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I'm considering buying a TT bike that has a full SRAM Red group. I'm wondering if it's possible to use my Shimano Ultegra 6700 left-side crank in place of the SRAM Red crank.

Why? I've got a Stages power meter in the Shimano crank that I use on my regular road bike. One of the main reasons I went with the Stages meter was the flexibility of swapping the crank across multiple bikes. So, naturally I'd like to use my power meter on the TT bike by just swapping it.

I'd appreciate anyone's thoughts on using the two systems together!

EDIT/UPDATE: I ended up buying the TT bike. As the answer below says the SRAM crankset is not compatible with the Ultegra crank. So, I bought a used Ultegra crankset and put that on in place of the SRAM one. There was a spacer on the left side of the bottom bracket that had to be removed in order to get the Ultegra crankset to fit. I just tapped the bearing out, removed the little sleeve and tapped the bearing back in, took about 10 minutes total.

The new hybrid SRAM-Shimano drivetrain functions perfectly, I even swapped out the big ring from the SRAM set for the Ultegra one (SRAM ring is a 55 which I like having on the TT bike). It looks a bit wonky with the mismatched crank/ring combo but everything works fine!

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    I've got a similar issue - I have two bikes with Ultegra cranks and one bike with SRAM Red and want to buy a Stages power meter to fit all three. Did you ever buy the TT bike? I was thinking of swapping my Red chainset for an Ultegra or DuraAce one.
    – philwilks
    Apr 9, 2014 at 13:53
  • Thanks so much for the update Kevin - was your SRAM Red crankset the older 2010 era one, as opposed to the updated 2012 version?
    – philwilks
    Apr 9, 2014 at 15:00
  • Honestly I don't know. The bike is a 2011 Trek Speed Series if that helps out. (This one: trekbikes.com/int/en/bikes/2011/archive/trek/speedconcept99)
    – Kevin
    Apr 9, 2014 at 15:12
  • Yep that's the same as mine (original Red) except mine's a compact. Thanks!
    – philwilks
    Apr 9, 2014 at 15:48
  • Just FYI - the bolt patterns on compact cranks are different than the standard. If you're planning on swapping out the standard size chainrings make sure you're using the right bolt patterns.
    – Kevin
    Apr 9, 2014 at 18:28

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Speaking under correction, because I don't know the exact model, but have owned Shimano & SRAM in the last few years. The two systems aren't compatible to the point that you can just swap the left side crank.

But, you will be able to swap both sides. In other words, once you've taken the left side off, the right side, with chainrings and all should just slide out. You can then put the whole shebang onto the other bike. As long as the chainrings are the same size (i.e. 53x39) you won't need to move the front deraileur to accommodate the change.

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    The Ultegra crankset won't quite fit into a SRAM bottom bracket. The SRAM bike is going to be either GXP or BB30, while Shimano are using their Hollowtech 2 standard. If it's BB30 it may work with an adapter. Nov 1, 2013 at 1:38

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