middle burn vs shimano

[LangersGT]

Hi all im in the process of striping and rebuilding my GT Zaskar and looking at replacing the crank and chain rings which is the better make is there a difference??? was look at XT or XTR

any help and advise would be awesome


Cheers

Langers

 

[hamster]

Shimano chainrings are made of silvery cheese and wear out in no time. Middleburns are much more durable.

I've always found Shimano cranks to run wonky, which leads to chain rub on the front mech, but the Middleburns are straight and true. They are also UK made, look gorgeous and last forever.

A pal ran a singlespeed setup on M750 XT cranks, which cracked through around the bolt holes which is something I've never seen before on a Shimano crank.

 

[Mr Universe]

Mix it up a little , Shimano crank with middleburn rings , I personally had a middleburn crank snap on me some years ago and after that , er.. for some reason I never trusted them again.

Middleburn rings are made of the hardest longest lasting material know to man kind and would recommend them highly.

and

Shimano rings are indeed however made of cheese and should be donated to me to give to those little rodent things that keep scuttling around my sheds. :facepalm:

 

[LangersGT]

thanks guys

 

[bm0p700f]

My middleburn runs wonky (bent spider) and my shimano cranks always run true. So now my middleburn is single rind crank at 460g. My shimano cranks have middleburn or TA rings as those are the best when the shimano rings wear out.

An M730 crankset complete with steel bolts ans steel inner is 730g. A middleburn with alloy bolts is 559g. You decide. My wife snapped a middleburn RS2 gold crankset, what shame.

 

[cyclotoine]

in my experience the off brands are cool but not as good. I can't speak to middleburn because we didn't have that in Canada, but in general the CnC'd rings of all the boutique brands are actually made of cheese and get chewed up fast and lots of burs and cause chainsuck. Shimano forged cranks and rings are just better where riding is actually concerned. It depends what you want.. to turn heads of have reliability and the best performance. For best quality go with shimano. I'll get chewed out but those who want to believe this is not true. but it is. full stop.

 

[oliverracing]

I would suggest shimano cranks with middleburn rings as the best of both worlds! - Middleburn rings seem to last forever - I bought a used set (they looked almost new ) about a year ago, and have been putting 150 miles per week on them - still look as good as they did the day I bought them

 

[mattr]

but in general the CnC'd rings of all the boutique brands are actually made of cheese and get chewed up fast and lots of burs and cause chainsuck.

Depends where they are from. I've found some of the US based stuff to be quite fragile and "chewable".
The UK based stuff (Middleburn, Pace) tends/tended to last forever, even if the shifting can be a bit variable! Probably due to the market it's sold into (orrible claggy mud for 9 months of the year...)

The TA stuff just lasts and lasts. I'd not call TA boutique either, more like the masters of the chainring. I've found only the top end OE stuff from campag and shimano (D-A or record) to be better than TAs offerings. Unfortunately, the OE stuff is twice the price, so replacement rings are in 95% of cases TA (the other 5% are rings they don't make!)

Shimano cranks with TA rings on most of my bikes. Unless the shimano ring isn't yet worn out!