Refinishing FC-M952

[Dawwe]

I'm having trouble making up my mind what to use. I do have a 5-armed crank in absolute pristine as new condition, I can hardly find any imperfections and or rubbings, this crank has most likely never been used. I'm not sure about the BCD's, but it has Shimano Chainrings of somekind (42/32/22). When it comes to 5-arm chainrings preferably XTR are there any at all? Needs to be 100% compatible with 9 speed (CS-M750 rear cassette and KMC X9SL chain).

 

[ishaw]

If the rings are 42/32/22 it's likely to be a 94 BCD spider, or compact drive as sometimes referred to.

At the end of the day, that's just bolt spacing, the rings themselves wil work with whatever drive train they are destined to be used for i.e 9 speed rings, 9speed chain and cassette etc.

The main thing to consider is the front mech and what ring size it's designed to be used with. An xtr m95x front mech was designed to work with a 46/48t chain ring (regardless of BCD) for example. It will work on a 44 or 42 chainring but it's not perfect and the angle of the cage doesn't sit as nicely against the rings.

You'll not find xtr 94 BCD rings, m900 and m952 were 110bcd, then xtr moved to 4 bolt 104 BCD. The only decent Shimano rings I can think of that are 94 BCD are xt m737.

Ta rings are great and would work with your setup.

 

[Dawwe]

If the rings are 42/32/22 it's likely to be a 94 BCD spider, or compact drive as sometimes referred to.

At the end of the day, that's just bolt spacing, the rings themselves wil work with whatever drive train they are destined to be used for i.e 9 speed rings, 9speed chain and cassette etc.

The main thing to consider is the front mech and what ring size it's designed to be used with. An xtr m95x front mech was designed to work with a 46/48t chain ring (regardless of BCD) for example. It will work on a 44 or 42 chainring but it's not perfect and the angle of the cage doesn't sit as nicely against the rings.

You'll not find xtr 94 BCD rings, m900 and m952 were 110bcd, then xtr moved to 4 bolt 104 BCD. The only decent Shimano rings I can think of that are 94 BCD are xt m737.

Ta rings are great and would work with your setup.

Thanx! I see you are GT fan, the bike in question is a Zaskar LE 1995. Do you think a 46/34/24 will clear the chainstay and still be able to align decently with the 9-speed cassette? The present BB is BB-UN52 113 mm, I'm not sure what BB to use to FC-M952 if I go with that, still 113 mm? I'm pretty new to "restomoding", I bought the bike this way that is 3*9 with 42/32/22 front ones, more or less XT on everything (M750 and M760 with M8000 hydraulic brakes), but I'm "upgrading" to M952 (shifters SL-M952, derailleurs RD-M953 and FD-M953, brakes BR-M9120). Hubs/rims are SunRingle red-anodized looks pretty cool with SunRingle carbon rims, fork is a German-A Xcite X-Ray partially carbon. Aheadset from Ritchey and also stem, seatpost, bar and barends in some sort of carbon from Ritchey. Crank is the nameless one on the pics (Psychlewerx or Psyclone I was told). Your post helped a lot but it did not make it easier to make up my mind, go with XTR cranks and the correct rings for the FD-M953 or stay with the nameless one and try to find correctly sized chainrings (would 46/34/22 or even 46/32/22 work?). Sorry for all stupid questions

 

[Yaldie]

Thanx! I see you are GT fan, the bike in question is a Zaskar LE 1995. Do you think a 46/34/24 will clear the chainstay and still be able to align decently with the 9-speed cassette? The present BB is BB-UN52 113 mm, I'm not sure what BB to use to FC-M952 if I go with that, still 113 mm? I'm pretty new to "restomoding", I bought the bike this way that is 3*9 with 42/32/22 front ones, more or less XT on everything (M750 and M760 with M8000 hydraulic brakes), but I'm "upgrading" to M952 (shifters SL-M952, derailleurs RD-M953 and FD-M953, brakes BR-M9120). Hubs/rims are SunRingle red-anodized looks pretty cool with SunRingle carbon rims, fork is a German-A Xcite X-Ray partially carbon. Aheadset from Ritchey and also stem, seatpost, bar and barends in some sort of carbon from Ritchey. Crank is the nameless one on the pics (Psychlewerx or Psyclone I was told). Your post helped a lot but it did not make it easier to make up my mind, go with XTR cranks and the correct rings for the FD-M953 or stay with the nameless one and try to find correctly sized chainrings (would 46/34/22 or even 46/32/22 work?). Sorry for all stupid questions

I think you only have one bb option with the xtr chainset, has to be a M95x octalink.

 

[ishaw]

I've not had a Zaskar, but plenty of builds out there with m95x cranks, so don't see an issue there.

BB, you need an octalink v1 spline version. The xtr one came in 2 axle lengths, 112.5 and 116. You can use a road version which was available in 118 but will depend on your BB shell width as I think they only came in one size. 105, ultegra or dura ace versions.

 

[d8mok]

For a Zaskar you ideally need a 112.5 but 116 is ok too.

Road ones come in a 109 too which puts it very close to the chainstay.