SHIMANO M361 Hybrid Crankset (Black)

I needed a replacement for my 22 year old Kona Yee-Ha hybrid crankset, and this fit the bill perfectly.

I wanted to drop my cranks from 175 to 170, so I ordered this set, with the same rings as my old set. I removed the inner ring to make the bike a 2x set up. Worked well and improved the chain line for the 10x. This gave me less creaking and chain issues. The shorter cranks made a big difference in feel. The fact that they use nuts and bolts to hold the rings in is important for repairs and upgrades in the future. Great value for the money.

Bought this as a returned “used” item. Previous owner tried it on a existing BB. They found out they needed a 122.5mm spindle as witness marks on inner ring bolts show contact with something. Used this to replace a FC-CT90 Altus, Shimano still recalls. Bike shop wanted to screw me on the recall so I replaced myself. Shimano would of replaced the CT90 with a M131 Tourney crank with riveted chain rings. For almost same price this Acera fell in my lap. Replaced the BB with a UN300 68×122.5mm, the CT90E FD with a M310 and swapped the steel 42T chain ring for a Corki 38T to match high gearing of the original 95′ Mongoose Threshold 3X6. This crank is beefy and beautiful.
Update: 1/2/21. 95′ Mongoose Threshold 3×6 chain line (130mm frame) was around 44mm. Shimano says 47.5/50mm chain line so I got a 123mm BB. Front chain line came out 50.8mm, rear still 44.5mm. Wanted closer to the 44mm chain line after I replaced FH to a 7 speed ( a 96′ option). Found out Shimano recommended BB is to accommodate 135-142mm rear dropouts and thicker frame tubes. This crank works fine with the original 68 X 116mm CT90 BB. Chain line right at 47.8mm and within the FD-M310 range for proper shifting.
Update: 1/22/21. Shimano UN300 68x118mm is proper BB for 130mm steel dropout FRAMES. Gives around a 46mm front chain line and works with the M310 FD.

The Acera FC-M361 crank is in the low end of components in the Shimano family of bike components, but it’s not the lowest end of Shimano components. That title belongs to Shimano Tourney components such as my (now former) FC-M131 Tourney crankset for example. While the highest end components in the MTB Shimano family is XTR. However, for the casual rider Acera and Alivio are still far better than Altus or Tourney. The original Shimano FC-M131 crank I had, was 170mm, was 48-38-28 chainrings (it required a 123mm or 122.5mm square taper spindle, which I paired this with the BB-UN55 68mm x 122.5mm) had aluminum arms with chrome plating with black riveted steel chainrings. Unfortunately, after riding with the FC-M131, the aluminum chrome finish had scratches the black on the chain rings started wearing away, which that didn’t bother me at first.
However, that’s something that is normal for these parts but is in my opinion super annoying and is a HUGE pet peeve of mine, but its merely cosmetic as birchwood casey bluing kit would probably take care of that problem, I always store my bike indoors and do not leave them outside or in the garage outside. Anyways, so eventually when the scratches on the chrome aluminum crank arms started to bug me and I bought TurtleWax polish for metal surfaces, it kind of worked, but still not any better, then when I took it out of the box. I also came to realize that upon originally buying this crank, the only thing I failed to do was educate myself on gearing ratios, in other words, chainring(s) teeth and Cassette and Freewheel teeth ratios, and environmental factors, like hills, or flat land etc and why having a lower gearing ratio may help going up a hills or bridges etc. Because let’s face it’s easier to go up a steep hill on lower gear ratios Such as 42-32-22 chainrings which are far better because lower profile chainring gears require less effort to exert power when pedaling and thus equals way more power.
vs.
48-38-28 chainrings while they certainly give you more power you must exert more effort to get more power When pedaling and therefore that’s not a great combination.

With that in mind, I wanted to cut my teeth ratio down anyway from my old crank, that way I could achieve better climb especially going up hills. Since there’s some in my area, and Illinois can be hilly In places. Plus while normally don’t like to spend more money than the typical shopper I wanted to spend a little more than I did previously, but still try and get the best deal. So sticking to my plan I looked at multiple Shimano cranks as well as different MTB groupset families and different numbers of teeth on chainrings of cranks and the profiles of teeth. I looked at several including Alivio which I could have bought a FC-T4010 or 4060 hollowtech Crankset That would’ve worked but then that would’ve required buying a Hollowtech bottom bracket and the Park Tool BBT-9 which would’ve been too expensive for me. Though I have considered this but it might be too light in terms of weight because while I’m not a super heavy person my bike is built more for comfort and not so much for speed. So for me that wouldn’t have worked. Even though Shimano Alivio is higher end MTB groupset than Shimano Acera. With that in mind when picking Shimano parts, I came to realize it pays to pick parts carefully and find parts that match in the same groupset or that closely match as possible. For example the Acera FC-M361 crankset matches with the Acera FD-M360 (Front Derailleur) and Acera RD-M360 (Rear Derailleur) Plus there all part of the same family of Shimano MTB Component Groupset: Acera. Same With Shimano MTB Alivio Groupset for example the Alivio FC-M410 crankset goes best with ether the FD-M410 or FD-M411 (Front Derailleurs) or FD-M412 (Front Derailleur) and RD-M410 (Rear Derailleur)
Now with that said I originally purchased first an altus FD-M310 and RD-310 both lowest end Shimano MTB Family groupset Derailleur components but are higher then any Shimano Tourney Parts. Altus did work but were terribly cheap alternatives for derailleurs.

So upon buying the FC-M361 (square tapered 170mm 42-32-22 chainring teeth crank with removable chainrings) I bought the FD-M360 front derailleur to go with it since I already had the Shimano Acera RD-M360 Rear Derailleur.
Now if we made comparisons and contrasts of Shimano cranks on the market:
1.)Chainrings on the FC-M131: not removable they are riveted on.
2.)Chainrings on the FC-M311: not removable they are riveted on.
3.)Chainrings on the FC-M311-L: not removable they are riveted on.
4.) Chainrings on the FC-M430-L: are removable
5.)Chainrings on the FC-M361 are removable
And so on.
So as you can see on some models of Shimano cranks the chainrings will be removable or not removable. So for me riveted chainrings was a deal breaker for me, that meant if say I kept my FC-M131 Crank for example and 1 chainring broke or the teeth became worn to the point of usability, but the other two chainrings were fine, I’d still have to replace the entire crank, for most shoppers that may be more or less expensive, and that might be a deal breaker. While others just might buy a new bike altogether. So that was my reason for going with this crank instead. I imagine the replacement chainrings wouldn’t be that expensive, and much cheaper then buying a whole new crank. Plus, my bike shifts so nicely, and More quietly than before! I’ve never been happier! Trust me This Acera FC-M361or or the Alivio FC-M410 are the best low end Shimano MTB components for any everyday bike rider and worth the money the Shimano FC-M410 is something I am considering, but the Acera groupset works just fine so I may or may not want to upgrade but will just see. To me it’s not worth spending the extra money for higher end Shimano MTB components unless your a racer. Although I learned that the higher end components wear out faster compared to the lower end models. However, usage of your bike needs to be taken into account as well as maintenance, and your riding ability etc. The bottom line is this if you are just a casual rider and still like to hit the trails once in while these components will work fine. But if your biking down a mountain or doing serious downhill biking then you might want to use components that will take that kind of punishment. I highly recommended this product including the other products I mentioned above.

Excelente producto y de buena calidad