The New BBs

[Nelson Binch]

I got my hands on both the new XT and Saint 2 pc bottom bracket/cranksets at a recent Shimano Dealer
show in Greensboro. Impressive. I do like the bearing arrangement on them. On the technical side I
only gripe that the system requires chasing and facing the BB shell on the first installation. Just
seems like the system should be just slightly more robust and forgiving than that. Really not a
problem, just a minor gripe.

On the personal side, I'm not switching just yet. I still like the 5 bolt
110/74 cranks and I'll probably use that until my XTR square taper BB wears out. What I will not do
right now is upgrade from my black LX cranks to RaceFace, considering a major change is in
process now and I'll just skip the ISIS/Octallink **** altogether.

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[Onefred]

"Nelson Binch" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I got my hands on both the new XT and Saint 2 pc bottom bracket/cranksets
at
> a recent Shimano Dealer show in Greensboro. Impressive. I do like the bearing arrangement on them.
> On the technical side I only gripe that the system requires chasing and facing the BB shell on the
> first installation. Just seems like the system should be just slightly more robust and
forgiving
> than that. Really not a problem, just a minor gripe.
>
> On the personal side, I'm not switching just yet. I still like the 5 bolt
> 110/74 cranks and I'll probably use that until my XTR square taper BB
wears
> out. What I will not do right now is upgrade from my black LX cranks to RaceFace, considering a
> major change is in process now and I'll just skip the ISIS/Octallink **** altogether.

About these new bottom brackets... What is **** poor is that these new cranks only give one choice
of chainline and it's the widest (50mm). That sucks. As if mtn bike chainlines weren't poor enough
at 47.5mm.

What did you think of the Saint stuff? It's unreal how seamingly over-engineered it is (to
an XC guy).

Dave