Morning everybody…

Building up a new bike from scratch and the last (rather major) bit to get together is the crankset. Now, I could just transfer the old Deore set up from my old bike, which I will change to singlespeed over the winter, or I could buy new ones. Old kit isn’t too worn but given that I have a near-new cassette and chain, I’d rather not slap on worn rings.

I’m not about to spend a fortune but given the rather pivotal role of the cranks and BB, I’d like to get it right. A similar Deore set-up is going for an alright price at the moment but am I likely to feel a huge benefit by splashing out?

Any recommendations/advice?

Cheers all.

Any recommendations

SLX look good and are relatively cheap.
I think Merlin or CRC were punting them out cheap

Been a couple of RF Deus in the classifieds recently at great prices, that’s where my money would go.

I think foe the money the SLX crankset is hard to beat and it looks good too. Really depends on how much you want to lay out and the intended use.

Going to be reasonable XC use, and I want it to last as I improve and take on more challenging stuff. Having said that, it’s never going to get chucked off a cliff or forced round a course at breakneck speed.

Had been looking at both SLX and Deus. Heard some funny things about R/F BBs wearing out quickly though. True?

SLX from Merlin look very good value. £269 plus 10% discount email they sent out on Shimano stuff or 10% disc for their gold club members or whatever it’s called, I expect you can’t have both. So, £242.

http://www.bike-discount.de/shop/k413/a10119/slx-crankset-fc-m660-44-32-22-170mm.html

Very quick and reluable service from our german friends.

Just had a look on the merlin website, you need to sign up as a VIP member then you get “at least 10% discount”.
Then there’s a further ad which says “extra 10% off shimano for VIP members, just enter shimano10 in the basket”.
So, by rights you should get “at least 10%” for being a VIP member and an “extra 10% off shimano”, otherwise the shimano disc ad is a bit of a con. If true, worth looking at XT aswell.
You need to be logged into your VIP account when making the purchase.

EDIT: Just tried it, it does indeed give you 10% VIP and 10% SHIMANO10 code, total price £218.

and I want it to last

Square taper it is then!

Just grease the taper*, install to at least the correct torque, make sure you get an EN spec BB…viola, fit and forget and it’ll probably outlive you.

*the two issues with square taper were firstly people not installing them correctly (i.e. not tight enough and/or no grease) so they work loose and ruin the cranks, and the fact that really the system isn’t designed for constant assembly/reassembly.

I have some rf deus cranks for sale. Good nick, drop me a mail we may be able to come to an arrangement.

Hey all,

Thanks for all the tips people, at the moment SLX is looking the most tempting, kind of best of all worlds and from our German friends an utter bargain.

Tucker – I had discounted sq taper out of hand but I’ll put it back on my list of options given your sage advice.

I’ll let you know what I go for…

slx is a few £ cheaper from merlin in lancs (£85) if you do what I said^. You’ll probably pay around £95 from Germany with the exchange rate you’ll get stung for from your bank/credit card