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Crank set

R

RideMonkey

Guest
Go for the Race Face cranks. I got XT's this year and I am sorry. Check the thread regarding the XT cranks in the Mechanics Q&A forum.

RM
 

RadRacer84

Chimp
Jul 7, 2001
21
0
I would go Race Face if you have the money.
I am parshal to the Next LP or the North Shore but that is my oppinion.
XT are nice but I would go with the quare taper ones becasue the splines are messed up for both the carnks and the bb plus you don't save enough weight to even worry about getting the splines. I think with the splines you save maybe 10g. I am not sure though. I know in the bb you save 7g
 

oldfart

Turbo Monkey
Jul 5, 2001
1,206
24
North Van
Either crank is worthy. But there are rumours about ISIS Rf bb not being very good, at least the first version. Go splined though, its not about weight its stiffness. Its just plain a better system.

Some people I've spoken with say if you go big, do not get the XT. Apparently some of the North Shore crowd have broken those. The cranks that is not bb's.

My personal experience with Race Face has been bad so I won't buy their stuff no mo. Most have no problem though.
 

RadRacer84

Chimp
Jul 7, 2001
21
0
the whole xt spline system was poorly engineered by shimano and there has been alot of problems with the splines. Yes the splines are stiffer if you get them to work. I would stick with something that works such as a square taper. The XTR type spline thing (what ever you want to call it) is fine it is a completely different system. If you got the money go with XTR.
peace RadRacer84
 

DaveW

Space Monkey
Jul 2, 2001
11,162
2,686
The bunker at parliament
Go for Race Face lp's they are the bee's nee's.
But dont get the next Carbon insert ones they are gimicky junk.
I havent tried the new splined shimano's so I can't say any thing about them.
 

Bike Mojo

Monkey
Jul 14, 2001
126
0
San Antonio, Texass
Originally posted by HELLTACO
I would trust Shamano to make a fine product. Also Shamano has more chance ta be around for a long time.

Race Face doesn't make fishing crap, they just make badass bike stuff. I broke an XT crank (I'm 165lbs) now have the Race Face LP's. Very stiff. Get 'em and as Boston said "Don't Look Back"


 

oldfart

Turbo Monkey
Jul 5, 2001
1,206
24
North Van
Originally posted by Bike Mojo



Race Face doesn't make fishing crap, they just make badass bike stuff.

And Shimano have made more bike stuff in one year than RF have in their lifetime. They've made bike parts for a long time and although they have made some mistakes, and they all do, they do make some of the most consistently good stuff around.

Just because you broke one crank does not prove that all they make is bad. I broke 3 RF Turbine LP's in a 3 month period. I weigh 138#s, I've had a poorly machined RF Thermo SP headset that refused to work. It would either be loose or would bind. I've also had a RF Real Seal hs that was a quite good. Although if you look at those plastic seals critically its a stupid design that channels water into the HS. Acccordingly I needed new bearings every year. My King is better as is the Synchros on my road bike.

But my experience is not the same as my buddies who has cranks posts and stems. They're square taper bb's are in my opinion and a lot of others crap. Check out mtbr.com for the reviews. It seems like about 50% have great reviews and the rest blew through the bearings in no time.

I don't know of any one personnaly who has had xt splined problems, but you should ask a mechanic at a good large shop that sells and installs and services both brands. the greasmonkey knows. He's seen a lot, right Patrick K.?
 

Bike Mojo

Monkey
Jul 14, 2001
126
0
San Antonio, Texass
Originally posted by oldfart
Just because you broke one crank does not prove that all they make is bad. [/B]


There is more to the story than just breaking the crank arm. It happened at the same time that Interbike was on in Vegas. The dude at the LBS calls Shimano to see what they can do for me..... there was NOBODY there. Can you imagine that a company that has

Originally posted by oldfart
made more bike stuff in one year than RF have in their lifetime. [/B]
sends everybody to Interbike? Then when Interbike was all said and done they send me the wrong replacement piece. Shimano keeps changing stuff they don't even know how to replace some of their own parts. 4 arm, 5 arm, compact....... yadda yadda yadda......

My LBS dude and I were f@#*ing around with them for weeks. I switched to RaceFace. The proper XT crank arrived after 6 weeks. 6 weeks!.

