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Easton EC90 SL carbon cranks are back – First look, actual weights & a ride!

2017 Easton EC90 SL crankset with carbon fiber arms and cinch chainring mounting
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It’s been more than half a decade since Easton has offered cranksets, but now they’re reaping the benefits of their merger with Race Face (and then Fox) and offering an all-new, ultralight EC90 SL crankset.

The new cranks share Race Face’s Cinch chainring mounting technology, making for easy swaps between the wide range of 1x chainrings offered. And those 1x rings suggest the crankset’s primary use is likely to be cyclocross and gravel, which makes sense after Race Face teased a CX option last year, but there are 2x chainring options, also. They also take share Race Face’s ultra lightweight carbon construction, making them very light.

Crank past the break for actual weights, all the tech details and more…

2017 Easton EC90 SL carbon crankset actual weights

Driveside w/ 42-tooth chainring is 242g, non drive is 276g, for a total of 518g for 175mm arms. Considering they’re borrowing a lot of Race Face’s carbon fiber crank arm construction tech that produces the also very light Next SL cranks, it’s no surprise these are some of the lightest cranks now on the market.

2017 Easton EC90 SL carbon crankset actual weights

The 44-tooth ring comes in at 106g, and the 46-tooth at 111g.

2017 Easton EC90 SL carbon crankset actual weights

Depending on set up, there are various spacers included. The four small ones come in at 7g, and the two large ones at 17g. Mix and match as needed, though the instructions for BB86, PFBB30 and Threaded BSA all showed installation without them. Easton will offer a bottom bracket (a lot actually, with options for BB86, BSA 68MM, PF30 68MM, BB30 68MM, BBRIGHT, 386EVO, and OSBB), but they weren’t ready yet, so they sent along the Race Face PFBB30, which includes one small spacer for the driveside. It weighs in at 116g with dust seals and that spacer.

Easton-EC90-SL-carbon-crankset-details01

Race Face recently introduced wheels with their own hubs, borrowing from Easton’s wheel tech. Now, Easton’s pulling from Race Face’s tech bin for road and cyclocross cranks. From a branding perspective, it makes sense…who’s going to run Race Face cranks on their road bike? And while Easton’s more recent mountain bike wheels have been solid, the Race Face brand carries far more cred on the dirt. So, now, the partnership makes far more sense.

2017 Easton EC90 SL crankset with carbon fiber arms and cinch chainring mounting

2017 Easton EC90 SL crankset with carbon fiber arms and cinch chainring mounting

Single chainrings and a 2x spider all attach via the Cinch system, which uses a specific Race Face lock ring an ISIS bottom bracket tool to remove. This, plus the fact that the spindle is attached to the non-drive arm, makes it very easy to swap chainring sizes before a race. Options for 1x include 38 / 40 / 42 / 44 / 46 / 48 / 50. Those taller sizes are crazy for cyclocross, but perfect for gravel racing. Wanna drop at least a quarter pound from your gravel bike? Go 1x with a wider range cassette.

2017 Easton EC90 SL crankset with carbon fiber arms and cinch chainring mounting

Double chainrings use a separate spider that mounts via Cinch, then bolt on in the traditional manner. Options are 53/39, 52/36, and 50/34. The cranks come in 170mm, 172.5mm and 175mm with a 147mm Q-factor.

Easton-EC90-SL-carbon-crankset-details02

The chainrings (and spider) use an asymmetric four-arm pattern to reinforce the ring where loads are highest, much as Shimano has done for the past couple generations of Dura-Ace, Ultegra, etc. Seems like a good idea since the 1x rings here grow much taller than the mountain bike counterparts.

2017 Easton EC90 SL crankset with carbon fiber arms and cinch chainring mounting

2017 Easton EC90 SL crankset with carbon fiber arms and cinch chainring mounting

The 1x chainrings use a narrow-wide tooth profile optimized for the larger tooth counts used on road and cyclocross. The shape is designed to run quietly and reduce friction, too.

2017 Easton EC90 SL crankset with carbon fiber arms and cinch chainring mounting

2017 Easton EC90 SL crankset with carbon fiber arms and cinch chainring mounting

2017 Easton EC90 SL crankset with carbon fiber arms and cinch chainring mounting

2017 Easton EC90 SL crankset with carbon fiber arms and cinch chainring mounting

The carbon fiber arms are hollow and have a similar profile to the Next SL, but they are different. Slight angles carry forward about one third the length of the arms, but stop there. In contrast, the new Next SL arms get an almost bladed shape on one edge. In other words, these aren’t just repurposed RF cranks, they’re their own design.

2017 Easton EC90 SL crankset with carbon fiber arms and cinch chainring mounting

The drilled-out alloy 30mm spindle carries over, though, as do the new lightweight alloy pedal inserts. The threaded ring on the non-drive side takes up any slack in the system during install and only needs to be hand tightened, then locked down with a 2mm allen wrench.

2017 Easton EC90 SL crankset with carbon fiber arms and cinch chainring mounting

We love attention to detail, and even though we didn’t use them, the spacers have a tapered shape to remove a few extra grams and match the aesthetics of the cranks.

