LightningRods mid drive kit

[Wishes]

I need someone's knowledge about a way to use the lightening rod kit with my 1997 GT LTS-1 I have a 34mm internal threaded bottom bracket and it uses the Shimano un72 and shimano square tapered spindles. How will I be able to use Mike's kit on this bike... Oh and the bottom bracket is 73mm wide. Thanks .....

I did a quick google on your bike. Seems standard at the BB level which should accommodate this kit easily.

Did you have a specific concern about something not fitting?

Wishes

 

[BRK]

Interesting problems... I have my kit in now and have been installing it some yesterday. There are multiple issues one has to figure out since this is a prototype kit without instructions and you need to be pretty smart and experienced to get the job done. I love the challenge and while I have worked through most of the issues (by making seemingly every mistake), I have one perplexing issue I just can not figure out.

This is my first ISIS exposure, and the ISIS connector bolts just seem to be too short. The crank arms seem to slide on just fine, but the bolts are only catching 1 or 2 threads. The extra washers don't come off the bolts. Is there something inside the crank arms I need to remove? Are these splines actually placment specific and I need to rotate the crank arms to a certain position before sliding them on? I keep looking at the Dremel on my shelf, but I just have the feeling I am missing something fairly simple and fundamental here and that I'll feel foolish once it is revealed.

 

[Wishes]

Interesting problems... I have my kit in now and have been installing it some yesterday. There are multiple issues one has to figure out since this is a prototype kit without instructions and you need to be pretty smart and experienced to get the job done. I love the challenge and while I have worked through most of the issues (by making seemingly every mistake), I have one perplexing issue I just can not figure out.

This is my first ISIS exposure, and the ISIS connector bolts just seem to be too short. The crank arms seem to slide on just fine, but the bolts are only catching 1 or 2 threads. The extra washers don't come off the bolts. Is there something inside the crank arms I need to remove? Are these splines actually placment specific and I need to rotate the crank arms to a certain position before sliding them on? I keep looking at the Dremel on my shelf, but I just have the feeling I am missing something fairly simple and fundamental here and that I'll feel foolish once it is revealed.

The crank arms must not be seated completely in if you re catching a thread or 2 only? They should not slide all the way in by themselves, the screws will press them in as you tighten. But you should be catching more than 2 threads to start it off.

Wishes

 

[emaayan]

Interesting problems... I have my kit in now and have been installing it some yesterday. There are multiple issues one has to figure out since this is a prototype kit without instructions and you need to be pretty smart and experienced to get the job done. I love the challenge and while I have worked through most of the issues (by making seemingly every mistake), I have one perplexing issue I just can not figure out.

This is my first ISIS exposure, and the ISIS connector bolts just seem to be too short. The crank arms seem to slide on just fine, but the bolts are only catching 1 or 2 threads. The extra washers don't come off the bolts. Is there something inside the crank arms I need to remove? Are these splines actually placment specific and I need to rotate the crank arms to a certain position before sliding them on? I keep looking at the Dremel on my shelf, but I just have the feeling I am missing something fairly simple and fundamental here and that I'll feel foolish once it is revealed.

Can you list the issues you encountered?

 

[ebike11]

Interesting problems... I have my kit in now and have been installing it some yesterday. There are multiple issues one has to figure out since this is a prototype kit without instructions and you need to be pretty smart and experienced to get the job done. I love the challenge and while I have worked through most of the issues (by making seemingly every mistake), I have one perplexing issue I just can not figure out.

This is my first ISIS exposure, and the ISIS connector bolts just seem to be too short. The crank arms seem to slide on just fine, but the bolts are only catching 1 or 2 threads. The extra washers don't come off the bolts. Is there something inside the crank arms I need to remove? Are these splines actually placment specific and I need to rotate the crank arms to a certain position before sliding them on? I keep looking at the Dremel on my shelf, but I just have the feeling I am missing something fairly simple and fundamental here and that I'll feel foolish once it is revealed.

