So I recently installed a [lightly used, purchased on Ebay] S-Works crankset on my 2015 Specialized Tarmac. After about three weeks of riding, I realized that there was a lot of play in the cranks, as in there was a lot of side to side movement. To remove play from this crankset, you tighten the three tiny, 1.5mm Allen bolts in the cone spacer against the frame on the non-drive side. All three had come very loose so I tightened them. After my next ride, I checked these bolts and all three had loosened again and there was play in the crankset again. There is Loctite on these bolts, so I don’t understand why they are coming loose like this, after just a two hour ride. Everything was installed and torqued per the instruction manual so that shouldn’t be the issue. Anyone have any experience with this and/or suggestions on how to fix the issue? I’ll admit, the Loctite perhaps is old and could use refreshing but it still seems wrong that just a two hour ride could significantly loosen the bolts. Thanks!
I have a ShivTT with the S-Works crankset and I experience the same thing. I just tighten the 1.5mm bolts before every ride at this point. I can see how that could get annoying, but since it’s my TT bike, I only ride it maybe 1-2 times a week.
It’s a crap design by Specialized and it over complicates something that isn’t that hard to design. For starters, bikes shouldn’t have tiny bolts like that bearing in mind the conditions they’re put through.
I own the same cranks and have had the same issue, loctite fixed it for me but I did strip the cranks down first and those 3 bolts need to line up with the collar they’re pushed up against. Your probably find some little indents on that other ring and it helps when the bolts sit in the correct place.
Sorry for the poor wording, it’s kinda hard to explain in text.
Yes, I’m 99% certain there is little indents where they should line up.
I took one of the screws to a local supplier, who measured it up and had some off the shelf, much cheaper and quicker rather than going through a local bike shop.
Hoping to revive this thread as I’ve been dealing with this same issue with my cranks the past few weeks. I pretty much just have to retighten down those 3 little bolts after any big ride.
I don’t have any play but I have lateral moving in my chainrings (both).
Every bolt is tight, and there is no any play or movement but when I rotate cranks I can see that on one part of the revolution chainrings have a lateral move.
Hi, just checked my Venge over as i have a dry sounding grind when under load, when i checked these small screws I found 2 of them have stripped the thread and i cannot tighten them. Would this noise i get be from these screws not being tight and how do I now fix the problem. Thanks
