Last years release of The Shimano Saint series sparked the World Wide Web slander of the big S. Consumers were outraged that in order to use one of shimano’s products nearly the whole groupset was required. The one exception for this was the crankset. Using the outboard bearing design found on previous XTR versions (and Bullseye- way, way before that) and a super beefy, yet reasonably lightweight frame work meant that the Saint crankset was not only bombproof, but also super easy to install. Luckily for us, shimano decided to keep the design in public domain, meaning that any manufacturer could copy the design and make compatible components. Race face, Truvativ and Fsa have all seen the simplicity of the design and jumped aboard. While the saint crankset continued to be popular amongst downhillers and freeriders there was a definite need for a lighter, yet still robust version of the design. Many riders used the XT cranks with success, but the whole XC crank on a freeride bike is a hard thing to market. Bring on the 2005 hone cranks. While the same bollocks as Saint drivetrain compatibility applies, the crankset remains what I like to call, 'backward compatible'.
The Hone in all it's evilness | That's a bottom bracket?
Coming in at under $300 the Hone crankset sits just above LX and below XT and Saint. For your hard earned you get a pair of forged hollow arms, a bottom bracket and a tripple chainring setup. As far as I'm aware, no single ring option is available, a little disappointing shimano. The cranks represent the misconceived child of Saint and XT, and while they maintain their stealth factor and beef look, they loose the cromo pedal insert of the saint cranks and shed a few grams. Compared to XT, the bb axel is thicker and the arms a little wider. The BB has also copped a downgrade, while it should still be plenty capable; the bearing size in the cups has decreased. Not of a huge concern though as both Saint and Diablous bottom brackets are fully compatible and as you are not buying an axel with your cups, the cost of bottom brackets is much cheaper than before. The top of the line saint or xtr bottom brackets come in at under $90. Definatly cheaper than the alternatives.
Chunkyness takes form...
When it came to fitting the cranks it couldn't have been more hassle free. The real beauty of the Hollow Tech II design is the bottom bracket spacing system. The hone cranks can be setup, 68 or 73 in either E-type or standard. This means you should be able to get a decent chainline on just about any bike. The STP used for the installation uses a 73mm shell and as I was using an E13 Chainguide with ISCG adapter (equivalent to having an E-type front derailleur) I would need no spacers, if the shell was 68 I'd be using 2 spacers. I found I had to use one 1mm spacer (not included) under the drive bottom bracket cup to get the right chainline, I have found this to be a common issue with the E13 ISCG adapters as they don't seem to sit as far over on the bb shell as dedicated ISCG mounts do. Installation was a matter of installing the cups and spacers, inserting the cranks and tensioning the preload cap and pinch bolts. Within ten minutes of removing my old crankset the hones were installed and ready to ride, with a perfect chainline.
On the bike the hones feel stiff. How stiff? Who knows, and honestly- who cares. There’s stiff and there's flexy. A while I couldn't tell a huge difference coming from the blackspires they replaced, the increase in stiffness compaired to a pair of hussefelts was huge. I also noticed that the cranks sit quite wide, not cromo bmx crank wide, but wider than the standard crankset. This could be an issue for smaller riders, but to me the width fells quite natural.
Overall, for under 300 squid, look at the options. ISIS cranks who’s bottom brackets cost a fortune and fail repeatedly or cromo cranks that weight more than the rest of your bike, are complicated to setup and also have bb wear issues. I know which I'd choose. And yes it starts with S.
Build a bridge you haters. ;)
Jonny (J5ive) Belling
