Hey everyone, welcome!
I bet my money that if I was to ask you about the memorable product introductions from March of 2023
most of you including myself would probably say SRAM T-Type Transmission.
However a few weeks prior to that, Shimano introduced this:
Shimano CUES, a new groupset that's supposed to bring compatibility for those entry level bikes.
Thanks to Paul at bikecomponents.ca I have with me today one of their new cranks
and surprise, surprise, these cranks use a different design compared to everything that Shimano has put out in the last 20 years or so
and I truly believe that this is probably going to be the design that we're gonna see
in the future mountain biking groupsets. So let's take a closer look at this!
But first things first, what does Shimano CUES even mean?
And if you open a browser and you type that in you're gonna be surprised to see this:
Creating Unique ExperienceS...
and that means a complete overhaul of their entry level or budget oriented groupsets
and that also means the killer of a few groupsets that I've reviewed in the past here on my channel.
I'm talking about the M4100 10-speed and M5100 11-speed
and there is also a few other groupsets that might disappear,
Shimano just keeping the tourney as their only entry-level groupset from the past.
But why did I say that these are completely redesigned?
And first of all no, they're not going to a 30 mm spindle,
you can still see the 24mm steel spindle that they've been using for the longest time. However
spindle is connected to the left side or the non-drive side crank arm
and that's exactly what SRAM is doing today with pretty much all their groupsets.
That also means that the installation of these new cranks is different.
In the past we used the two pinch bolts to keep the crank arm in place, one on each side,
and to take out the play we use this end cap that had to be tightened up with a special tool.
Instead of that, at the end of the 24mm spindle we have this spline that's going to interconnect to the drive side crank.
You also have this little cap, like a preload adjuster from the past, all you need is an 8mm HEX key to tighten it.
On the spindle itself now we have this little shoulder
that most probably prevents us from over tightening that drive side crank arm, making it easier to remove.
As for taking out the side-to-side play here on the spindle,
we don't use this tensioner anymore but what we use is this ring that you see right here next to the non-drived side crank arm.
You might recognize this from the SRAM design even though this is a nice big thick round adjuster
which probably tells you that the SRAM patent on this wasn't rock solid so Shimano was able to go around it.
As for the other details of this new Shimano CUES U6000 crankset,
this is still a HOLLOWTECH II type of crankset and, as usual, here at the back
you're gonna see both the part number, this is manufactured in Malaysia, and you're gonna see the length
this being a 170mm, 175 is also available.
The spider that uses 4-bolts, this is the 96 millimeter PCD asymmetrical pattern.
They also have a 110mm spider which is standard, depending on the size of your chainring.
This is a 32T as you can see right over here.
Also on the chainring what you're gonna see is Dynamic Chain Engagement,
which is pretty much their way of saying that this is a narrow-wide profile,
do not confuse this with the HG+ 12 speed, narrow-wide profile of their chainrings
in which the teeth are a bit thinner and also a bit taller than this.
Chainring is made out of steel completely, and it's again installed here on the spider with the 4 bolts.
The spider cannot be removed.
And if you look carefully you're gonna see that this is a nice gray-ish finish, nicer than DEORE I would say.
There's no film protecting the crank arm whatsoever even though when shipped it's going to come with something like this.
But this is obviously just used just to keep the finish clean for transportation purposes.
All in all this U6000 is probably expected to be seen on entry-level mountain bikes.
And even though in all their documentation they mention LINKGLIDE
you're not gonna see LINKGLIDE here on the cranks or the chainrings pretty much anywhere.
As for the weight of the cranks, drive side crank and chainring comes up to 478 grams.
As for the non-drive side with the spindle that's 406g, and you add the little bolt, that's 425g
Altogether this comes up to 905 grams!
Now that weight is quite high even compared to the cheaper DEORE that I looked at in the past,
even compared to the SRAM SX PowerSpline SX if you ask me.
However, remember a couple of things:
number 1, when Shimano introduced LINKGLIDE they talked about longevity,
3 times longer lasting components maybe that has something to do with this.
And number 2, did you guys look at the pricing of these components because they're really, really aggressively priced.
If you check out the Shimano website you're gonna find 4 CUES groupsets:
U4000 which is a 9 speed,
U6000 10 speed, and then you have the U6000 11s, this one,
and the U8000 that are 11 speed groupsets
and depending on the chainring they use they provide both the 50 and the 52 millimeter chainline that can be used with modern groupsets.
That being said all these drivetrains use the same, new LINKGLIDE compatible 11 speed chain
they have the same pull ratio, but I'm going to cover most of that in a video when I get my hands on the shifting bits of this M or U6000
which is the more Trail oriented groupset out of the four.
So what do you guys think? Do you like this new crankset design?
Do you think this is going to be baked in the future mountain biking groupsets from Shimano?
Let me know in the comments below.
Let me know if you have any questions and if you like the video don't forget to like, subscribe and comment,
and until next time I will see you folks on the trails.
Cheers guys, cheers!