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."
****. I got screwed by lazy/stupid tech support. Yes, I checked the
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
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."
****. I got screwed by lazy/stupid tech support. Yes, I checked the
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
