# Crankset - Shimano Tourney vs. say...Deore level



## jabpn (Oct 14, 2005)

So I'm building up a winter beater and the bike has an old square taper bottom bracket. Well on my current bike that I'll be taking most of the parts from (frame is way to small which is why I just got the new larger frame) the chainrings (old EXAGE Biopace) are shot. At AEbike I can get a Shimano Tourney crankset for under twenty and then the next price level is in the 40-50 ish range. My question is with regards to the actual steel used in the Tourney chainrings. Simply looking at what info I could find it appears that, aesthetically, the only difference is that the chainrings are permanently bonded to the crank arms whereas on higher level cranksets the chainrings can be replaced. But....is the steel itself, specifically of the chainrings, the same quality as that of Alivio or Deore?


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## ARP (Mar 7, 2002)

*Honestly if you search around a bit*



jabpn said:


> So I'm building up a winter beater and the bike has an old square taper bottom bracket. Well on my current bike that I'll be taking most of the parts from (frame is way to small which is why I just got the new larger frame) the chainrings (old EXAGE Biopace) are shot. At AEbike I can get a Shimano Tourney crankset for under twenty and then the next price level is in the 40-50 ish range. My question is with regards to the actual steel used in the Tourney chainrings. Simply looking at what info I could find it appears that, aesthetically, the only difference is that the chainrings are permanently bonded to the crank arms whereas on higher level cranksets the chainrings can be replaced. But....is the steel itself, specifically of the chainrings, the same quality as that of Alivio or Deore?


I think you could find an alu square taper crank with alu rings cheap. Steel cranks are really old,cheap. I have a bike from 1978 and even it had alu cranks.


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## jabpn (Oct 14, 2005)

I have looked around quite a bit. I haven't found anything even remotely close to the Tourney price. Being that it's going to be a knockaround bike I don't mind the "cheapness" of the Tourney crank. I'm mostly curious as to whether or not Shimano actually uses a lower grade steel on the cheapo vs their somewhat decent quality crankset. My tendency is to say no as the price seems way to different but on the other hand I can also see where it may be cheaper for a company to just make their steel rings from the same material and make one "disposable" vs. one that's rebuildable. Yeah, I'm probably over thinking it and the whole thing is just plain cheaper with regards to everything. I've emailed Shimano but no reply...but I didn't really expect one anyway. I'd like to keep the total for all changes etc. below $75. To me if I start to spend even double that I might as well as make it a decent bike overall...and I don't really have the money to do that otherwise I would have just bought a new bike to begin with.


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## ARP (Mar 7, 2002)

*I was thinking used from a shop*



jabpn said:


> I have looked around quite a bit. I haven't found anything even remotely close to the Tourney price. Being that it's going to be a knockaround bike I don't mind the "cheapness" of the Tourney crank. I'm mostly curious as to whether or not Shimano actually uses a lower grade steel on the cheapo vs their somewhat decent quality crankset. My tendency is to say no as the price seems way to different but on the other hand I can also see where it may be cheaper for a company to just make their steel rings from the same material and make one "disposable" vs. one that's rebuildable. Yeah, I'm probably over thinking it and the whole thing is just plain cheaper with regards to everything. I've emailed Shimano but no reply...but I didn't really expect one anyway. I'd like to keep the total for all changes etc. below $75. To me if I start to spend even double that I might as well as make it a decent bike overall...and I don't really have the money to do that otherwise I would have just bought a new bike to begin with.


But at any rate, a few of my sources:

www.bikepartsusa.com
www.bikeparts.com

Also I have a source in Pittsburgh sort of near where i live, the guy buys out inventory from shops going out of biz, tools/racks, and you can go to his shop and use his tools free for repair but buy the parts from him. Place is a really bike graveyard.
Kraynick's 412.621.6160


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## Spoke Wrench (Aug 20, 2001)

jabpn said:


> But....is the steel itself, specifically of the chainrings, the same quality as that of Alivio or Deore?


Is that really your question or you wondering about the relative durability of the chainrings? If that's the case I'm thinking that a Tourney chainring will last for a very long time. Beauty is only skin deep but ugly goes clean to the bone.


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## jabpn (Oct 14, 2005)

yes that is my real question. That's what I'm hoping. I'm not worried about the "beauty" issue. I don't care about weight. Just durability. I also realize the BB has more to do with overall longevity (ie good quality bearings etc.) I'll probably just go with the Tourney and see how well they do.

Oh and LG, LBS's didn't have any used square tapers. I tried though. I'll check out links you posted.


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