New Spanish crank maker QO has launched three new cranksets – the Race for the road, Rocks for mountain bikes and this Grava for, you guessed it, gravel bikes.
QO cranks are the brainchild of Pablo Carrasco and Ignacio Estellés, who founded Rotor back in 1996.
The duo have now branched out into this new venture and launched the trio of cranks we have in for testing.
Specialist carbon
The Grava crankset is made from Mitsubishi Pyrofil carbon, a specialist Japanese carbon fibre used for high-strength lightweight components within aircraft parts, pressure vessels and now bicycle cranks.
The Pyrofil material has the added benefit of vibration-damping qualities. This made it the natural choice for all of QO’s crank arms.
Kevlar reinforced
The ends of the crank arms around the pedal threads are reinforced with KevTex Kevlar reinforcement.
This protection against rock strikes and grounding is taken from the Rocks crank-arm design. The arms have secondary protection in the form of clear rubber bumpers, too.
The arms are finished with a design feature borrowed from the Race crank arms, that being the dimple surfacing across the front and rear of the arms.
Added aero
QO claims the Aero Dimples concept used on the cranks and chainring reduces drag in order to save watts.
The dimples create a turbulent boundary layer that keeps the air attached to the crankset for longer, delaying the airflow separation and reducing the size of the wake.
QO doesn’t provide any drag-reduction figures over a standard crankset, but dimpled surfacing is a known entity in aerodynamics, used in everything from golf balls to Zipp’s wheels, time trial helmets and even now illegal skinsuits.
Pricing and details
The cranks are priced at €699.99, including the chainring. They're available in 165, 170 and 172.5mm sizes, and with 40/42/44t direct-mount chainrings.
The spindle diameter is 28.99mm, making them DUB-compatible; the crankset has a 153mm Q-factor and a 47mm chainline.
My 170mm x 42-tooth test crankset weighs in at a total of 483.9g.
By way of comparison, SRAM’s new RED XPLR 1x crankset (€730/$650) with 170mm arms and a 40t ring weighs in at 427g, while Shimano's 1x GRX crankset (£219.99) is 655g in 172.5mm with a 40-tooth chainring.
