Mountain Biking - Prices??? Please explain

Hi all,

Ok i am not a price or budget weeniee but listen to this.

XTR 2003 with BB , price 350$
Raceface Turbine ISIS with rings (no bb) , price 350$ (!!!???)
Raceface Prodigy DH ISIS with rings , price 150$.

How come the turbines or anything other than the prodigy from raceface are SOOOOOO overpriced? And those who know me ,know well that i dont like to buy budget products, but after reading some reviews , some people consider anything less than turbines or northshoreXS cranks as budget cranks. How can a 150$ crank like the prodigy or the holzfeller or the XT be budget class?????????

Its a lot cheaper to engineer and make super strong wiht little concern for weight than to engineer strong and light. The 'cheaper' ones tend to weight more. Its all about comprimize between weight, strenght and price.

Also the holzfeller I believe is a Turbine quality while the husslefelt is the 'cheap' one.

Hey mael.

Many reviews i ve read state the prodigy series as a cheapo made in taiwan product labeled with raceface logo. Personally i dont intend to spend 350$ on just a crank no matter what. I ve spent 350$ on my brakes that really deserve them and 400$ on my fork likewise. But 350 on just a crank is a lot of cash imho.
In the reviews they say bad things about prodigy durability (even the DH). On the other hand Holzfeller costs 150$ as well, same price as the Prodigy, from what you say the holzfeller is at the same class with Turbines/NS series, at a fraction of the price though. Any ideas? I was about to get ProdigyDH for my trail riding duties but i was put off by the reviews of a bugdet cheapo crank. Cmon....150$ isnt a low budget for a crank....

Well I really can't comment directly about that product as I don't have raceface cranks. I use the husslefelt which I find fantastic and I assume the holzfeller is better (stiffer and lighter).

Raceface tends to be a little overpriced compared to Truvativ. You pay for the name with raceface. I haven't actually heard anything bad about the prodigy but I know raceface has had some problems with bb's this year. Maybe they are having production problems elsewhere too.. :)

For more value for your buck also look at FSA. Their crank arms are some of the best on the market now and their bb's are top notch as well :) (I love their headset)

Hmmmm shame....coz i was in love with Raceface brand due to my Deus Stem. But for cranks i see that the high end FSA and Truvativ are half the price of Raceface high end stuff, at least for cranks. Its strange to put the prodigy DH on par with the Holzfeller

I love raceface but I also love FSA :)...I only use truvativ because they are stock. :)...

Well i presume that any of the ProdigyDH or Holzfeller is going to be a huge improvement over my stock 40$ specialized cranks.

Just to give you another option go here ;

BlackSpire (http://www.blackspire.com/main.html)

I have been running their cranks for a year on my DH rig and 6 mo on my trail/FR rig. They are very stiff, not to heavy and take being smacked aginst a few rocks very well.

I use the "Badger FR" crank set. The only thing about these cranks is they only use the Shimano Octalink BB.

:beer: :beer:

cheers thanks

Oh yeah, forgot to mention price. They sell for 170 USD.

:beer: :beer:

Hey Math, what are you after, strength, weight or looks?

I really like Race Face products as well, and yes they are expensive. For personal reasons, I've never like XTR cranks. Sure they look pretty, but I've never "lusted" after a pair.

I went with Strength for my last set of cranks. The same ones I used when I used to race BMX. Profile Racing Chromoly cranks. The problem is, they weight a ton compared to some of the the aluminum cranks these days. Cheap? NO! Almost $300 for the crank arms, spider and bottom bracket. Then a full set of Race Race Chainrings and you're talking over $350.00.

I like them though!

L8R

The RF Turbine's are costly to manufacture due to
1) quality assurance procedures to ensure strength of forged billit pre crank
2) large amount of machining
3) made in large overhead cost country
4) Raceface brand positioning.

I use the M960 XTR crank (2003) and I'find it to be the stiffest crank out there. A friend of mine, Rog, swore by RaceFace Turbines and tried very hard to convince me to leave my CODA Tarantula's behind and jpin the RF brigade...................till he tried the XTR.
This time he converted me.
Excellent crank and easy to maintain.

I am after strength but not overly built 3piece cranks. My option was prodigyXc but now i am leaning over the DH model for a better weight to strength ratio. Turbines are waaaay expensive cranks for me . I may have a 2000$ bike , but i cant devote 450$ for cranks and bb. If the turbines cost that much....then how can the holzfeller or prodigy series be so much cheaper when they dont differ that much in performance.... i have machined parts on my bike like my RF deus stem...but it has a relatively normal cost. I dont know...maybe its the hype that gets some prices high. Anyhow i could stretch my budget for the turbines but the thing is that they seem a bit fragile to me in comparison with the RF prodigy DH cranks....

Anyhow : Current setup Specialized StrongarmIIcranks and UN-25 sq shimano bb.
My pick so far : ProdigyDH ISIS , FSA platinum pro BB or RF evolve FR bb.

Feel free to advise me.

I have been using the ProdigyXC for over a year now and they work great. They are heavier than some but they hold up. I was cranking on them at 257 pounds and they held. So I continue to crank them at 190.

So you mean that the DH option is not needed? What type of riding you do?

Math like I said I use the husslfelt which are suppost to be cheapy and they have lasted 13 months of riding and counting. I leave the really high end stuff to price weenies and guys who race or really are that good. Besides if I REALLY had money I would get the prodigy cranks just for bling bling factor :)

Point taken. no need to go for turbines then. Mael in your opinion , prodigy xc or dh? Sorry man , i consider you a close friend together with A2 so your opinion matters.!

Sorry I misttyped...if I REALLY had money and was that good I would get profiles

Seriously for cranks in what you describe I would get the fsa's. I like the look and feel and price of them. X-drives if you are curious :) V-drives are more xc oriented I believe.

oh ok. Well 3piece cranks are not in my aims inspite of how strong they are. I prefer to stick with the traditional alloy type

ok...I don't know too much about 1 pc cranks then, I just know about profiles and how strong they are. :)

Originally posted by math2p14
So you mean that the DH option is not needed? What type of riding you do?

Purely XC. I feel I am a fairly strong rider and push hard. I do alot of standing and like I said they have worked perfect.

I ride Raceface cranks.. in my opinion they're some of the best cranks on the market. The bottom bracket that comes with the XTR crank can't cost much to manufacture.. it's like 2 bearings and a metal tube from what I understand. I think the Race Face cranks will hold up better and work better in the long run. Race Face's rings are what are really costly. A new set of rings for mine cost me 80 bucks! But the rings are super strong and lightweight. They don't bend. The teeth will snap off before the rings will bend.