that came close to the Praxis was an ultra high-end, carbon unit from THM that costs $1,500. Pretty darn impressive for a $299 crank that includes some great chainrings.
An Alternative
We have always found it hard to fault how Shimano, SRAM and Campagnolo construct their cranks compared to a number of aftermarket options. It is hard to deny that the most effective solution to balky shifting in the past was to throw a Shimano crank and chainrings on the bike… The Praxis Works Turn Zayante M30 crankset/bottom bracket combination is one of the first cranks that does not fall into the exotic category that is worth serious consideration as it equals Shimano, SRAM and Campagnolo on the shift quality front while actually exceeding them on stiffness and overall frame compatibility options. It is hard to argue with industry-leading stiffness, improved shifting, and Praxis quality and the price makes the Praxis Works Turn Zayante an absolute bargain for what it does.
Contact us for more information or to order a Praxis Works Turn Zayante or Girder M30 crank and bottom bracket system.
