Weaknesses: Wallowed out after only 2 rides! Now the left crank arm loosens after 5 mins of granny pedalling, not happy!! Don't be deceived by its chunky rugged looks it is far from that!
Bottom Line:
Don't waste your money
Overall Rating:
Value Rating:
Submitted by
roycefromrc
a Weekend Warrior
from rapid city,south dakota,USA
Weaknesses: heavy,cheap looking due to their hefty size.
Bottom Line:
they came on my new bike.im sure with shimano backing them theyll never break,will last forever and with their. bullet proof designe they may be a bit heavy but about as stiff as my old race face with square taper interface.for the price i give them 5 chillies and 4 over all,but a cool factor of 2.
Similar Products Used: shimano lx,xt ,race face ,sugino
Bike Setup: upgraded specialized rockhopper comp 29er
Overall Rating:
Value Rating:
Submitted by
Drakken_11
a Weekend Warrior
from Drakken_11
Date Reviewed: December 21, 2009
Strengths: Matches my Rear Derailer
Weaknesses: Price
Bottom Line:
I think I got overcharged for this. I just saw the MSRP and looked up on CBO. They had it for $39.95. WhatTheHell! I paid $60. I think I am going to take it back. Still in the box. Never used. Glad I didn't install it yet.
Submitted by
RC
a Weekend Warrior
from Lancaster, CA, USA
Date Reviewed: October 20, 2009
Strengths: Cheap, somewhat functional
Weaknesses: Weak, low-quality, only somewhat functional
Bottom Line:
You get what you pay for, and you won't pay much for these cranks. If you're broke and/or do slow easy rides on beach boardwalks, then they are adequate. If you want cranks that can do anything more than that, get something better.
They were stock on my bike, so I used them. I do mostly mountain riding on smooth roads and trails; no hard impacts, g-outs, or drops at all. Despite that, the left crank arm still managed to fatigue and break completely off above the spindle while I was pedaling, the jagged stub of which slashed the back of my leg quite handily. They had been creaking and slowly self-loosening for years prior to that.
Submitted by
swanny81
a Cross Country Rider
from Sydney, NSW, Australia
Date Reviewed: August 26, 2008
Strengths: Price
Weaknesses: Strength
Design
Weight
Square taper
Bottom Line:
Used these cranks for a little while, approx 3 or 4 months.
They look reasonable, and you can pick them up for next to nothing, but Id very, very, VERY strongly recommend that you steer well clear of them.
The crank arm and spider that bolts to the chainrings is, for some ridiculous reason, not one piece. As such, mine has come loose so the chainrings have free play relative to the crank, and this has stretched my chain (and obviously means the cranks are 100% stuffed).
For reference I am not especially heavy - I weight 75kg, and whilst Im reasonably tough on cranks, I havent done *any* notable drops (2ft at absolute most?) on this bike - pretty well exclusively cross country riding.
The design is a massive flaw, and they really arent worth bothering with. Even for a casual rider, spend a little more and get something that will last indefinitely. These are utter junk.
Similar Products Used: Cheap, low-end Truvativ cranks
Bike Setup: Trek Fuel 70 with a few bits and pieces
Overall Rating:
Value Rating:
Submitted by
Sinisa Kovac
a Cross Country Rider
from Osijek, Croatia
Date Reviewed: April 26, 2007
Strengths: Cheap, reliable, looks OK.
Weaknesses: Little heavy, teeth worn out after a year of hard riding.
Bottom Line:
Its a good, entery level, inexpensive crankset for XC riding. Yeah it is a little heavy, but for the money what can you expect? Mine never left me out and i did whit Alivio more than 4000km.
Similar Products Used: Ritchey comp crank, shimano XT Hollowtech II
Bike Setup: 04 GT Avalanche 2.0
Overall Rating:
Value Rating:
Submitted by
John
a Weekend Warrior
from Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Date Reviewed: February 12, 2007
Strengths: Did the job of what a crankset is supposed to do.
Weaknesses: Chainrings can not be removed/swapped for other chainrings, Rings are in a smaller tooth size then the usual 44/32/22, Weight a little heavy.
Bottom Line:
These were a good stock item on my 1996 GT Ricochet, but they were a liltte heavy, inexpensive crankset as you could not swap-out the chainrings, gear ratios were a little smaller at 42/32/22 & I needed to buy a $15 Park crank puller to remove and then install a Sugino 44/32/22. Bottom Line: Good for 1yr until I started to do 80-120km roundtrip rides.
