Remove External Bearing Cranks on Mountain Bikes

Video Transcript

"So to remove things here, if this was the Shimano one, I'd just be undoing the pre-load and then I'd be undoing the bolts over here on the left side. But here, I am pulling the arm off the splined interface by just loosening this one bearing. And it's wiggled and pretty much free. It looks like some of the teeth are still engaged on the bolt. There we go. We are free. So my left side is off. Sometimes, there's little spacers there to set up the chain line, just tiny little micro-spacers. Make sure you don't lose those. And now, it just is a simple matter of popping the left crank arm off. So I tapped it with the palm of my hand, as you can see by the grease, and I am almost out. It's a little bit of a rocking action. You want these to be tight seals. Otherwise, you have some problems with wear and dirt intrusion and stuff like that. So we've got to pull a little bit more. It would probably be easier if I pull from between my legs because that's the more ergonomic position for me. There we go. Wasn't pretty, but that's what it takes with these. If it had been a Shimano setup, after I had undone the pre-load bolts that would have been in here, I would have pulled out the drive side crank arm with the spindle on it, and it would have come out a lot easier. That's one of the reasons I like the Shimano system better. There we go, we have pulled off our two-piece crank set."