Odyssey wombolt cranks (Mc Rib buster)
Tuesday, July 1, 2008 at 07:10PM 
Well I first want to say that I'am a big fan of odyssey bmx. I think they are very forward thinking and have great ideas and a great image. With that said, I was sorely disappointed with the Wombolt cranks. When I first heard and read about them I was compeletly sold. I thought, man that's a great design. The wombolts are lighter than your traditional profile cranks with a ti spindle for a slightly reasonable price. The problem is that, I have gone through 2 pairs in less than a year. I hate to say it but I am not a heavy dude and I am not that hard on a bike in my opinion. I'm sure others could agree with that. The first set did snap on a sizable trick a rail 180, maybe a 6 stair into the grass. Luckily they just cracked and twisted around so I made out pretty good. The second time I was not so lucky. I had been riding all day off and on in Jackson with Brock and Rory. We ended up stopping and riding X-plex on our way home for a little while until my cranks snapped on a drop in, which liked to kill me. It was one of those dropins where you kind of crank and hop in and pump as hard as you can so you can have all the speed you need for a nice air. The cranks snapped and I ended up flopping my ribs onto my tire and from there just struggled to breath for a while. I thought I had broke or cracked some ribs or some how busted some internal guts. So the moral of the story, please do not buy "wombreaks" unless you have no problem with dying. I am happily riding profiles now and I have never personly broke a set of profiles. I have even had pairs that were at least 5 yrs old with no problems.
jon
p.s. I have to thank mid city bikes for helping me with all my bike problems. Make sure to check those dudes out.And Hasslehoff you were def right about the whole wombreak thing.
Reader Comments (9)
Were they both the first versions of the wombolts? That problem was supposed to be fixed in the revised wombolts. I had the first version and I sent them in before they had a problem and they sent me the revised wombolts for free.
yeah i had the second batch i'm pretty sure because the welds were larger so i felt pretty confident with the second pair until the wreck but i will not be riding those because it's been 3 weeks and it still hurts to take deep breaths, i can not sleep on my one side yet and i had an ER visit which will set me back. shit hurt.
jon
damn man, that fucking sucks. and makes me uncomfortable about riding mine...
The cranks in the Bestwick video were Fly Cranks, NOT Wombolts. It's been discussed endlessly online.
Sorry to hear of the problems, obviously without seeing the cranks in question I cant say what caused them to break, but I can assure you that the return rate for Wombolts has never been as high as the amount of internet-hype would suggest and is even lower these days, and the kind of failure you have here is particularly unusual. Our entire office and team riders have used the crank daily for years, and many riders that aren't on our team also choose the crank for it's strength, reliability and light weight and are very happy with it.
As one of your other commenters has remarked, the cranks that broke in that video were NOT Wombolts, however, this clip still helps to illustrate that it is very possible for OTHER cranks to fail. With that said, from a factual standpoint, I am sure that the failure rate for Wombolts is much lower than most other cranks that are available. Wombolts have been out now for about two years and we have continually strived to improve them whenever possible, we back them up with a very solid warranty and we make every effort to support the users. While most companies shy away from discussing issues and solutions, we embrace the opportunity to investigate all of the feedback that is available to us so we can improve the product whenever necessary. A new version of the Wombolt will be available very soon that makes significant improvements to both the strength and user-friendliness of the crank, whilst actually still managing to save a little weight too. If you would like to warranty this pair for the new version when it becomes available, this will obviously not be a problem. You are welcome to return them to Odyssey at any time.
As a side note, we would also appreciate if you removed the Jamie Bestwick clip (or labeled it accurately) since the issue described in the video was not related to us.
Thanks,
George
Sorry about the Bestwick video I did not research it at all and its my fault sorry, I want you to know that I'm not trying to slander you guys at all I'm just trying to do an honest review and I would hate for people to get hurt if it could be avoid. I'm still a huge fan of odyssey and g-sport products I think you guys are awesome.jon
erik just broke his second set on a parking lot 180.....new batch. and odyssey replied with no cranks will be available for return for 3 months. sounds like high volume returns to me.......
I've done that same clean snap on profiles just hopping on flat... They were a few years old though. Still running profiles. We put a lot of trust in the metal and welds we put under us. Dangerous shit.
man I broke 2 pairs of wombolts in less then a year. Profiles I have never broke but I have broke the 3 piece mongoose cranks back in 97.
jon