kamotE trails

I recently upgraded the stock crank from my Tern Link D8. The stock crank is steel which has a lot of flex that eats up the power you apply on the pedals. It also has a cartridge type square tapered bottom bracket that is really heavy. I was contemplating between a Shimano 105 and Litepro.  I decided on the Litepro because of easy sourcing. Specs: Outboard bottom bracket 170mm crank length 56T chainring Aluminum crank for stiffness One piece CNC chainring with integrated bash guard Weight Weight is definitely a big change with this upgrade. The outboard bottom bracket and aluminum cranks reduced the weight of the bike by around half a kilo. Performance The stiffness of the cranks definitely improved the pedaling feel. It felt lighter to pedal even with a higher tooth count. The jump from 52T to 56T increased the top speed of the bike but the climbs suffered. The effect was minimized because of the increase in pedaling efficiency brought by the stiff crank

I have been having a lot of chain drops on my Tern Link D8 recently so I decided to install a chain guide. The stock chain guide doesn't seem to prevent the chain from going to the outer side of the chain ring. I purchased the Tern Mainstay Chainguide from an online source for less than Php 500. The package came with an installation guide which is very handy. Installing it would require a bit of bike technical skill and tools. You would have to break your chain and join it again after installing the chain guide. Fine adjustment is pretty straight forward.  Even with a modified drivetrain (11-36 cogs), the chain guide fits well. I am hoping that changing the chain ring from 52T to 56T would not present any problems. So far, I have not yet experienced any chain drops even with aggressive shifting. It does its job and also made the bike look a bit cooler.