Shimano beastmaster surf 130

Advantages: Cheap, extremely durable, abuse tolerant
Disadvantages: Poor crank choice, may not be suitble for extreme use

...What's this? It is a JIS square tapered BB. And in english... BB - bottom bracket. Screwed into the frame and serves as a mounting point for your cranks. Square taper - Axle shaft of the bottom bracket is tapered. The shaft is wider at the base than it is at the tip, so it ensures a very tight fit when the crank is tightened up. It fits square holed cranks only. JIS - Japanese International Standard. This is a measure of the degree of taper. There is also the ISO standard used by European manufacturers, such as Campagnola. The vast majority of mountain bike cranks are JIS. An ISO crank may or may not fit a JIS square taper BB depending on the tolerances and amount of wear. Evolution or Devolution? In the last few years BB's have undergone something of a revolution. Octalink from Shimano, ISIS from the others... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: strong
Disadvantages: mass produced

...This is a superb ring from that great manufactuer Shimano. This chain ring offers you a precision engineered teeth and a five arm fing that will take a good bashing. How ever with this you also get a mass produced expensive piece of metal. For those who want a ring that only needs replacing every anum, then this is for you. Shimano do a wide range of products that are compatible with most makes of bikes. I would recomend this ring for the fast furious dual. exciting downhill and exillerating jumping.... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: cheaper than contemporaries
Disadvantages: difficult hoses

...shimano, in using a new 4 pot system have moved into the league usually dominated by Hope. the 4 pot system gives greater power than two pot systems and doesnt overheat easily. the shimano is better than the hopes because it uses two cylinders to drive the pads rather than the one cylinder that the hope uses to drive all 4 pads. the shimanos are also a lot cheaper than other systems with comparible performance, although they need expensive hubs, making them more expensive than the hope open 2s. the braided hoses are bombproof but need to be precut and the levers give superb modulation and good feel.... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful