FSA Afterburner mountain bike crankset review

The smooth and shiny Afterburner certainly has looks dialled. Polished silver is a good choice for cranks – your heels usually turn them shiny after a while anyway.

Fortunately, construction details back up the aesthetics. FSA use hollow-forged crank arms, putting the metal where it’s best for stiffness. They’ve worked on low weight too, with machined chainrings and even 7075 aluminium Torx chainring bolts.

You get a suitable Torx driver in the box, which is a nice touch. The Afterburner can’t match the weight of its cheaper Shimano rivals but it’s still pretty competitive. And FSA’s CNC-machined 7075 chainrings deliver impressively slick shifting.