Submitted by
Mark
a Cross Country Rider
from Bracebridge
Date Reviewed: February 22, 2002
Strengths: Strong for intended use.
Weaknesses: A bit flexy, not light
Bottom Line:
My Coda crankset sucked. My LBS replaced my crankset for free with this crank. Not what my first pick would have been, although, I have been pleasantly suprised. They have been ridden hard for 1 year, and have stood up very well. I'll definately keep them until the rings wear out, and then replace them with some Stylo SL's - mostly because shimano rings are so overpriced! If you ride cross country and are looking for a good, reasonably priced crankset, you won't go wrong with the LX's.
Submitted by
johnno
a Cross Country Rider
from Melbourne, Aus
Date Reviewed: April 24, 2001
Strengths: shifts well. Still works with a few teeth missing from big ring.
Weaknesses: Tapers rounded, teeth broken, new cranks required
Bottom Line:
They have been o.k up until yesterday when I went for a ride and the crank fell off the BB after going off a medium size drop. On closer inspection they are rounded where they join the BB. Not sure what I'll buy next. Thinking XT but I'd be pissed off if the same thing happened to them and I don't really have the cash for Race Face's.
SQUARE TAPER ALUMINIUM CRNKS SUCK SOOOOOO MUCH ASS! THESE HAVE ROUNDED OUT ALREADY! THEY'L ROUND OUT IF YOU WEELY DROP A CURB! DONT THINK ABOUT JUMPING WITH THEM! AHH FOR SOME AZONIC 454'S!
Similar Products Used: POWER PRO'S - EQUALLY CRAP!
Overall Rating:
Value Rating:
Submitted by
Jeffrey
a Cross Country Rider
from Dallas
Date Reviewed: January 26, 2001
Strengths: cool looks, shifts OK
Weaknesses: Flexy, rings wear out fast as hell, and they squeak, and the 9-speed sticher fell off
Bottom Line:
This crank dosent perform up to its name and looks in the long run. I replaced the middle ring with anothe shimano and after abot 3 months it was locking up even after a new sachs PC-69 chain. Then the same weak they started squeaking like a mo-fo and I replaced my bottom bracket and lubed them up and it helped for about a week. then the same thing. I got them cheep and they were OK for a while but my new crank kicks ITs ass. A truvativ FireX
Similar Products Used: alivo, raceface, and older Lx, Fire X
Bike Setup: shcwinn moab 3 Z.2 bam full Xt
Overall Rating:
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Submitted by
fuzzybunnies
a Cross Country Rider
from albany ny
Date Reviewed: January 6, 2001
Weaknesses: Flexy with poor chain ring selection
Bottom Line:
Bought the LX as a replacement for my stx-rc crank when the middle chainring bent. I've had this set for 3 months and have managed to bend the crank arm and spider instead of the chain rings. Started with the rings moveing back and forth so it rubbed the derailleur, got bad enough to actually suck in and toast the derailleur. Switched the chainrings to the old stx crank and they're still straight but any rings put on the LX crank looked warped as hell. Fortunately it occured in time to upgrade to profile's new carbon crank, so something good came out of it.
Submitted by
Fred
a Cross Country Rider
from New Zealand
Date Reviewed: January 6, 2001
Bottom Line:
The cranks are fine as far as cranks go, but be warned, you will have to buy shimano parts when the rings wear out. I think that is the only reason they changed to making 4-arm cranks, and new chain rings are VERY expensive. That seems to be where they make their money.... But the shifting, wear, etc, is all fine. I can't see any reason why stonger cranks would be wanted.
Strengths: Decent Value, Godd Shifting, Hold up well
Weaknesses: For not that much more you can get XT, which is lighter, shifts better, and a little more durable
Bottom Line:
A good replacement crank for a budget racer, or a good everyday crank for the weekend warrior not wanting to spend googles of dollars on a crankset that will hold-up to abuse.
Strengths: durable, durable, and extremely durable, shimano shifting.
Weaknesses: heavy, and the logo rubbed off on my shoe
Bottom Line:
man these crank's will take any s.hit u throw at them. i've smashed the chainrings on rocks and logs cruisin' down mt. snow @ 30mph. no teeth broke or anything. Pretty good shifting, but it isn't so good when you don't lube your chain. if not properly maintained these cranks can suck the nut, and your chain like no other. but when lubed up they work fine. they are a little and flex a little under very strong loads, but for the weekend warrior they are they'll do fine and spare your wallet too.
