Chainset/cassette upgrade advice please

stayhigh65

Morning All

Hope everyone is cool and groovy

Payday has swung my way again and its time to upgrade my ride, good old nhs overtime I need to replace worn crank and rear cassette so thought I might as well do the chain as I'm at it.

For the crank I've been looking at either the Truvativ Firex Team or the Stylo 3.3. Both of them come with GXP bottom bracket and are in my price range, sub £70.

Merlin Cylces are currently doing a deal on Sram cassettes and chains with a PG980/PC971 for £32.50 or PG990/PC991 for £49.95 which is great value.

Ive also been looking at new shifters as mine are old and bashed and the new 08 xt shifters look sweet.

So anyway, what are peoples opinions/ideas/advice?

I ride a Rocky Mountain Slayer 50 for trails and XC with a budget of around £150.

nicklouse

LX or XT for the cranks.

990/991 for the chain cassette


shifters Mmm upto you.

stayhigh65

Thanks for your reply, Ive just been looking at the xt cranks and have found mixed reviews for them which i suppose is to be expected however a lot of them seem to mention the rings wearing very quickly.

I guess the wear depends on how much you use them, I'm just starting up again after a little lay off. I was riding around 100K a week though am currently doing 50K if this helps at all?

nicklouse

the shimano set up is superior to the others. in fitting and bearings.

rings can be replaced. with harder ones from anyone else.

stayhigh65

With future proofing in mind what rings would you suggest or would I be better off stretching my budget?

Splasher

XT inner, XT outer, Deore middle.

jayson

Splasher wrote:

XT inner, XT outer, Deore middle.

Yep agree entirely, infact that is my setup u described

stayhigh65

Hmmm buying a crank and then having to spend out to replace rings that wear out quickly sounds like it could get rather expensive as rings are around £25 each.

Would building a custom crank, i.e. BB, rings, arms be a better bet or prehaps another crank that will have better durability?

nicklouse

how many miles do you do?

everything wears out. buy the XT and if and when something wears out relace them.

a custom build will cost more.

the best bb set up is shimano. so you will be buying shimano cranks but they only come with rings........ see the problem

Splasher

When I said XT inner and outer, I meant your originals as they will last OK. The middle is the one that wears fastest and you simply replace that with an £8 Deore one which lasts years because it's steel.

stayhigh65

Ah I see that would make more sense. I've been looking at the xt & lx and have to say that on the reviews am looking more at the lx as the weight saving for the xt isn't as much of a concern for me as the difference in cost.

I've not replaced a BB before, when it gives the option of 170 or 175mm what does that refer to exactly?

supersonic

That is crank length.

stayhigh65

OK that's cool. Now for my next question, on the Rocky Mountain site it lists the BB as ISIS. Does that mean i have to replace it with an ISIS BB or is that just the one that came with the bike? The Evolve crankset that came with the bike was replaced by the original owner to a Hone so I don't know whether it has the original BB or not.

supersonic

The bottom bracket has to match the crank ie ISIS, octalink etc. Some newr cranks have integrated axles and external cups that come as a package.

stayhigh65

Excellent my work here is done now let the shopping frenzy begin

Cheers for all your help and advice peoples.