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This is what's wrong with The Industry™

Nick

My name is Nick
Sep 21, 2001
24,865
16,405
where the trails are
"use an impact gun" GTFO with that bs.

After a couple of wtf? moments with Cinch cranks coming loose I'm convinced it'll be Shimano cranks only on everything for me moving forward.
 
Yes! One more reason why Shimano cranks are so much better designed....

FTFY
 

canadmos

Cake Tease
May 29, 2011
21,904
21,429
Canaderp
"use an impact gun" GTFO with that bs.

After a couple of wtf? moments with Cinch cranks coming loose I'm convinced it'll be Shimano cranks only on everything for me moving forward.
For real....

And a Shimano crank can easily removed trail side with a small multi tool, should there be a problem with your chain, chain guide or whatever (tire levers can fit into the preload nut thing..). Can you imagine trying to undo or tighten up that single bolt on these types of cranks? My bloodied up knuckles sure can....
 

Jm_

sled dog's bollocks
Jan 14, 2002
20,066
10,631
AK
For real....

And a Shimano crank can easily removed trail side with a small multi tool, should there be a problem with your chain, chain guide or whatever (tire levers can fit into the preload nut thing..). Can you imagine trying to undo or tighten up that single bolt on these types of cranks? My bloodied up knuckles sure can....
I've never encountered a situation on the trail where I needed to take off my cranks. Shimano's system is definitely better than the taper-fit used by everyone else, but the taper-fit works. It is more annoying if you find yourself taking cranks on and off more frequently. The critical part though is making sure it's tight. If you ride it loose, it usually destroys the interface and it won't remain tight from that point on.
 

maxyedor

<b>TOOL PRO</b>
Oct 20, 2005
5,496
3,141
In the bathroom, fighting a battle
I bought a billet aluminum preload cap for my Shimano cranks that uses a 6mm Allen key. Now they’re completely trail serviceable with a basic multi tool, I carry steel cored levers that don’t fit the little Shimano nut, and it was cheaper than buying the special Shimano tool. Never dicked around with cranks on the trail, but I like to to make sure I’m carrying the tool to fix as many possible problems as I can.

Sram and impact guns seem to go hand in hand. They had a whole batch of mismachined X01 cassettes that squished and got stuck on the free hub bodyno matter how accurately you torqued them or slathered the thing with antiseize. Took about 150 Ugg’s-duggas to pop those off.
 

manhattanprjkt83

Rusty Trombone
Jul 10, 2003
9,660
1,237
Nilbog
"use an impact gun" GTFO with that bs.

After a couple of wtf? moments with Cinch cranks coming loose I'm convinced it'll be Shimano cranks only on everything for me moving forward.
Exactly - I worked in shops for years removing cranks etc...I thought I was doing something wrong here initially but actually found that pinkbike thread while I was trying to get these off. Saying use an impact gun is completely unacceptable.
 

canadmos

Cake Tease
May 29, 2011
21,904
21,429
Canaderp
I've never encountered a situation on the trail where I needed to take off my cranks. Shimano's system is definitely better than the taper-fit used by everyone else, but the taper-fit works. It is more annoying if you find yourself taking cranks on and off more frequently. The critical part though is making sure it's tight. If you ride it loose, it usually destroys the interface and it won't remain tight from that point on.
Even if you only take your cranks off a few times per year for servicing, Shimano's are so much nicer to work with.

And yeah taking cranks off trail side isn't a common thing, but when it happens, good luck using a little multitool on that tight ass bolt. Its only happened to me 2 or 3 times when the chain guide screwed up or flexed and dropped the chain down to the bottom bracket, with absolutely no way to get it back up on the ring.
 
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Toshi

butthole powerwashing evangelist
Oct 23, 2001
39,642
8,685
Having had Cinch with an incessant creak and Shimano, Shimano for me as well.
 

Jm_

sled dog's bollocks
Jan 14, 2002
20,066
10,631
AK
I bought a billet aluminum preload cap for my Shimano cranks that uses a 6mm Allen key. Now they’re completely trail serviceable with a basic multi tool, I carry steel cored levers that don’t fit the little Shimano nut, and it was cheaper than buying the special Shimano tool. Never dicked around with cranks on the trail, but I like to to make sure I’m carrying the tool to fix as many possible problems as I can.