Oh..im having the same problem on my ISIS cyclone crank set
Bolt isnt catching a lot and I cant remove the washer
I need a longer bolt it seems..but hard to find
The problem is on the right side not left

 

[emaayan]

Interesting problems... I have my kit in now and have been installing it some yesterday. There are multiple issues one has to figure out since this is a prototype kit without instructions and you need to be pretty smart and experienced to get the job done. I love the challenge and while I have worked through most of the issues (by making seemingly every mistake), I have one perplexing issue I just can not figure out.

This is my first ISIS exposure, and the ISIS connector bolts just seem to be too short. The crank arms seem to slide on just fine, but the bolts are only catching 1 or 2 threads. The extra washers don't come off the bolts. Is there something inside the crank arms I need to remove? Are these splines actually placment specific and I need to rotate the crank arms to a certain position before sliding them on? I keep looking at the Dremel on my shelf, but I just have the feeling I am missing something fairly simple and fundamental here and that I'll feel foolish once it is revealed.

Oh..im having the same problem on my ISIS cyclone crank set
Bolt isnt catching a lot and I cant remove the washer
I need a longer bolt it seems..but hard to find
The problem is on the right side not left

from what i can tell, the BB and crankset , are not L-R build , but a standard set, used by sickbikeparts and the likes (i think even cyclone uses them)

 

[ebike11]

Interesting problems... I have my kit in now and have been installing it some yesterday. There are multiple issues one has to figure out since this is a prototype kit without instructions and you need to be pretty smart and experienced to get the job done. I love the challenge and while I have worked through most of the issues (by making seemingly every mistake), I have one perplexing issue I just can not figure out.

This is my first ISIS exposure, and the ISIS connector bolts just seem to be too short. The crank arms seem to slide on just fine, but the bolts are only catching 1 or 2 threads. The extra washers don't come off the bolts. Is there something inside the crank arms I need to remove? Are these splines actually placment specific and I need to rotate the crank arms to a certain position before sliding them on? I keep looking at the Dremel on my shelf, but I just have the feeling I am missing something fairly simple and fundamental here and that I'll feel foolish once it is revealed.

The crank arms must not be seated completely in if you re catching a thread or 2 only? They should not slide all the way in by themselves, the screws will press them in as you tighten. But you should be catching more than 2 threads to start it off.

Wishes

I think its the thick edge around the freewheel that making contact with BB first so the crank set doesnt
slide on far enough

 

[emaayan]

Interesting problems... I have my kit in now and have been installing it some yesterday. There are multiple issues one has to figure out since this is a prototype kit without instructions and you need to be pretty smart and experienced to get the job done. I love the challenge and while I have worked through most of the issues (by making seemingly every mistake), I have one perplexing issue I just can not figure out.

This is my first ISIS exposure, and the ISIS connector bolts just seem to be too short. The crank arms seem to slide on just fine, but the bolts are only catching 1 or 2 threads. The extra washers don't come off the bolts. Is there something inside the crank arms I need to remove? Are these splines actually placment specific and I need to rotate the crank arms to a certain position before sliding them on? I keep looking at the Dremel on my shelf, but I just have the feeling I am missing something fairly simple and fundamental here and that I'll feel foolish once it is revealed.

The crank arms must not be seated completely in if you re catching a thread or 2 only? They should not slide all the way in by themselves, the screws will press them in as you tighten. But you should be catching more than 2 threads to start it off.

Wishes

I think its the thick edge around the freewheel that making contact with BB first so the crank set doesnt
slide on far enough

so all he needs are longer bolts?
if that is so, then i guess I'LL need some longer one as well, hmm mental note, need to check with mike before she ships my kit out.

can you post some images to help visualize ?

 

[jdevo2004]

Not sure if this is helpful but I have been using a rubber mallet to tighten up the crank gear to the BB, I get around 4-5 threads on the bolt after that. Pain in the ass taking the crank gears off after that but a little brute force and back and forth motion usually does the trick.
For me the crank gears and bb were the most difficult thing to get right because of the design of my bike.