I don't know about you, but if I am off my bike for a week I had better be lying in ICU in a coma. After 6 weeks you will be seeing my picture on the news with an interview from my neighbour... "he was such a quiet boy...."


My main beef with Shimano is this poor customer service which I feel relates to your statement about how much bike stuff they make. They don't care about Joe Rider. He is just one dude, they have the whole world to change to 9 speed.

Question..... WRT your problems with RF, how was their customer service?
 

oldfart

Turbo Monkey
Jul 5, 2001
1,206
24
North Van
For the cracked cranks I had the first replacement in week but it was a slightly different blue. No big deal to me. The next replacement was about 2 weeks as was the third and final. All the while I was using the cracked parts so I had no down time. I rode easy. So I'd say that was only OK considering that I live where RF makes some of their stuff at least at the time. With the headset they had no parts. They sent a new top in a different colour within a week. The problem was the same with the replacement but then the shop just got silence. The shop warranteed the headset and never heard about it again. I don't know if the shop was to blame for that or RF. With the Taperlock BB the shop just gave me the bearings and got some new ones from RF. Same thing 2 months later when the bearings cracked on one side.

The point I was making was that one persons experience is just one persons experience. That's all. RF stuff seems to work fine for most folks as does Shimano.

And I do agree with you about incompatible parts from one year to the next. Planned obsolecence pisses me off. But they all do it to a certain extent and in most sports too. Sometimes the new stuff is just a new colour and sometimes there is actual improvement. I get the feeling sometimes that we consumers are test pilots for new stuff.

And although I never want to test customer service (who does) it is very important to deal with us quickly and fairly. I know a few guys in the industry and generally they're really liberal with their warrantees. I have heard Shimano are pretty bad though. I can't recall ever having to warrantee any of mine or my friends parts though. I've brought back rims, frames, headsets and cranks and bb's , seat posts, camelbacks but not any Shimano stuff, except for a shim kit for the first XT V brakes.
 

spincrazy

I love to climb
Jul 19, 2001
1,529
0
Brooklyn
Why limit yourself to those two?

Shimano has been around forever, and with good reason, they make good gear, but they have also abused the obsolesence factor the worst because they think no one can touch em.

Race Face also makes good gear, but not to support their hyped prices.

I have Truvativ's Stylo Team crankset and couldn't be happier. You can get them for a square or splined bottom bracket and they are way light (even lighter than XT). I weigh less than 200 lbs and don't do drops more than 5 feet normally so I'm not afraid to break em. (haven't heard of any failures under any conditions anyway). Oooh, and they're stiff too.

Besides, somebodies got to support the smaller guys just to give Shimano a run for their money.

Check out www.mbtr.com for reviews

Something to think about.............
 

Bike Mojo

Monkey
Jul 14, 2001
126
0
San Antonio, Texass
Originally posted by spincrazy
Besides, somebodies got to support the smaller guys just to give Shimano a run for their money.

Word! At one point I made a real effort to be Shimano free. But nobody can compete with their der's and cassettes. Besides, TruVativ and RaceFace are in that Isis splined BB thingy together.
 

ncfreerider

Chimp
Aug 10, 2001
1
0
Raleigh, N.C.
as far as i'm concerned, there is no contest. Race Face is the superior product. i'm a bigger rider and i ride fairly hard, i NEED components that are going to work for me time after time. if these cranks did'nt look soo good i'd forget that they were on my bike. yes they cost most more but they're probably cheaper if you have to buy 2 pair of anything else due to any failure. the greatest measure of any product is your confidence in that product. Race Face cranks are the best, and if you ever have any kind of problem with them Race Face stands behind their product. i've got 2 bikes and i have LP's on them both, and i'll nver run with anything else! all that and i'm not even Canadian.
 

Merwin5_10

Don't Mess With Texas!
Jul 6, 2001
153
0
Austin, Texas
XTR

If you can't go that far, stick to the RaceFace. My XTR crankset is five years old and has seen approxiamately 4500 miles. I weigh 188 pounds and have strong legs (no bragging here, I'm german and its in the genes.) I race, and ride very hard.

After 4500 miles under that kind of abuse, would anyone like to say something about Shim's quality?

??

Didn't think so.

XT is a whole different ball game. They creak, almost as bad as XT brakes do. Sounds like a goose in heat.