Everybody that rides seriously knows RaceFace. I can remember when I first got into the sport, seeing the RaceFace Turbine cranks was love at first sight. Sleek machined metal, light weight, stiff as a coffin nail…and the colors…

Fast forward a couple of years. The big thing now is outboard bearing cranks, and of course, RaceFace is right there. The Atlas represents the middle of the spectrum. Not XC (those are the Deus) and not gnarhucker DH (those are the Diablous) but right in the middle of the all mountain spectrum. The Atlas are designed for the rider that's going to go up, down, hit the odd drop here and there, smile when they see a rock garden, and point and laugh at people in spandex.

At a respectable 796g (excluding triple rings), the Atlas cranks are pretty damn good, especially when you consider that the weight includes the BB. Raceface gives you the choice of rings, or you can hook up your own and a bashguard. If you really want, you can do them with a chainguide too, although RaceFace says they "aren't for downhill or extreme freeride."

So, we gave them to the DH guys.

Of course, as an all mountain cranks, they are going to be just fine. RaceFace has been at this crank thing since 1992, so you'd have to imagine they must have learned a thing of two by now. The Atlas does an excellent job of carrying on the RaceFace name by outperforming their intended duties. Under a few Elite level DH racers, the Atlas cranks did just fine. No real noticeable flexing, no bending, and barely a complaint out of the BB (which was a huge surprise). Admittedly, neither of the racers on them is a hard hitting 200 pounders, but they are fast, and they know how to lay the smackdown on a course. Being smooth definitely helps out, but still they held up and that's what counts. Kudos for that.

In the all mountain range, they did exactly what you would expect. After a year of use in variable conditions, one set did have some roughness in the BB, but for the most part they stayed just fine and continued to do their job.

As far as the BB goes, there are a few things you can do. RaceFace makes their BB's fairly cheap to replace, so at about $60 bucks you can throw in the DH BB, and have a little extra durability for a minor weight penalty. You can swap in a Shimano BB if you want too. Despite what RaceFace says officially, you CAN rebuild the BBs, if you know what you are doing. If you want to get really fancy, you can replace the bearings with ceramic ones, and rock the ultra light uber pimp BB to impress all your friends. Ok they won't know until you tell them, but you still have the thrill of knowing what you've got hiding in there. Kinda like knowing your girlfriend (or boyfriend, I guess) is wearing something naughty under their standard clothing.

Also to note on he BBs, for 07 RaceFace is starting to use Phil Wood grease, so that ought to help out with the durability problem. Apparently the older BBs used grease that loved water, so on the first good washing the grease would run away with the water, leaving you with a rather dry and unhappy set of bearings.

On a personal note, I wish RaceFace would follow Shimano's idea with the Hone cranks. It would be very nice to be able to choose from two versions of the Atlas cranks. One standard as it is, and one version with a steel pedal insert, dual ring with bashguard setup, and the DH bb. Even better, offer that in an 83mm version, and you've just made a whole lot of gravity racers very, very happy.

In short, the Atlas cranks are winners, and probably don't get the love they deserve. We can comfortably say that they will take smooth, light weight DH racing, but if you are the badass gnar/ huck it type, go Diablous. The Altas comes with RaceFace's stellar warranty, but it won't cover you being a tool and bending all mountain cranks on a 30 foot case.