Posted on September 27, 2022 by Jessie-May Morgan

Appleman Bicycles has introduced the Appleman 2XR Modular Crankset, CNC machined from 2024 aluminum and available in 135mm, 145mm, 155mm, 165mm and 175mm arm lengths. With 30mm spindles covering road, gravel, mountain and fat bikes, and three different spiders, there’s a Made-in-USA Appleman 2XR crankset for everyone.

A Turquoise 2XR crankset, color-matched to the frame decals on an Appleman FR-213 Carbon Adventure Bike

Founder, Matt Appleman, has been designing and building bespoke carbon framesets for many years, and during that time has witnessed the many benefits of tailoring crank length to each rider. Hence, his motivation to offer such a wide variety of crank lengths to suit a wide variety of inseam lengths.

Appleman offer the 2XR Crankset with five different crank arm lengths from 135mm up to 175mm in 10mm increments. Learn why Matt Appleman thinks crank arm length is so important here.

A modular design is at the heart of the 2XR Crankset. Its three main constituent components, i.e. the crank arms, spindle and spider are all interchangeable making for a very versatile product. After purchasing the initial crankset for your road bike, for example, you might find you want to run that same crank length on your gravel bike, too. In that case, you can just buy the appropriate spindle for your gravel bike, and then transfer the crank arms and spider across to it.

OK, it might not be a great solution if you ride both of those bikes on a weekly basis, but there is some scope for cost saving nevertheless. The modularity also allows for multiple color combinations, and it also makes for a product that is very economical from a stock holding perspective.

The Appleman 2XR Cranksets are designed and CNC machined in Minnesota

Choose from five different 30mm spindle widths, covering road, gravel, MTB, mid-fat and fat bikes. Rough Q-Factors are as follows, though actual Q-Factor will of course vary slightly dependent on the frame spacing, bottom bracket and spacers used on each bike:

The 2XR Crankset is designed for low torque specs of 5-10 Nm

Choose from the following spiders:

The 2XR Crankset with a 110 BCD Spider and Chainring

The 2XR Crankset with a 144 BCD Spider and Chainring for Track Cycling

The 2XR Crankset with a 104 BCD Spider and Chainring for MTB

The Appleman 2XR Modular Crankset will set you back $485 USD, and is sold with a 5-year warranty; that fetches you a set of crank arms (length of your choice), a 30mm spindle and spindle bolts, and a spider. Black and Silver are the Base colors, but you can part with an additional $50 USD to customize crank arm color, and then an additional $25 USD per item to customize color of the spindle bolts and spider; choose from Pink, Orange, Yellow, Turquoise, Purple, Sand, Olive and Brown.

You can also buy the individual components separately:

Compatible BB/Frame standards include BSA (English threaded), ITA, PF30, BB86, BB92 BB30 T47, 386EVO, and BBRight. Note that BB90/BB95 aren’t compatible.

Jessie-May Morgan is the UK & Ireland Tech Editor of Bikerumor. She has been writing about Mountain Bike Riding and Racing, and all the technology that comes along with it for 3 years. Prior to that, she was an Intern at the Mountain Bike Center of Scotland, and a Mountain Bike Coach and Leader in the Tweed Valley, and prior to that, a Biological Research Scientist at the University of Edinburgh. Based in Innerleithen, Scotland, Jessie-May can regularly be seen riding the Tweed Valley’s Enduro and Downhill Tracks, often with a race plate tied to the handlebar.

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Those are quite fetching. Definitely worthy of strong consideration

Are there any options for power meters?

But if you want decent bearing life, don’t put this 30mm axle in a frame not made for the bigger bearings (i.e., the BB86 and BB92 are compatible but not a good idea due to the undersized bearings needed); it’s a shame they didn’t use a 24mm steel axle. Also a shame that gearing for a 2x gravel bike (e.g., 30-46) isn’t catered for by the spiders currently offered. I am very pleased to see the wide range of cranks lengths, though.

The cranks check a lot of boxes, but I can’t check’m all. The 110×5 spider will fit Praxis 48/32t chainrings for all the gravel delight.

Agreed. Lots of BB86 and BB92 frames out there, so not checking the “24 mm spindle” box is effectively dropping that market altogether.

I was hoping these would be a good alternative to Rotor’s modular Vegast cranks, as they’re priced friendlier than those.

no 170 or 172.5 lengths wtf! thats 95% of the market

i don’t think he’s attempting to compete with the offerings from shimano or sram. It’s these out of the ordinary sizes where there is a niche to fill (except for the 175)

I’m bummed there isn’t a 180mm!

If 180’s work for you, 175’s will definitely fit the bill! There’s almost no disadvantage to going on the shorter side. Use the crank length calculator on the website to see what could work.

Exactly! 172.5 is such a tweener size. The 2XR Crankset is designed to provide fit options with real impact on hip and knee flexion. 2.5mm is a start, but it barely makes a difference to be worth it. If someone is riding 172.5’s, 175 or 165 will provide a great fit.

I’m totally not the market for these but they look really really cool, very Hasselblad aesthetics and pricing isn’t as cyclist/audiophile with inheritance as I thought it would be.

The Appleman site says to use 20% of inseam length as a guide for your crank arm length. So I need approximately 203mm. I love the aesthetics and versatility of these cranks but need to stay with Zinn Cycles for my needs. I hope Matt sells a bunch of his cranks.

So the spiders engage directly with the spindle and the crankarm fixes the spider in place? Or is there some kind of retaining ring/nut that fixes the spider to the DS crankarm and isn’t shown? Bummer to not use one of the more common spider mounting interfaces.

“though actual Q-Factor will of course vary slightly dependent on the frame spacing, bottom bracket and spacers used on each bike” I don’t see how that would work. Unless the arms are allowed to have varying amounts of engagement on the spindle, the spindle plus arms dictate the Q factor, and whatever is in between the arms is irrelevant for determining the Q. It would be great if the 104bcd spider was actually 104/64, as that would then also work for gravel. I’m currently running a 46/30 combo with that spider layout. It would be even better if the arms adopted one of the dozen preexisting spider interfaces…

Wait… I see, with the pinch bolt and preload bolt arrangement, some wiggle room with respect to spacing is available…

Can these be used as cranks for the captain on a tandem by flipping the spindle and spider to the opposite side? I’ve got a tandem where I’d like shorter cranks on my half o the bike. Been looking at options for a while somewhat half-heartedly and haven’t really been intrigued by anything.

On the captain side, yes, the 2XR Crakset can be flipped. We’re currently testing the double sided spider for stoker. But by all means the captain will work with the stock 2XR Crankset. Good question.

This is good to see. Proportional crank length is something those of us who hover around 6′ (a group disproportionately represented amongst industry product managers) have been able to take for granted. Scaling the crank with the rider can offer immense benefits in terms of comfort, pedal mechanics, and overall enjoyment of the sport.

Love the colors but they’ll look like sh!t in no time.

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