Shimano have done it again, Price-Performance and reliability in a good looking package, a flexfree crankset with no minus points that are worth talking about. Respect to the monopoly!!
Submitted by
Theo
a Downhiller
from Melbourne, Australia
Date Reviewed: September 13, 2000
Strengths: Theyre cheap, and they used to look cool (before the colour came off from my shoe)
Weaknesses: 4 bolt spider isn't as easy to mount a chainguide.. Just get a RooX Roller Coaster and your laughin!! Can bent quiet easily if you treat them wrong.
Bottom Line:
These cranks are good ONLY is you use them for XC. I have had my cranks specially modified so only the big ring is use (like a proper DH crank), so I can't say anything about the middle ring. When I had it, it was fine so I dunno if I got lucky or somethin. Anyway if you wanna get a pair of cranks for DH, then don't get these ones, they're made for XC. Overall a good product by Shimano..
Submitted by
Jeremy B
a Downhiller
from Woodside, CA USA
Date Reviewed: July 31, 2000
Strengths: Well I have had my bike for about a week, and there still working. They look cool.
Weaknesses: Material and workman ship. I snapped off two teeth on the middle chain ring.
Bottom Line:
Well I dont know how but I managed to snap off two teeth on the middle chain ring. I found this out after I got homw from riding at Northstar at Lake Tahoe. This pisses me off because it's only a week old. Now I know it's more then conciendince that about 5 of us on here have snapped 2 teeth off the middle chain ring. We all snapped off 2 teeth and all of us on the middle chain ring. I think it's time to e-mail Shimono. They get 3 Flain' Dead Huffy riders becasue even though 2 teeth snapped off they still work fine.
Submitted by
Andrew Mui
a Weekend Warrior
from San Bruno
Date Reviewed: May 24, 2000
Strengths: Looks good. VERY cheap. Will work for most people.
Weaknesses: I didn't really notice anything until I realized that I had sheared off TWO TEETH on the middle chain ring!!!!!
Bottom Line:
I never really had any compliants about these cranks. For the money, they are an excellent value. I think that these cranks are great (even though I sheared off two teeth). You have to understand that they are not gonna perform as well as XTR's or Race Face's but they aren't designed to so you can't compare them. Bottom line, these cranks have no equal cuz for $60, you CAN'T buy a crank as good as these!!!!! I now have an XTR and of course they perform better. They were designed to. I'd give them 6 chili's for value if I could. For the average Joe, these are THE PERFECT CRANKS!!!!!
Bike Setup: 99 GT Avalanche. Fire XC Pro's Marzocchi Z.2 Alloy Sella Italia Flite gel Profile bar ends XTR crank and BB
Overall Rating:
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Submitted by
quaker oats
a Cross Country Rider
from winnipeg,canada
Date Reviewed: May 9, 2000
Strengths: inexpensive,looks good,fairly light.
Weaknesses: crank flex under high pressure,top ring riveted in place.
Bottom Line:
I needed a new crank in a bad way. This was the middle of the road crank. Its ok so far. The only thing that truly sucks about it is that its a little smaller than the stock crank so i lose the equivelent to my granny gear.
Similar Products Used: stock bunk ass alivio crap.
Bike Setup: `94giant iguana.xtBB,xtcassette,lxdrivetrain,brakegroup,ritchyheadset/wheels.gtstem,gtbars,gtbashguard,tefloncables,and some other good stuff.
Overall Rating:
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Submitted by
Lee Dials
a Weekend Warrior
from St. George, UT , USA
Date Reviewed: April 28, 2000
Strengths: They look pretty fat, they were stiffer than my white industries cranks
Weaknesses: These things creak like crazy,
Bottom Line:
My white industries cranks had been replaced like four times, so finally I went with these LX cranks they were like heaven for the first couple months, but then they started to give under the pressure I put them through and they started creaking and bending a little, I kept riding them, and finally it got so bad the left one just fell off. So I was pretty pissed. I need something that's durable and can handle jumps and trials. If you're not a hard core rider, but still want a decent pair of cranks I would get these. If you're planning on jumping around and doing technical rides and trials type stuff, forget it they will drive you crazy. Invest in something stiffer