Sram and impact guns seem to go hand in hand. They had a whole batch of mismachined X01 cassettes that squished and got stuck on the free hub bodyno matter how accurately you torqued them or slathered the thing with antiseize. Took about 150 Ugg’s-duggas to pop those off.
Oh yeah, that plastic cap was WTF?
 

jstuhlman

bagpipe wanker
Dec 3, 2009
17,316
14,123
Cackalacka du Nord
I bought a billet aluminum preload cap for my Shimano cranks that uses a 6mm Allen key.
where'd you score that? would love one.

i've been on xt cranks for 15+ years and see no reason to switch.

and yeah, chainguide for sure. i've tried just narrow/wide+clutch but dropped chains multiple times when in a high gear on steep rough trails.
 

Jm_

sled dog's bollocks
Jan 14, 2002
20,066
10,631
AK
and yeah, chainguide for sure. i've tried just narrow/wide+clutch but dropped chains multiple times when in a high gear on steep rough trails.
Really? I've been DH racing it for years and the only time I had a problem is when I noticed my wheel was F-ed right before an endurpo race, raced home to put my backup on, forgot to put the shimano-clutch back "on", and lost it on a jump trail. I mean, these days unless there's something else crazy going on, I have a hard time believing the chain is coming off. What trail?
 

Katz

Monkey
Jun 8, 2012
371
788
Arizona
Really? I've been DH racing it for years and the only time I had a problem is when I noticed my wheel was F-ed right before an endurpo race, raced home to put my backup on, forgot to put the shimano-clutch back "on", and lost it on a jump trail. I mean, these days unless there's something else crazy going on, I have a hard time believing the chain is coming off. What trail?
My experience has been more or less the same as @jstuhlman ... My buddy recently dropped the chain on a local trail here also. He rides a Hightower LT. I have a Nomad V3.

Maybe it has something to do with chain growth curve/wheel path on long-travel VPP bikes (ie, how the wheel rebounds from deep in the travel while the chain is slack).

The wide-range cassettes certainly don't help - my chain gets kinda slack in smaller cogs, and I cut it just shy of jocky wheels going over-center, with the shock bottomed out. Probably not as much of an issue with 7-sp cassettes on DH bikes.
 

maxyedor

<b>TOOL PRO</b>
Oct 20, 2005
5,496
3,141
In the bathroom, fighting a battle
where'd you score that? would love one.

i've been on xt cranks for 15+ years and see no reason to switch.

and yeah, chainguide for sure. i've tried just narrow/wide+clutch but dropped chains multiple times when in a high gear on steep rough trails.
Same place I score all my cheap billet bike parts that won’t cause death if they fail, straight from China on eBay. For $4 it was a very worthwhile upgrade. I believe factory Saint retainers are also aluminum, but they’re like $30 and still use the goofy tool.

Wedged chains are definitely my main concern in potentially having to pull the cranks. Luckily I’ve never needed to do it, my chain guide bolts can be accessed through the ring, but a quarter turn this way or that way and the cranks May have had to come off.
 

jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
88,666
26,903
media blackout
I believe factory Saint retainers are also aluminum, but they’re like $30
they do use aluminum, but if you search the part number (Y1KK13000) you can find them cheaper. This one is about $20 shipped and not questionable chinesium

 

Sandwich

Pig my fish!
Staff member
May 23, 2002
21,790
7,047
borcester rhymes
while I agree on the quality of shimano's parts, now that manufacturers are using real BB sizes, I think the possibility of a 30mm spindle with quality bearings is real. That's the only reason I'm using anything else where I can. Shimano on the trail bike with the narrow BB shell, 30mm easton on the roaddog with bb386.

I hope that shimano will release a similar interface for bigger BB shells so they can use an aluminum spindle.
 

maxyedor

<b>TOOL PRO</b>
Oct 20, 2005
5,496
3,141
In the bathroom, fighting a battle
they do use aluminum, but if you search the part number (Y1KK13000) you can find them cheaper. This one is about $20 shipped and not questionable chinesium

I'm pretty averse to proprietary and specialty tools, so yeah, that's probably a better quality part than my chineseium one is, but I'd need to add a single task tool in my travel tool roll. With the $4 Chinese one I'm now down to a single proprietary tool (XTR bb) and 2 specialty tools (chain whip and cassette LR) for everything I'd ever possibly do outside my garage. I suspect no matter what mystery alloy it's made out of, assuming it;s even possible for one of these to fail, the factory plastic one would fail first.