Similar Products Used: Whatever came on my 1994 Raleigh Matterhorn, Sugino 44/32/22 crankset (replaced my Shimano Alivio) and my Bontrager Comp. 44/32/22 crankset that came stock on my 2001 Trek Fuel 90 Disk.
Bike Setup: 1996 GT Ricochet.
Overall Rating:
Value Rating:
Submitted by
Anthony willetts
a Weekend Warrior
from bunbury
Date Reviewed: July 21, 2006
Strengths: Cheap, fairly stiff and look cool
Weaknesses: not very strong in either the pedal thread or BB connection
Bottom Line:
these crank lasted me about 2 weeks before they started breaking, first it was just a case of the square hole at the BB conection wearing out and the bolt consistantly soming loose then after presoviering with that for a couple of months and having to replace the BB the pedal thread on the driveside crank gave way and stripped out! ofcourse i used these cranks for a few jumps/drops which wasnt very smart but if you need sum cranks that can take it, go sumthing a bit stronger!
Similar Products Used: RPM, Shimmano Hollowtech, Truvativ ISOflow, Truvativ Hussefelt
Bike Setup: Shogun Floater, Truvativ hussefelt cranks, Gigapipe BB, Alex DM18 rims, Suntour XCR forks
Overall Rating:
Value Rating:
Submitted by
Chris McKendry
a Cross Country Rider
from Melbourne
Date Reviewed: September 27, 2005
Strengths: Lasted 5500 KM of on-off road use. I heavy rider at 98Kg but these cranks lasted well throughout that time. I am only replacing them now with the new look 2005 Shimano Alivio cranks because the chain stretched thus ruining most of the drivetrain componets. However for the money, cant go wrong. 2005 Alivio looks good.
Weaknesses: The weight is quite heavy at around 1kg but then again its a relatively cheap crank.
Bottom Line:
I believe its a very good crank for the money. Having riden around 5000km with these cranks i have the testing behind it to say they are worthy of using.
Bike Setup: 2005 trek fuel 70, manitou axel comp, rock shox bar
Overall Rating:
Value Rating:
Submitted by
Grant
a Weekend Warrior
from Whitehouse Station, NJ
Date Reviewed: November 23, 2004
Bottom Line:
this came on my bike when i bought it 100 years ago in 1997. they seemed fine till they broke. unfortunatly i was poor at the time, just like now, and replaced them with teh same thing but they have held out thus far. i'll give them 3 for value because they aren't the absolute worst, but only 2 overall because i wasn't doing anything very rough when they broke.
Submitted by
sam
a Weekend Warrior
from perth, western australia
Date Reviewed: October 21, 2004
Strengths: ....was ok while it lasted....looks ok
Weaknesses: pretty flexible, not very strong
Bottom Line:
crank seemed ok at first. im fairly heavy - ~95kg (190pounds) and it didnt seem to flex too much for a cheaper crank. started doing some drops and it started to bend. first bent at about 1m (only a little) and then bent heaps over a 1.5m drop onto grass...was only 3wks old. no good if youre heavy and do relatively hard riding
Submitted by
Rubén García
a Cross Country Rider
from Madrid (Spain)
Date Reviewed: May 1, 2004
Strengths: Price, looks, rigidity
Weaknesses: Weight…really heavy
Bottom Line:
I am very pleased with them; they are an effective component, with a good compromise between rigidity and shift effectiveness. With the Shimano STX RC I had never a shift problem. The have done their work.
I’m a bit heavy, 75 Kilos; nevertheless I don’t have problems with their rigidity, even by powerful climbing.
For me, they have only a weak point, they are very heavy, around 900 grams. For me it is the only reason to change them. Highly recommendable, four flaming chillies for them.
Bike Setup: Alu hardbutt, deore alivio sugino RST blah blah blah
Overall Rating:
Value Rating:
Submitted by
Dan
a Cross Country Rider
from London
Date Reviewed: November 12, 2003
Strengths: Cheap
Weaknesses: Heavy, Bends
Bottom Line:
This crank came as standard on a bike setup with a good frame and cheap components. The Crank Lived happily through 2 years of very light use but recently its taken some reasonable XC riding. The result is the middle ring bending under peadling pressure, with one symptom being it now changes to the big ring on its own. I will try and hammer it back, but at the end of the day its lasted thtough only 200 miles of real use