C
Chris
Guest
So I'm building up my Cross-Check (hell yeah...long time
dream come true) and needed a crank. Decided, hey, mountain
cranks offer a little too low a gear for commuting and road
cranks have a bit too high sometimes - and they just plain
look stupid most of the time - so why not go with a "cross"
crankset! 38/48 rings, looks neato, it's theoretically a
'cross bike, whatever.
So I see the '03 Ritchey V-Pro Cross crank on sale ("hot
deal") at CBO for $99. I've always thought Ritchey made a
nice product, the gears were right, looked cool, so I was
real tempted to pull the trigger. The problem? It's listed
only as "splined, 175mm, black." Splined how? ISIS or
Octalink? So I fire off an email to CBO and a couple hours
later I get, "V-Pro cranks are ISIS." Which I like - Shimano
bbs like to fall apart and there is a much wider selection
of ISIS stuff available. Plus, my general rule of thumb is,
if you can stuff a RaceFace part on it you're doing good. I
ultimately broke that rule and ordered an FSA Platinum, but
you get my drift.
So I pick up my box 'o parts today and what do I find? Right
on the side of the Ritchey box: "Compatible with Shimano
splined bottom bracket spindles."
Ritchey site, but they didn't have info on anything that
isn't 2004 - and even though all the new stuff is Octalink,
I thought maybe that was new for '04 (maybe Shimano pulled a
Microsoft and wrote Ritchey a check trying to corner a bit
more of the market).
Regardless, now I'm stuck with a Shimano bottom bracket,
which I really wanted to avoid. I also ordered a RaceFace
ISIS bb tool which I now no longer need. So, boo Cambria for
not knowing their products (or bothering to look on the
shelf). Also, they were out of stock on 5 of 19 items
ordered, which you don't find out until a day after you
place the order. Also #2, you never get an "items shipped"
email...stuff just shows up.
I've ordered from them before with no real problems (got
wrong bb spindle width once, but it was RaceFace so I could
get the chainline adjusted fine), but after this I'm
wondering...so many shops, why put up with this garbage. If
the LBS were friendlier, and I had a bit more $$, I'd have
ordered more than the frame/headset from them.
In related news, I have an extra FSA Platinum 63x113 for $25
and a RF ISIS tool for $20. ******* ass CBO.
Chris
dream come true) and needed a crank. Decided, hey, mountain
cranks offer a little too low a gear for commuting and road
cranks have a bit too high sometimes - and they just plain
look stupid most of the time - so why not go with a "cross"
crankset! 38/48 rings, looks neato, it's theoretically a
'cross bike, whatever.
So I see the '03 Ritchey V-Pro Cross crank on sale ("hot
deal") at CBO for $99. I've always thought Ritchey made a
nice product, the gears were right, looked cool, so I was
real tempted to pull the trigger. The problem? It's listed
only as "splined, 175mm, black." Splined how? ISIS or
Octalink? So I fire off an email to CBO and a couple hours
later I get, "V-Pro cranks are ISIS." Which I like - Shimano
bbs like to fall apart and there is a much wider selection
of ISIS stuff available. Plus, my general rule of thumb is,
if you can stuff a RaceFace part on it you're doing good. I
ultimately broke that rule and ordered an FSA Platinum, but
you get my drift.
So I pick up my box 'o parts today and what do I find? Right
on the side of the Ritchey box: "Compatible with Shimano
splined bottom bracket spindles."
Ritchey site, but they didn't have info on anything that
isn't 2004 - and even though all the new stuff is Octalink,
I thought maybe that was new for '04 (maybe Shimano pulled a
Microsoft and wrote Ritchey a check trying to corner a bit
more of the market).
Regardless, now I'm stuck with a Shimano bottom bracket,
which I really wanted to avoid. I also ordered a RaceFace
ISIS bb tool which I now no longer need. So, boo Cambria for
not knowing their products (or bothering to look on the
shelf). Also, they were out of stock on 5 of 19 items
ordered, which you don't find out until a day after you
place the order. Also #2, you never get an "items shipped"
email...stuff just shows up.
I've ordered from them before with no real problems (got
wrong bb spindle width once, but it was RaceFace so I could
get the chainline adjusted fine), but after this I'm
wondering...so many shops, why put up with this garbage. If
the LBS were friendlier, and I had a bit more $$, I'd have
ordered more than the frame/headset from them.
In related news, I have an extra FSA Platinum 63x113 for $25
and a RF ISIS tool for $20. ******* ass CBO.
Chris