 

[BRK]

Oh..im having the same problem on my ISIS cyclone crank set
Bolt isnt catching a lot and I cant remove the washer
I need a longer bolt it seems..but hard to find
The problem is on the right side not left

This one is SOLVED! I looked up the standard for the ISIS crank and the spindle "valleys" are freaking tapered 1 degree. It's supposed to be a force fit. I am just not getting it far enough on. Then I realized I have the black cranks to match LR's black out scheme. This liitle bit of paint plus some loose tolerances stack up to make this a pain to slide on. So I took a little sandpaper to it and cleaned up the inside of the crank, just a little..in fact I did not even remove all the paint except in a few high places. Then, i put it back on with some grease and a gentle whack with my rubber mallet and voila' it went on about 3mm more! That allowed me to get some good thread on there and really pull it with the screw.

Now my other problem is the cart chain..I don't know whether to put it on my bike, or to wear it out to the discoteque?

 

[emaayan]

Oh..im having the same problem on my ISIS cyclone crank set
Bolt isnt catching a lot and I cant remove the washer
I need a longer bolt it seems..but hard to find
The problem is on the right side not left

This one is SOLVED! I looked up the standard for the ISIS crank and the spindle "valleys" are freaking tapered 1 degree. It's supposed to be a force fit. I am just not getting it far enough on. Then I realized I have the black cranks to match LR's black out scheme. This liitle bit of paint plus some loose tolerances stack up to make this a pain to slide on. So I took a little sandpaper to it and cleaned up the inside of the crank, just a little..in fact I did not even remove all the paint except in a few high places. Then, i put it back on with some grease and a gentle whack with my rubber mallet and voila' it went on about 3mm more! That allowed me to get some good thread on there and really pull it with the screw.

Now my other problem is the cart chain..I don't know whether to put it on my bike, or to wear it out to the discoteque?

Pics or it never happened..

 

[sparkz]

jdevo asked:

You sure this works with the kit? Can you take a picture of it on your bike?

Sorry, I don't have the kit, yet. I have seen pictures of others putting the guide on their builds to keep from sucking the chain between the chainring and the freewheel, but have not tried it myself. As I stated, I am building a fat bike with a 100mm bottom bracket. I was hoping someone else had tried this fix on a big-bottomed bike. You know what they say about pioneers...

I will be posting a build thread when I get all the parts, with step-by-step photo sequences. Pain should be shared.

 

[BRK]

j... As I stated, I am building a fat bike with a 100mm bottom bracket. I was hoping someone else had tried this fix on a big-bottomed bike. You know what they say about pioneers...

I am installing this kit on a 29+ Surly ECR.. I am having some fit problems, but I think I have it worked out now. My last step is to align the front chainring...double chainrings is out, just won't fit. So I have taken the smaller inner chain ring and putting it in the outer chainring position and eliminate the larger outer chainring. Now the chainring spacers and screws don't fit right and am I am scrounging up some screws and spacers to hopefully work.

My question for you is where are you getting your bottom bracket parts from? Can you even get an ISIS BB for a 100mm BB?

 

[Burdett]

Yes Wishes!! I did not know if I use my own bb and cranks with the lightening rod kit..... Thanks for reply

 

[BRK]

The crank arms must not be seated completely in if you re catching a thread or 2 only? They should not slide all the way in by themselves, the screws will press them in as you tighten. But you should be catching more than 2 threads to start it off. Wishes

Not sure if this is helpful but I have been using a rubber mallet to tighten up the crank gear to the BB, I get around 4-5 threads on the bolt after that. Pain in the ass taking the crank gears off after that but a little brute force and back and forth motion usually does the trick.
For me the crank gears and bb were the most difficult thing to get right because of the design of my bike.

Apologies to both Wishes and jdevo2004 - both of you guys were right on..I wrote my post and went off to do my ISIS research and I was so excited when I got back, I did not catch up on the thread, before I posted what I had learned. Credit to both of you!

