Shimano m730 black

[Once A Hero]

Yep… ‘91 Kili Flyer… referred to by the catalogue as “special black finish”..

Thanks for the tip.

The black XT wheels and cranks on my Muddy Fox came from a Saracen (don’t know which model though, as was just parts split by someone and sold on eBay), you can see the Saracen brand on the wheels.


And I harvested the black XT parts (wheels and thumbies) from this broken Conquest Elite for my RC100

 

[BlackCat]

I covet your chainset. It looked totally mint. Couldn’t have been used much on the donor.

eBay search strings updated appropriately.

I have a near perfect set of black XT STIs and similar mint black cantis, plus a set of NOS XT thumbies (if I decide to really go outside my comfort zone).. but any black chainset that does materialise is pretty beaten up. Hubs seem rarer still.

 

[Dr Dremel]

Ha. That news bodes ill for my proposed build..

Well I did this to the very crankset I was "forced" to purchase 33 years ago. First de-anodized ...

Note the grease on the threads/tapers to protect it from the Sodium Hydroxide solution

Then a lot of sanding/polishing

And back from the platers

Wasn´t even that expensive as a batch with other parts and I had the satisfaction to turn "my" chainset black finally.

 

[BlackCat]

That looks superb. How did you recover the shimano text… and did you anodise the rings too?

 

[Dr Dremel]

Thanks BC, I was really pleased with the outcome. I filled the Shimano script with Tipp Ex (the bottle in the last pic) and a toothpick. Seems to hold up pretty well. Yeah I did do the rings, but couldn´t bring myself to use them yet. I assembled the cranks with silver rings.

 

[BlackCat]

I salute your patience. How long did the tippex work take?

I am always impressed by how much more effort people here put into their builds than me.

 

[Atmos]

imo the crank is the hardest. They rarely appear and if they do, either bad condition or NOS in rocket price.

 

[FluffyChicken]

I salute your patience. How long did the tippex work take?

I am always impressed by how much more effort people here put into their builds than me.

The logo is embossed/machined in to the crank, so it's not lost.
You just fill it in, you could probably fill and wipe it depending on the paint used.


I think it prefer the finish on @Dr Dremel 's to the original which had a more glossy paint style finish (at least the M730's), really nice.

Some irony that finding nice silver cranks in the modern groupsets and not black or dull grey is hard, and lead times are greater than 6 months now too ;-)

 

[Dr Dremel]

I salute your patience. How long did the tippex work take?

Not very long at all! The toothpick was just used to crudely stipple the color into the script. Excess could be wiped away easily as the relief is quite deep. All in all I had maybe 4 hours in the crankset, including packaging, searching for the Sodium crystals, getting in contact with the platers etc. The majority of the work was sanding the marks of 30y of use. Patience? Well I admit I just enjoy this kind of meditative work

imo the crank is the hardest. They rarely appear and if they do, either bad condition or NOS in rocket price.

Hm, black hubs may not show the same wear, but they always appear in the wrong variation. 32L when you need 36, 135mm when you need 130mm. And then there seem to be different definitions when the bearings are "smooth".
I´d say it´s a draw between cranks/hubs!

 

[FluffyChicken]

@drystonepaul is another purveyor of black XT cranks, and on #Saracen too.