Slightly pointless philosophical question for you this sunny Sunday morning.

I have a stash of parts from old bikes that were enduro/long travel type bikes so I have things like renthal fatbars and Saint cranks and pedals.

I now have a specialized epic which is obviously a short travel carbon XC bike.

I ideally need slightly shorter cranks and have a set of 165 saint cranks in the Sparea box, I would need a bb30 adaptor so not a straight fit but cheaper than buying new cranks.

It just seems a bit wrong fitting a DH chainset to a XC bike, so am I just subconsciously giving myself justification for new shiny things or does anyone else think they would also feel the same?

You won’t notice any difference when riding.

Better to re-purpose perfectly good parts than worry about how others may judge your component selection

I wouldnt hesitate in reusing saint cranks on a xc bike if it saves buying more stuff , but i completely ignore trends and fashion when it comes to mtb’s anyway.

Better to re-purpose perfectly good parts than worry about how others may judge your component selection

Burn the heretic!

🤪

Burn the heretic!

Theres plenty more room on my bonfire for your rampant consumerism… 😀

Wrong parts on old bikes. The right parts on new bikes.
If the carbon xc bike isn’t really new but not qualified as old, then buy something 2nd hand which is almost suitable but not quite.

I guess there is capitalism to feed…

They’re not wrong, they’re DOWNCOUNTRY! 😉

I’ve always felt that cranks are the last place to save weight – you want them to be as stiff and strong and tough as possible and extra weight in the BB area is never bad for handling.

And handlebars – if they snap it’s disastrous and the shape of them is so important to fit and handling.

And financially and ecologically, using old parts is miles better than buying new ones!

If the parts fit and work well then l say use them.
Also a nice way to personalise your bike.

and since you’re trying out a different configuration then reusing what you’ve got makes perfect sense

My bikes are a complete mix and match. Whatever I have in the spares box or can pick up at the bike jumble. There are definitely a few “wrong” parts and plenty of crazy colour combinations that would set off a few on here. If anything I think bikes with fully matching parts are “wrong” because stuff has often been chosen on style, not function.

Carbon forked rigid singlespeed had a 200mm rotor for a good while…

If they are 68/73 I’d just use them. Bit of a pain having to buy the adapter…

If you decide otherwise then I’m looking for some 165mm Saint cranks at a decent price!

It’s a 2014 bike so ancient now really. 2×10 gears 100mm stem etc.

Current parts fitted are 35mm purple hope stem which doesn’t match at all but makes it fit a lot better and my rethal carbon fatbars because why not.

The Saint cranks are the 68/73 version so will fit with an adaptor for the bb30, I need the extra 10mm shorter to make a dropper post fit really…

also have a single NW hope chainring on them (which is also purple!) And I have a brand new 11 speed xt mech and shifter also in my spares box so just a chain and cassette away from a 1×11 conversion.

Might just embrace the fact it’s not gonna be like my old bikes that were all shiny bling colour matching etc and just do whatever works

So my 2015 XC HT….(relevant bits)
27.2 seatpost with Brand-X 85mm dropper. (because it was £30 on ebay) internally routed through/around the BB.

65mm stem (came off my T-130)
1×11 drive chain from spares
170/150 cranks (Bought some used Deore non hollow arms so kiddo can ride the XC bike and drilled out at 150)

With the dropper and stem it’s a way more polite bike.

Embrace the dark side draw of the frankenbike

so am I just subconsciously giving myself justification for new shiny things

You say this like its a bad thing. I is confooosd

If they did the job satisfactorily then yes. No one really gives a damn what parts your bike has on it apart from you, except maybe some t**t in a trail centre carpark that used to be into golf.

I’ve always felt that cranks are the last place to save weight – you want them to be as stiff and strong and tough as possible

You could say that about almost anything on a bike. Handlebars, stem, wheels, frame, brakes…

As a fat bloke I (so even less reason to worry about using anything because of weight) I can say that bars, stems erc have never been a point of any great flex on my bikes but if I jump on a bike with cheap cranks I can 100% make them flex

Just tell people it’s because of the extra stiffness, and that you got fed up of all the flex on your XTRs.

(I had a 20lb rigid titanium xc bike at one point and it had a saint shifter, it seemed to really upset people)

If it works it works

Surely the answer is to both buy new cranks for the xc bike, and a nice second hand enduro frame for all the spare parts you have lying around.

both my daughters’ first proper bikes, aged about 7 or so, had 165mm Saint cranks and a mix of other spares like a 9sp xtr shifter on one and a 9sp XO gripshift on the other – oh and some old carbon bars cut down a bit or an asnwer hyperlite on the other. The first one I built up was on a frame I got from our local tip for a fiver. Magic