No, it's not an impossible situation to just carry the tool, or find a tire lever that fits, but it's a dumb one and a really stupid issue to have with an otherwise great crank set-up. The road crank fixing bolt is even dumber, they use a blind drive-hole on the fixing bolt so you're not going to get it off with anything but the correct tool, and even then if you have the cheap plastic Shimano tool you're likely to strip it because there's so little engagement. Dura-Ace is aluminum like Saint, and for some reason XTR is not.
 

Gary

my pronouns are hag/gis
Aug 27, 2002
8,493
6,380
UK
I also use Chinesium alu HTII preload bolts. But mine are all 10mm hex so still need a dedicated tool.
where did you find a 6mm hex ones @maxyedor ?
 

Gary

my pronouns are hag/gis
Aug 27, 2002
8,493
6,380
UK

jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
88,666
26,903
media blackout
I'm pretty averse to proprietary and specialty tools, so yeah, that's probably a better quality part than my chineseium one is, but I'd need to add a single task tool in my travel tool roll. With the $4 Chinese one I'm now down to a single proprietary tool (XTR bb) and 2 specialty tools (chain whip and cassette LR) for everything I'd ever possibly do outside my garage. I suspect no matter what mystery alloy it's made out of, assuming it;s even possible for one of these to fail, the factory plastic one would fail first.

No, it's not an impossible situation to just carry the tool, or find a tire lever that fits, but it's a dumb one and a really stupid issue to have with an otherwise great crank set-up. The road crank fixing bolt is even dumber, they use a blind drive-hole on the fixing bolt so you're not going to get it off with anything but the correct tool, and even then if you have the cheap plastic Shimano tool you're likely to strip it because there's so little engagement. Dura-Ace is aluminum like Saint, and for some reason XTR is not.
does shimano still include that plastic tool with their cranks? its been a while since i've bought a pair.
 

scrublover

Turbo Monkey
Sep 1, 2004
3,187
6,932
The torque spec on those rings is fuck all. I just shove my index finger in there and use that.


Whoever puts that in the no context thread, you're welcome.
This. Wedge something in there, twist finger tight and do up the two bolts on the crank arm. Good to go.
 

ChrisRobin

Turbo Monkey
Jan 30, 2002
3,403
212
Vancouver
My RF cinch cranks get loose on my trail bike. Not sure why, they just do. Plus that preload ring-thing is made of plastic so I've already cracked the part the screw threads in. I've had to Loctite the shit out of the main bolt after resetting everything.

What's the deal with body armor costs?? The new RF Roam knee pads look awesome, like a 2nd generation of the Ambush, but they're $129US???
 

maxyedor

<b>TOOL PRO</b>
Oct 20, 2005
5,496
3,141
In the bathroom, fighting a battle
Thanks.
Price doesn't bother me to much. (they're only £2.99 UK)
but from the pics those now look to be 10mm hex too.
Mine were all from Ebay too. and around the same price.
Dunno to be honest, wouldn't be the first time sketchy Chinese parts varied batch to batch

I need to buy a lathe, sucks not having one at work anymore, super simple part to knock out.

does shimano still include that plastic tool with their cranks? its been a while since i've bought a pair.
No, not with the 900s anyway, they do include the centerlock/chainring adapter though for reasons that remain a little unclear since that's a far less useful tool for somebody who just bought new cranks with a new chainring already on them.
 

englertracing

you owe me a sandwich
Mar 5, 2012
1,660
1,147
La Verne
My RF cinch cranks get loose on my trail bike. Not sure why, they just do. Plus that preload ring-thing is made of plastic so I've already cracked the part the screw threads in.
Remove the adjuster,
Measure the width of the cranks,
Measure the width of the bb
Go to the material shelf grab some 6061
Chucker in the lathe
Turn a spacer about 0.022" narrower than you need
Put your wheels mfg wave washer in there
Boom done son.....

Now for that ring in your pocket,
Well....
Use it elsewhere as you see fit :brows: