which single narrow wide crankset/crank arms

Hi all, currently building my transition covert and I’m set on everything except which crankset to get. I thought about going full xo1, but its just too dear and too Much of a jump from xtr/xo for me.

So I want a narrow wide ring definitely, if buying separate, most likely the raceface as they get good reviews, thought about going for the raceface evolve or turbine, which come with bb and narrow wide ring, at £166 & £214, but can’t help thinking it will look out of place on a £3k build, with Xtr etc. Thought about going xtr and fitting a raceface narrow wide, but just works hour too much money, plus not a massive fan of the polished/silver crankarms. Looked at the e thirteen trs race cranks, again too Mitch money if I’m having to spend an extra 50 and 30 for narrow wide.and bb.

So any suggestions, needs regular 73mm bottom bracket, price, around 250 for everything, arms, bb and chainring, I am a little flexible but nothing over £300.

Cheers.

My set up is some sram xo crank arms from bike-discount.de, Hope bb with gxp adaptor and works narrow wide sram spiderless ring, that set up works out at sub £300.

Some used but VGC M970 crank arms and your choice of ring.

GB

is SLX/XT slumming it too much?

SLX or XT – the weight difference is negligible and if you go with any other brand you’ll wish you’d picked Shimano as soon as you need to take them off again for any reason.

Easiest component choice in MTBing, getting Shimano cranks – IMO.

The difference even between SLX & XTR is all of about 60g.

I’m currently slumming it with some SLX after hitting a tree stump hard and bending an XTR arm. To be honest, I can’t really tell any difference, other than the SLX cost me a whole £32 second hand.

I wonder if they will win the battle over my desire for something a hit more blingy.

Shimano’s pinch bolt system really is very simple compared to anything else on the market.

I agree the Shimano cranks are brill, I had an slx double and bash on my stumpjumper, I will need to have a think, the xtr cranks just don’t look right on a single without the little caps covering the chainring bolts, the slx is a no go, xt is a possibility though.

With Shimano cranks, a lot of the weight difference is in the rings rather than the arms anyway.

Can’t see the issue running xo cranks once you use a decent bb instead of the shite gxp bb’s. Once you remove the spider and fit a direct mount chainring they are nice and light too. Mine have had lots of hammer and have held up well.

I got SLX from Merlin for £69. Was thinking about a ZEE one for the steel inserts but I can reuse the chain rings on the SLX ones on another bike so it only cost £45 in my world.

Not really sure what the question is though. I run a thick thin chain ring on an old Hone crankset and can’t tell the difference between the one running XT except I just ripped the pedal threads out of the XT one. Hence getting the SLX one.

Your all right, I probably won’t feel a difference at all, I just think specing a bike out with carbon bars, xtr, pikes etc that wacking an slx crank on is wrong. Hence why I looked into xtr cranks converted to single.

Steve, nothing wrong with xo cranks, exept i dont like sram drivetrains, i was only considering xo1 because what it was, xo1, and Shimano don’t have an 11 speed to rival it.

I would go for something with a direct-fit chainring so that you can eliminate the need for chainring bolts. looks neater and saves weight.
I think the only options for this are currently SRAM cranks or Middleburn.

e13 ones look nice and have a direct fit but compared to slx everything looses price:weight saving ratio

Will you be as snobbish about which types of mud you get on your posh cranks?

Your all right, I probably won’t feel a difference at all, I just think specing a bike out with carbon bars, xtr, pikes etc that wacking an slx crank on is wrong.

My Spitfire has a strangely cobbled together look because I tried to be as pragmatic as possible about the components – so I have Haven carbon bars, PIkes, CCDBair, Hope brakes, Saint shifter and Renthal stem but SLX cranks, Zee mech and a Gravity Dropper. It must look very confusing to MTB fashionistas!

Thanks guys, kimbers is that yours? What chainring are you using and what’s it like and holding the chain?

Ian, yes.

+1 for all the pro-Shimano comments.

Don’t see the point in running any other chainset, to be perfectly honest.

2nd hand saint for £70
Works NW for £30
crank vinyls so they look brand new £5

£105

sorry thats not mine craighill, ive got sram s1000s on my bike but im swapping back to slx when the gxp BB dies, its already abut gritty

im using a 30t raceface narrow wide with no guide and its not dropped once, even going thru the rock gardens at BPW

i’ve done this exact same thing three times over the past month or so on my Yeti SB66, Salsa Mamasita and Titus FTMc builds.

each time i have bought a brand new Shimano XT M780 triple chainset from Ribble for just under £100 delivered. I have then immediately sold the chainrings via here for £35 and with the Salsa (which was PF30) the BB too.

i then buy either a RF narrow/wide or as is now my preference, the rather excellent Blackspire thick/thin (from CRC for just under £40) and i’m sorted.

£100 less £35 plus £40 is £105 all in.

job done.

(i also bought some crankskins from the US which arrived within less than a week and were enough to do three cranksets – although quite badly as i was rushing to get out riding!)

and

Is it possible to use the double versions of the SLX or XT arms with a single ring, or do you need the triple?

A triple will give you the right chainline so if you have the choice, go triple every time.

I’m planning to do this using a shimano SLX double crank.

I’m not that bothered that I happen to be using SLX cranks on an otherwise fairly blingy bike (mojo hd, ccdbair, marz 55 rc3 ti, haven carbon bars, carbon rims etc).

The weight saving is tiny using XTR/XT/XO etc compared to SLX, and I reckon that XLS actually looks pretty decent, it certainly wears really well, the crank armss dont look worn after a few rides like some with black arms can do.

craighill

So any suggestions, needs regular 73mm bottom bracket, price, around 250 for everything, arms, bb and chainring, I am a little flexible but nothing over £300.

Cheers.

I’m confused? I’ve just brought those components in XX1 flavour and not spent £300??

camp Freddie which chainring bolts did you use on your xt triple with narrow wide? I plan to use the raceface narrow wide

Raceface Turbines, XTR, £4500 build…

doesn’t look out of place to me!

X01 cranks £159.99
Chainring £53.99
Hope BB £71.99

Total £285 – less than £300.

My other bike has XT triple with a works narrow wide ring and hope BB and you’ll do that for about £185. Not as blingy but I can’t tell the difference…

It does make for interesting decisions

Deore crankset with NW £83 and weighs 810g

SLX crankset with NW £113 and weighs 760g

XO1 GXP with works spider ring and hope bb is £283 and weighs 650g though you could go with crappy GXP BB and save £50

If you use X01 GXP with spider and normal NW ring it is about 710g

If I was running a GXP crankset I would definitely use a spiderless ring it saves about 55g…

I think I am just going to got for an xt m780, I know shimano cranks inside out and do really like the design.