SRAM Red are good looking cranks for sure. As for Shimano, I like the Dura-Ace 9100 way more than the new 9200. But the 9200 is head and shoulders better than 8100. Especially in that picture, the Ultegra cranks looks plastic, and that color matching is horrendous. No way I’d be paying that premium price for that monstrosity.
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Yeah that was my feeling as well… If new Ultegra is going to cost around 3,000USD in Sweden, for the love of humanity, please at least have the chainrings match the color and matte finish of the cranks…
While I’m close to an engineer in some sense, I don’t think this is where it comes from. My parents instilled in me a love for classic, timeless designs like Bauhaus furniture, Artemide lamps, etc.
I also disagree that things don’t sell if you don’t change the design: case in point is Apple. Their products stick to the same design for years while they update the internals.
True, true…
But in defence of Apple, at least they dont only add one new feature every 6 years, like Shimano has done by adding another gear…
I think of those 4, the Red crank looks the best, followed by Ultegra, then DA, then rival. Rival looks sooooo cheap, like some internal cooling fan made of cheaply moulded plastic that nobody was ever meant to see, DA is too shiny in the last few generations. Red needs to do a lot more than look nice to get my business, this ain’t high school.
Exactly this imo, the direction of the “arms” are going the wrong way and I can’t unsee it. Shimano had a gorgeous silver/black crankset some generations ago, but the Sram ones have a cheap silver/black truck wheel look to me 
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I actually think that the Dura Ace, Ultegra, and SRAM cranksets are all pretty fugly.
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Still no clue who makes this bike that was used as a R8100 showcase - feel like I’ve seen that seatpost clamp design somewhere but can’t remember. Damn it’s pretty.
Also, bikesdirect.com is able to sell an R8100 bike for $3500 - Save Up to 60% Off Hydraulic Disc Brake Carbon Road Bikes - Shimano FULL R8100 Di2 Ultegra Hydraulic Disc Brake Road/Gravel Carbon Bikes on Sale Full Carbon, Super Road/Gravel, Hydraulic Disc Brakes Bikes Motobecane Immortal CF Disc TEAM SL Di2
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Can you not keep the old crank? You need new cables and a new battery
Apologies if already answered…
Do 9200 chainrings work on 9100 cranksets?
ugh. Roger that.
Awesome page find by the way! Thank you.
Not sure of the reason for your question but if it’s driven by a desire to reuse parts on a new 12 speed setup… 12 speed shimano chains work just fine on 11 speed shimano cranksets.
I am running 12 speed chains on GRX800, R8000 Ultegra, and R7000 105 cranksets.
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Wife has new bike sponsor and they’re short on cranks of appropriate length. They won’t have 165mm cranks available until Aug 2022! Was exploring ways to get her on the 12sp setup with optimal crank length. May not happen!
R8100 and R9200 12 speed groups are using the existing range of shimano 12 speed chains (the same chains that are used for shimano MTB 12 speed).
Looks like your wife can get her hopes up after all:
He has no problems by using the older version. However, one thing that is not touched on in the video and I am not really sure about: The new cranks do have a bit wider q-factor and a wider chainline. I am not sure if that can influence the shifting, especially in the biggest gears. But one would not notice probably anyway I guess…
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Definitely looks rideable. Wonder if teeth of the 9100 would get worn excessively fast with the narrower chain. Would have loved if he’d done a tooth width measurement of the 9200 vs 9100. Good to know it does the basic functions though! Thanks for digging that up and sharing.
I obviously have not had the chance to personally check a 12-speed system w/ an 11-spd Shimano crank, but in general terms, there is usually at least a one-generation overlap between cranks / chains. While Shimano would never officially OK, historically, it has always worked just fine.
I currently am running a 10 spd system on my trainer bike with an 8 spd crank & FD (old Mavic SSC) and it works just fine (the front shifting is surprisingly crisp!)
I would be pretty shocked if you couldn’t run an 11 spd Shimano crank with their 12 speed drivetrain.
I didn’t watch the whole video above, but he was talking about replacing the entire CRANKSET and not chainrings. But he kept saying chainring. Carefully watch that video.
The compatibility chart:
Implies the 9200 chainrings have slightly different arms than 9100. Because they are in different boxes. Let me give my experience of having cranksets in different boxes…
I have two cranksets: Ultegra 6800 and 8000, they are in different boxes on the Shimano compatibility chart. The large chainrings cannot be interchanged, because the 4 bolt arms are slightly different. Tried to do it myself and then took it to the bike shop. The young LBS manager and I spent 15 minutes before realizing the bolt arms are in slightly different locations. I have swapped the inner chainrings.
This article:
confirms what is implied by the compatibility chart:
“and while the bolt circle diameter for the chainrings is the same 110 mm, the actual location of the arms is different so there’s no mixing and matching there, either.”
which is exactly my experience with 6800 and 8000 large chainring, and is shown by the location in separate boxes in the Shimano compatibility chart.
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