Cannondale Hollowgram SL Crankset (Road)
The Cannondale SL Hollowgram crankset for road bikes is an ultra-light crankset. The cranks accomplish a good chunk of the weight savings, the ultralight rings do the rest. It is the crankarms that most riders lust after.
NOTE: my mechanic tells me that the Hollowgram crankset fits BB30 bottom bracket, but not fit PressFit 30 without some extra effort. Sorry, I have no details.
Cannondale rings
I won’t be using the absurdly thin Cannondale chainrings shown in the picture below, especially not with Shimano DuraAce Di2 electronic shifting— I value fast and reliable shifting, not saving a few grams on under-engineered chainrings, which are a key part of the power transfer equation.
Instead, I’ll be bolting on beefier FSA N10 rings that are for real world use for the torque exerted by Shimano DuraAce shifting. What remains to be seen is whether the beefier FSA rings provide an acceptable quality of shifting as compared to my usual DuraAce crankset (SRM 7950). If not, I’ll resell the Cannondale Hollowgram SL crankset; it’s very much desired on the used market.
Testing with Shimano DuraAce Di2
I’ll be installing the crankset as a test on my Moots Psychlo X RSL cyclocross bike with its Shimano DuraAce Di2 shifting. If it works well, the crankset together with an SRM spider will go onto my Moots Vamoots RSL road bike, the idea being that the road bike can benefit the most from the weight savings.
Bolt color
As shown, the crankset arrived with 3 color choices: red, green, black.
Fit and finish
The crankset I ordered arrived in a plain cardbox box, hardly inspiring for an ~$850 crankset. The spindle had to be ordered separately, and I am not sure why.
Fit and finish were very good in general, but also disappointing as there were some light surface scratches on the crankarm, which can actually be seen in my picture on the right-side crankarm (click to view a larger image, just above the letters “am” in “HOLLOWGRAM”).
Fit and finish here are not at the level of Shimano DuraAce, and the Cannondale rings are not even close in terms of robustness. Still, the crankarms have an outstanding reputation, so that is why I’m giving them a chance.
Weight as shown below (with one pair of bolts): 528 grams.
Weight does not include bearings, but DOES include the spindle shown in the picture (which is part of the bottom bracket in some cases, e.g. Shimano DuraAce).
FSA N10 rings
The same crankarms as above, but with the much beefier FSA N10 rings bolted on. These rings are much stronger, and should shift more reliably.
Replacing the Cannondale rings with the FSA N10 rings adds +48 grams, for a total weight as above of 576 grams— still incredibly light for a crankset.