 

[emaayan]

The crank arms must not be seated completely in if you re catching a thread or 2 only? They should not slide all the way in by themselves, the screws will press them in as you tighten. But you should be catching more than 2 threads to start it off. Wishes

Not sure if this is helpful but I have been using a rubber mallet to tighten up the crank gear to the BB, I get around 4-5 threads on the bolt after that. Pain in the ass taking the crank gears off after that but a little brute force and back and forth motion usually does the trick.
For me the crank gears and bb were the most difficult thing to get right because of the design of my bike.

Apologies to both Wishes and jdevo2004 - both of you guys were right on..I wrote my post and went off to do my ISIS research and I was so excited when I got back, I did not catch up on the thread, before I posted what I had learned. Credit to both of you!

wait, so you DO have to hammer it in ?
are the BB and crankset new to L-R ? if not , how come no-one had a problem with them on the GNG upgrade?

 

[BRK]

wait, so you DO have to hammer it in ?
are the BB and crankset new to L-R ? if not , how come no-one had a problem with them on the GNG upgrade?

Emaayan,
Using the ISIS Crankset is one of LR's mods to increase the strength of the drive system. The only ISIS crankset wide enough for the system is made by Cyclone. The crank arms are also supplied by Cyclone. With the ISIS splines being tapered, this makes for a very tight fit, especially with a painted crank arm. I would recommend four steps to install.

1.) First realize you are using a tapered system and that it will get tighter as it gets deeper.
2.) If needed, clean the inside of the crank arm lightly with fine sandpaper and then clean away all dust and particles.
3.) Grease the spline and crank arm, and lighty tap the crankarm (with a rubber mallet) until you can get a few threads going on the screw. Don't use a steel hammer or wail on it. If it doesn't ease on, then remove it and rework it until it does.
4.) Then use the screw to pull it in until you are satisfied, or until it bottoms out on the shoulder.

BTW, you really need a crank arm puller such as Part tool CCP-44 to remove those cranks. A regular square drive puller CCP-22 also works if you have a washer or coin you can put inside the crank to cover the screw hole on the end of the ISIS spline. I think without that washer, you can wreck the spline, if the washer is too big, you can wreck your crank arm..so be careful.

On a final note, the ISIS standard can be found at http://www.isisdrive.com/ .. If you read this standard and look at the drawings, you'll see that there are actually go no-go guages to be used for determining the proper fit for both the spline and the crank prior to assembly. That would be the way to do it if you were building a $10,000 bike for the Tour de France. My sandpaper method above is a crude work around from not having perfect parts or those go no-go gages.

 

[emaayan]

wait, so you DO have to hammer it in ?
are the BB and crankset new to L-R ? if not , how come no-one had a problem with them on the GNG upgrade?

Emaayan,
Using the ISIS Crankset is one of LR's mods to increase the strength of the drive system. The only ISIS crankset wide enough for the system is made by Cyclone. The crank arms are also supplied by Cyclone. With the ISIS splines being tapered, this makes for a very tight fit, especially with a painted crank arm. I would recommend four steps to install.

1.) First realize you are using a tapered system and that it will get tighter as it gets deeper.
2.) If needed, clean the inside of the crank arm lightly with fine sandpaper and then clean away all dust and particles.
3.) Grease the spline and crank arm, and lighty tap the crankarm (with a rubber mallet) until you can get a few threads going on the screw. Don't use a steel hammer or wail on it. If it doesn't ease on, then remove it and rework it until it does.
4.) Then use the screw to pull it in until you are satisfied, or until it bottoms out on the shoulder.

BTW, you really need a crank arm puller such as Part tool CCP-44 to remove those cranks. A regular square drive puller CCP-22 also works if you have a washer or coin you can put inside the crank to cover the screw hole on the end of the ISIS spline. I think without that washer, you can wreck the spline, if the washer is too big, you can wreck your crank arm..so be careful.

