Easton EA90 Crankset

When I was in high school oh so many eons ago, Easton meant one thing: lacrosse sticks.  Not that I was into lacrosse, or any sport except cycling.  But you’d see the sticks around, and puzzle over what inclined teenagers to batter each other with aluminum rods while passing a small ball around.  Lacrosse is like preppy jock lite rugby, I reckon.  

In 1939 James Easton, a maker of archery bows and arrows, introduced the world’s first aluminum shaft arrow.  He called it the air-oh, or maybe he didn’t.  I’m not keeping score.  Later, Easton went on introduce the first aluminum bats, made out of those aluminum Bud Light bottles that were everywhere a few years ago.   The Bud Light bottles were the perfect sized bats for little leaguers, and had the advantage of hydrating parents pre-game.  

In the 90’s, Frank the Welder pissed off John Parker by welding up some Easton aluminum tubing into a bike frame.  That was the (almost) the beginning of Easton’s rise in the world of bikes.  A while later, Easton was out cruising around in a bunny costume, just eating non-GMO lettuce, when Fox came out of nowhere and ate Easton.  Now Fox and Easton and Raceface are all the same conglomerate, which is in turn probably owned by 7-11 which is in turn owned by Bill Gates.  Allegedly.  

Listen, Easton knows more about aluminum than anyone except Mavic.  Mavic knows more, but is about as innovative as a pair of Levi’s 501’s.  The Easton EA90 cranks are simple, forged aluminum cranks for road, cross or gravel action (68mm BB shells only).  They can be set up as a 1x or a 2x, with either a direct mount CINCH chainring yielding a 47.5mm chainline, or a CINCH double spider yielding a 45mm chainline.  They are satin black, with beefy arms that are strong enough for any size rider.  Adjustable bearing preload, easy chainring install, and 30mm spindle to use with any BSA 30mm bottom bracket.