2017 Easton EC90 SL crankset with carbon fiber arms and cinch chainring mounting

Easton says both the 1x and 2x chainline is optimized for modern thru axle bikes with 12×142 (or 135mm QR) spacing. They list a 47mm chainline with 1x setup (43.5mm for 2x), which puts the chainring just slightly outboard of the middle cog on our Parlee Chebacco test bike. That resulted in it being a little noisier on the tall end of the cassette, but the chain was also a bit dusty from the prior day’s ride. This is shown with an Ultegra Di2 setup and standard road cassette.

2017 Easton EC90 SL crankset with carbon fiber arms and cinch chainring mounting

We received a set to test prior to the launch and they’re impressive. Not just light, but also stiff. Even the 1x chainring, with its slender arms and machined reliefs on the back, stayed straight under hard pedaling. To test chain retention, I rode back and forth on miles of rocky, sandy dirt and gravel roads. I even raced through a couple of short trail sections that had been misshapen by rain and subsequent prodding…which resulted in the same bumpy, irregular surface our NC ‘cross races typically have in the grass fields. Through it all, including bombing down stutter bump laden roads, the chain stayed on the ring. Considering there’s no clutch on the Ultegra derailleur, I’d say they work. Everything installed quickly and easily, too, which is always nice.

While I have no doubts they’ll perform just as well as the Next SL cranks I’ve been bashing about on my mountain bike, these will be going on my ‘cross race bike this fall for a season of muddy riding. There, it’ll be playing alongside a SRAM CX1 group with wide range cassette. Stay tuned…

Pricing and availability is:

  • 1x Crankset without BB – $449 USD – Available early August
  • 2x Crankset without BB – $499 USD – Available Fall 2016
  • Single DM Rings $74 to $94 USD – Available early August
  • Bottom Brackets – $59 USD – Available early August

EastonCycling.com

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24 Comments
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bazookasean
bazookasean
7 years ago

Good article. 242g + 274g = 518g not 418g though!

Dr J
Dr J
7 years ago

“Double chainrings (…) options are 53/39, 52/36, and 50/34.”

Oh, forget it. They had a chance to show us something interesting and are serving us the same stuff as others. Where are those 46/30 or 44/28 options?

boom
boom
7 years ago
Reply to  Dr J

You could get the 2 ring Next SL spider with the 104/64 BCD and put those chainring options on there.
This functionality is what I love about this. I’ve been wanting to put road gearing on a MTB gravel bike I’ve had for so long now. Ah, I do love it when parts are compatible and I can make my dream Frankenstein builds!

Morten Knudsen
Morten Knudsen
7 years ago
Reply to  Dr J

Agree – the market for a nice ROAD q-factor super-compact is defenatly there.

Derek
Derek
7 years ago
Reply to  Dr J

SRAM road and MTB spiders are interchangeable.

ascarlarkinyar
7 years ago

Tyler hire me as a proof reader and these math and grammar mistakes will not surface again…lol

xxx
xxx
7 years ago

interestingly its about the same price as everyone else, with the same specs as everyone else
i guess the difference is that they want to cater to road bikes more from a marketing pov

Velo
Velo
7 years ago

The last couple generations of Ultegra have had asymmetric rings?

ChknBreast
ChknBreast
7 years ago

Changing cinch rings on a Race Face crankset only needs a cassette lockring tool.

steve
steve
7 years ago
Reply to  ChknBreast

They actually need a ISIS BB tool not a cassette lockring tool to remove the chainring/spider

Dominic
Dominic
7 years ago
Reply to  steve

They keep saying ISIS, but it’s the same tool as just about every cartridge or square taper bb out there now. The only too i can think of as specific to ISIS is the truvativ one, which isn’t compatible with the RF lockring here

gee
gee
7 years ago
Reply to  ChknBreast

I was wondering that- I found a tool that worked in my toolbox, but it was so old, I couldn’t reember what it was… it’s well over a decade since I had an ISIS BB on a bike.

rideifbikes
rideifbikes
7 years ago

looks great, except the ec90sl logo, can we please update that? at least they dropped the yellow and red, gah!

Funny how they used so much tech from raceface, including carbon construction, when easton is suppose to be the composites company. I figured that tech would go the other way.

Heffe
Heffe
7 years ago

The crank looks cool, but I’d also like to hear more about the performance of that Parlee Chebacco is see here.

Joe Lee
Joe Lee
7 years ago

Any reason you couldn’t use them for MTB?

SHC
SHC
7 years ago

So does this mean that BSA30 is one of the BB options?

KS
KS
7 years ago

Why hasn’t Cinch catered to BB30A 70mm spindle yet? Need a better option than FSA but cheaper than Hollowgram for Cannondale road bikes!

steve
steve
7 years ago

Ppretty sure this crank would fit BB30A 70mm you would just need specific spacers which they may already make.

Jared Stritsman
Jared Stritsman
7 years ago

110/4 bcd like Shimano on the double spider?

Greg
Greg
7 years ago

Bb30a on Cannondales is 73mm (asymmetric)

KS
KS
7 years ago
Reply to  Greg

Typo, I meant 73mm

s4t1sfy
s4t1sfy
7 years ago

Is the spindle cannondale sisl2 compatible? Looks similar…

Steev
Steev
7 years ago

No 180mm option? 190? 200?

Thomas
Thomas
7 years ago

Agree with Dr J, where are the gravel chainrings? 48/32, 46/30, & 44/28.

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