On a final note, the ISIS standard can be found at http://www.isisdrive.com/ .. If you read this standard and look at the drawings, you'll see that there are actually go no-go guages to be used for determining the proper fit for both the spline and the crank prior to assembly. That would be the way to do it if you were building a $10,000 bike for the Tour de France. My sandpaper method above is a crude work around from not having perfect parts or those go no-go gages.

thanks i was initially under the impression that the freewheel is the one that's doing the problems (someone here mentioned it's thickness being in the way) however, since this is just an issue with arms and BB, i'm using a thun bb and square taper, so i'm guessing this doesn't apply to me.

BUT, this golden message should NOT be lost here, i recommend magnets should placed this in the original message, in a form of an F.A.Q, as already several folks have encountered this issue.

 

[ebike11]

wait, so you DO have to hammer it in ?
are the BB and crankset new to L-R ? if not , how come no-one had a problem with them on the GNG upgrade?

Emaayan,
Using the ISIS Crankset is one of LR's mods to increase the strength of the drive system. The only ISIS crankset wide enough for the system is made by Cyclone. The crank arms are also supplied by Cyclone. With the ISIS splines being tapered, this makes for a very tight fit, especially with a painted crank arm. I would recommend four steps to install.

1.) First realize you are using a tapered system and that it will get tighter as it gets deeper.
2.) If needed, clean the inside of the crank arm lightly with fine sandpaper and then clean away all dust and particles.
3.) Grease the spline and crank arm, and lighty tap the crankarm (with a rubber mallet) until you can get a few threads going on the screw. Don't use a steel hammer or wail on it. If it doesn't ease on, then remove it and rework it until it does.
4.) Then use the screw to pull it in until you are satisfied, or until it bottoms out on the shoulder.

BTW, you really need a crank arm puller such as Part tool CCP-44 to remove those cranks. A regular square drive puller CCP-22 also works if you have a washer or coin you can put inside the crank to cover the screw hole on the end of the ISIS spline. I think without that washer, you can wreck the spline, if the washer is too big, you can wreck your crank arm..so be careful.

On a final note, the ISIS standard can be found at http://www.isisdrive.com/ .. If you read this standard and look at the drawings, you'll see that there are actually go no-go guages to be used for determining the proper fit for both the spline and the crank prior to assembly. That would be the way to do it if you were building a $10,000 bike for the Tour de France. My sandpaper method above is a crude work around from not having perfect parts or those go no-go gages.

thanks i was initially under the impression that the freewheel is the one that's doing the problems (someone here mentioned it's thickness being in the way) however, since this is just an issue with arms and BB, i'm using a thun bb and square taper, so i'm guessing this doesn't apply to me.

BUT, this golden message should NOT be lost here, i recommend magnets should placed this in the original message, in a form of an F.A.Q, as already several folks have encountered this issue.

Oh so all of the ISIS are the cyclone ones only?? Thats what i bought for mine

 

[BRK]

Oh so all of the ISIS are the cyclone ones only?? Thats what i bought for mine

Yes, that's on page one of this thread in SpinningMagnets introduction of the kit.

 

[BRK]

I'll try to post a couple of photos here...here goes....

All I have done so far is mount the motor. I am taking my time as opposed to my usual "work straight thru until completed" approach. I have worked and reworked the chain lines and belt and chain tensions until I think I have them set up as well as I can.

 

[Wishes]

I'll try to post a couple of photos here...here goes....

All I have done so far is mount the motor. I am taking my time as opposed to my usual "work straight thru until completed" approach. I have worked and reworked the chain lines and belt and chain tensions until I think I have them set up as well as I can.

Looks very nice, take a picture of your chain lines.

Wishes

 

[sparkz]

BRK - Is that a Moonie you are building?

 

[litespeed]

All "murdered" out looks very cool!

Tom

 

[t0me]

FYI I heard from Mike this morning. Reading between the lines, he's getting through about 5 orders per week at the moment. My order was about 10 away (so about 2 weeks).
If you use that and the previous production list posted a few pages back you will get an estimate of when to expect yours (assuming you're on that list).

Cheers,
Tom