TOKEN Line Up – Bottom Brackets, Wheels, and the Shuriken

We had a chance to check in with TOKEN at Eurobike 2022, and ahead of some upcoming product reviews, thought it’d be a good time to give you an overview of what they do.

TOKEN was founded in 2002 in Taiwan by mechanical engineer James Chung. He had already been working with top brands in the industry for years and saw that precision is key to making top-quality products to enhance a rider’s experience. While my first TOKEN product was an aero seat post, the brand has made a name for itself with precise bearings in the form of headsets, and then on to bottom brackets. Since then, they have released wheelsets for various disciplines and their oversized pulley system, the Shuriken.

Bottom Bracket Solutions

When it comes to bottom brackets, TOKEN makes them for just about any bike and crank, from current standards like PF30, BB30, and BB386 to old school square taper bottom brackets. For PressFit style bottom brackets, like PF30, BB30, and BB386, TOKEN has two styles, a traditional PressFit and their thread-together Ninja models. PressFit bottom brackets have a notorious history of being a bit creaky, and the brand has a unique approach to solving this problem.

For the PressFit option, TOKEN uses a combination of plastic and nylon fibre to allow the brand to mold them to exacting standards, even if your frame is slightly out of tolerance. The mixture of materials offers a precise, snug fit, but also will fill the gaps as it settles in to help eliminate the dreaded creak of press-in style bottom brackets. TOKEN calls this their Compression Relief Design. An added benefit is that it also helps to trap some additional grease when installing them, helping to stay less prone to creaking. The cups are hand assembled with their Premium level carbon steel bearings and X-Seals for extended life with minimal drag.

The Ninja series bottom brackets blend an aluminum shell with the plastic and nylon fibre to create their Fusion construction. This covering is what separates TOKEN from other thread-together bottom brackets out there. The plastic and nylon fibre outer covering fits between the aluminum shell that the bearings sit in and your frame, helping to take up any gaps from any tolerances in your frame, eliminating the creak. The thread-together aluminum shell strengthens the bottom bracket laterally and helps keep the bottom bracket, bearings, and crankset all aligned to protect the life of the bearings and reduces friction from misalignment.

The Ninja series is offered in Premium or TOKEN’s TBT ceramic bearings. TBT uses precision ceramic balls with extremely hard races and makes for long-lasting bearings with low rolling resistance.  They use a titanium nitride coating on their steel races, which not only protects them from the ceramic balls, but also from corrosion, which makes them great for all-season use or demanding conditions like cyclocross, gravel, and mountain biking.

Another interesting option that TOKEN has is their Box kits. Currently, there are three options on offer to cover seriously any crank out there. For example, the TF37 7-1 Box we have coming in for review, starts with their TF4630 PF30 thread-together bottom bracket and adds various adapters to work with BB386 and BB392 frames, and crank standards like Shimano (24mm), SRAM GXP (24/22mm), and BB30/386/392. If you swap cranksets or just want flexibility for future builds or upgrades, it is a great option. The boxes are available in PressFit and thread-together, and Premium or TBT bearings.

The other interesting piece to the thread-together versions of the box sets (or available separately), is the installation tool. While most BB installation tools for thread-together bottom brackets are cups that sit outside and allow you to the thread them together, TOKEN’s tool actually slips inside of the bottom bracket like an axle of the crankset and makes sure that both sides are aligned and prevents cross threading. This is a brilliant concept that I can’t say I’ve seen anywhere else. The piece that comes with the box sets is more of a home-use version with a plastic cup, while the TF4630-3SPA is an all-metal shop-grade version. They have multiple versions to fit various BB standards, along with traditional cup-style installation tools too. We have the all-metal version coming along with the TF37 7-1 Box set for review.

Fast Wheels

TOKEN has also been building an arsenal of wheels to cover you for road, gravel, cyclocross, and even a couple mountain bike wheels. I’m going to focus on the carbon road and gravel wheels, but if you are looking for rim brake or aluminum options, they have those options as well.

For road, TOKEN has the Ventous, Konax Pro and Konax Tri. Each are available in rim and disc brake versions.

The Ventous is named after Mont Ventoux, while the Konax are named after the Kona Ironman World Championships. Based on the names, I’m sure you can tell the intended purposes of each wheelset. All three feature 20mm internal rim widths (up from 19mm on previous versions) and 27.4mm external widths. The 36mm tall Ventous has a claimed weight of 1,455g for the disc version, 1,342g for rim brake. The all-around Konax Pro (1,575/1,452g) measures 52mm tall, while the all-out speed-focused Tri (1,838/1,766g) is 76mm tall.

Each of these wheelsets are built up with 24 Pillar Wing 21 straight pull spokes front and rear for disc, 18f/21r Sapim CX-Ray Straight pull spokes, and TOKEN’s D1 disc brake or Z1 road hubs. Inside, the disc brake versions feature the brand’s Premium bearings while the rim brake versions have their TFT bearings, which use a mix of ceramic and steel bearings.

We have a pair of the Konax Tri on the way for review, so we’ll get into the design a little more in the upcoming review.

For gravel, cyclocross, and even cross-country, TOKEN has the RoubX. Named after the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix, the RoubX takes things even wider, measuring 25.3mm internal, 31.1mm external, and 33mm tall. Weighing in at 1,568g, they are built up with 24 Pillar Wing 14g straight pull spokes, D1 hubs, and Premium bearings. One of the main differences between the RoubX and TOKEN’s other road wheels is the rim is the Relevant Asymmetric Rim design that has a slightly asymmetrical shape to support the stresses of disc brake wheels on harsh conditions like gravel and mountain biking. The RoubX is also a hookless rim design. The mountain version, the RoubX (Boost), uses their high-flange M1 hub and J bend spokes.

Shuriken Oversized Pulley System

The final bit of kit from TOKEN is the Shuriken

Oversized Pulley System. For most of us, we would know a Shuriken as a throwing star, a bladed weapon that is thrown in some forms of marshal arts. For TOKEN, the Shuriken is your small weapon in speed. Like other oversized pulley systems, the aim is to reduce friction as the chain does smaller rotations around the larger pulley wheel. Each time the chain rotates, there is inherently a small amount of friction. The less the chain needs to pivot, the less friction.

Each model adds larger pulleys over stock. Available for 12 speed SRAM AXS drivetrains, Campy Super Record EPS 12 speed, and 11 Speed Shimano drivetrains, they all feature carbon fiber cage plates, except for the Shimano 105 R7000/R7020 model that has aluminum plates. The pulleys are aluminum and roll on TOKEN’s TBT ceramic bearings.