Hope Technology’s new machined crankset is one of those products that you hesitate to install simply because the sculpted, anodised and etched chunks of 7075 series aluminium look too good to spend their life striking rocks, being scuffed by shoes and rotating through British mud!

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Thankfully, though, this is exactly what they’re designed to do, and it’s taken Hope over seven years to ensure this crankset is more than up to the arduous task of being ridden through multiple wet UK winters.

BB is bombproof, cranks are spotless

First things first, installation requires careful attention, with four specific tools (included in the box) to fit/remove the crank arms, along with a Hope-specific bottom bracket spanner, 2.5mm and 10mm Allen keys, and a 14mm socket. You also need to follow the instructions to the letter. Men take note.

The reason for this complicated process is ensure durability and stiffness, so no matter how hard a life it gets, and regardless of how many times you remove and reinstall it, it should always provide a perfect fit.

Once installed and torqued up to a muscle-testing 70-75Nm, you should be good to go for a long time indeed, whatever your preferred type of riding.

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Our Hope bottom bracket is also still spinning smoothly and freely, although it does pay to check for lateral movement in the cranks every now and then — any play is easily remedied by tightening the bearing preload.

Tools needed for the job come included

Often with machined cranks, the box fresh finish wears fast, as shoes combined with mud, grind away at the crank’s exterior. But even with my abnormally big feet, the carefully thought-out finish still looks like new, with no obvious wear or fading of the anodising.

Add in a chainring and bottom bracket — both are sold separately — and the Hope crankset isn’t a cheap product, but installed correctly, it offers fantastic performance and reliability and really does look stunning.