Custom Appleman carbon fiber frame with 2XR Cranks and Denim logos
2xr crankset with purple direct mount chainring

2XR Cranks: made in USA

A modular crankset that fits all types of riders and bikes.

100-175mm crank lengths

5 widths (q-factor)

10 colors

Short Cranks?

How about proportional length cranks?

Current industry crank lengths is archaic and don’t match the wide ranging size of riders.

Cranks Move You

Nothing moves you more on the bike than the cranks do.

Appropriate length cranks can aid in comfort, fit and speed on the bike.

2xr cranks in black and silver
Ok, ok, you make cranks… but What else do you do?
Custom Appleman carbon fiber frame with 2XR Cranks and Denim logos

custom carbon fiber frames

Custom to the absolute core. Every tow of carbon, millimeter, and degree is designed with intent to produce a frame that is uniquely Appleman.

damaged carbon fiber bike

Carbon Frame Repair

It’s super sad to find out your frame is damaged. On the bright side, most types of damage can be repaired.

About Appleman Bicycles


In really short… Appleman Bicycles is the brainchild of me, Matt Appleman.

I’m a one-person shop and usually build bikes and cranks the hard way, but the right way (if there is such a thing).

The materials I work with speak to me and I like to honor that by using processes that make the materials happy.

In short, a knee injury in college sent me down the path of custom framebuilding.

I built a custom frame with wacky geometry to help my knee pain. It helped… a lot.

But I still had knee pain.

Then I started riding shorter cranks. As I got shorter and shorter (155mm) my knee pain was gone (woo wooo).

Eventually, this lead to me creating the 2XR Crankset.

The long story goes something like this…

I had a knee injury.

I also had a degree in composite materials engineering and had work experience building wind turbine blades and aerospace materials.

A custom geometry frame really helped my knee pain, but didn’t completely fix it.

I knew I was onto something. I also knew I didn’t like working for “the man” so I started Appleman Bicycles in 2010.

I started experimenting with shorter and shorter cranks and boom. I had a “drill and tap” set of 155mm cranks that relieved years of knee pain 🙂 (This was ~2013)

Custom frame customers also found sweet relief from appropriately sized cranks and that’s when I knew I was on to something.

Come 2022 and I really wasn’t happy with the cranks available (and my brilliant wife said it was a good idea). Like everything, I decided to make it difficult and make cranks from the ground up.

2XR Cranks are born. Designed to fit the wide range of people that ride a wide range of bikes. Uffda, thanks for reading all this.

-Matt Appleman

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