MTB Chainset Choice

Have you considered Middleburn?

Their web site middleburn.co.uk can tell better than me what's available. From personal experience
over several years I no longer consider any other chainset if I need a one with 110mm BCD or a
compact.spider.

I currently have 2 Middleburn chainsets on the go, the wife 1, daughter number one 1, and daughter
number two 2. All RS7's cranks and a combination of ATB and compact 5 arm spiders. The slick shift
chainrings are excellent. I have never used the hard coated ones so cannot comment.

If you need to swapping spiders is easy and they are available as spares.

I have only ever used square taper cranks. No experience of ISIS which they now make as well as
square taper.

Mainly used Shimano UN72 BB's in the past. Recently bought a Royce. Lovely piece of kit and far to
nice to hide away in a BB shell. Not used it long enough to comment on whether its worth the cost.

Hope this is of some help.

Roger

"John Appleby" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

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Hi,

I need to get rid of my chainset sometime soon (c.f. previous threads,

worn

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rings, bolts, ruined thread), and I was considering putting the 2003 XTR

set

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on.

I've been reading nasty things about bearing wear on it, which concerns

me,

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because I'm a very heavy rider (both in weight and abuse). I quite like

the

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look of the XTR crankset, both in terms of aesthetics, weight and design, but I can't be dealing
with BB bearings wearing out in a matter of weeks.

Might I be better to go with something like the FSA carbon series? The

price

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seems relatively high even compared to XTR, by the time you factor in BBs. Mind you, it might be
recouped by the time I come to replace my first set

of

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chainrings 🙂

Any advice or experience much appreciated.

John

Quoted message said:

Their web site middleburn.co.uk can tell better than me what's available. From personal experience
over several years I no longer consider any other chainset if I need a one with 110mm BCD or a
compact.spider.

I currently have 2 Middleburn chainsets on the go, the wife 1, daughter number one 1, and daughter
number two 2. All RS7's cranks and a

combination

Quoted message said:

of ATB and compact 5 arm spiders. The slick shift chainrings are

excellent.

Quoted message said:

I have never used the hard coated ones so cannot comment.

Well I swapped a M950 XTR hub for a Middleburn hub some years back. I can't say I was even vaguely
impressed. I wore the bearings out in a few rides and when I changed the cassette, it
cross-threaded. I had to buy a wheelset in a hurry, I bought another M950 set and I'm still using
those hubs 5 years later. Without a rebuild.

Maybe I got unlucky, but I've been put off Middleburn for life. To my mind, and as someone who is a
heavy rider, sealed bearings suck. I have a Hope rear hub somewhere too, what a piece of *%($£%&. I
went through several bearing sets before I gave up on it.

Quoted message said:

I have only ever used square taper cranks. No experience of ISIS which

they

Quoted message said:

now make as well as square taper.

Yeah ISIS looks kinda neat, I'm tempted to go with a splined BB, since it looks like a sensible
engineering idea.

Quoted message said:

Mainly used Shimano UN72 BB's in the past. Recently bought a Royce. Lovely piece of kit and far to
nice to hide away in a BB shell. Not used it long enough to comment on whether its worth the cost.

Yeah I've got a UN72 on my bike right now which has been on it since I built it in 1996. From what I
understand, installation has much more to do with BB wear than any other factor. The major benefit
of say Royce, as I understand it, is that you can change bearings without replacing the whole unit,
which might provide a cost saving long term. No doubt you will find that out 🙂

Regards,

John

John Appleby said:

Quoted message said:

Their web site middleburn.co.uk can tell better than me what's available. From personal experience
over several years I no longer consider any other chainset if I need a one with 110mm BCD or a
compact.spider.

I currently have 2 Middleburn chainsets on the go, the wife 1, daughter number one 1, and daughter
number two 2. All RS7's cranks and a

combination

Quoted message said:

of ATB and compact 5 arm spiders. The slick shift chainrings are

excellent.

Quoted message said:

I have never used the hard coated ones so cannot comment.

Well I swapped a M950 XTR hub for a Middleburn hub some years back. I can't say I was even vaguely
impressed. I wore the bearings out in a few rides and when I changed the cassette, it
cross-threaded. I had to buy a wheelset in a hurry, I bought another M950 set and I'm still using
those hubs 5 years later. Without a rebuild.

Maybe I got unlucky, but I've been put off Middleburn for life. To my mind, and as someone who is
a heavy rider, sealed bearings suck. I have a Hope rear hub somewhere too, what a piece of
*%($£%&. I went through several bearing sets before I gave up on it.

Quoted message said:

I have only ever used square taper cranks. No experience of ISIS which

they

Quoted message said:

now make as well as square taper.

Yeah ISIS looks kinda neat, I'm tempted to go with a splined BB, since it looks like a sensible
engineering idea.

Quoted message said:

Mainly used Shimano UN72 BB's in the past. Recently bought a Royce. Lovely piece of kit and far to
nice to hide away in a BB shell. Not used it long enough to comment on whether its worth the cost.

Yeah I've got a UN72 on my bike right now which has been on it since I built it in 1996. From what
I understand, installation has much more to do with BB wear than any other factor. The major
benefit of say Royce, as I understand it, is that you can change bearings without replacing the
whole unit, which might provide a cost saving long term. No doubt you will find that out 🙂

Regards,

John

I've had good luck with Race Face ISIS. I have the Next LP. They don't make a BB wide enough for my
Jekyll, so I run a Truvative Sealex
(118mm). Over 15k miles on 'em. I replaced the BB once. Only problem was the initial installation of
the cranks took well over the max torque recommended to get them to seat (60 ft-lbs vs. RF's
listed max of 45 ft-lbs). I emailed Race Face and they told me to go as high as 65. I believe
they now recommend a short ride if they don't seat with 45.

I like the ISIS over Shimano's splines because of the taper. I've had problems with cranks loosening
on Shimano splines and not being able to get them to stay tight any more with their non-tapered
spline (my guess is that the light, soft crank metal deformed over time and my hammering). No such
problem with ISIS.

David