Anyway, my bro-in-law stripped the crank on my MTB and now I need to get it fixed. The bike is an old Trek that I paid $45 on Craigslist. I went to my LBS and the cheapest cranks they have are $40 and they said it isn’t very good. They suggested looking online for a Deore or LX. I did, but I can’t find anything. The bike is used only for road and light trails. The bottom bracket it has now is for square taper cranks, and I don’t think it’s worth switching to splined because of the added cost of a new bottom bracket.
Do any of you know where I can pick up a cheap set of cranks (new or lightly used)? I already looked at all the bike part sites I know of, eBay, and Craigslist.
Is it the left crank or the right? Many stores sell the left ones separately. As no one can see both cranks at the same time when you’re riding, the cospetic effect won’t be that great. In England, Halfords sell left cranks for under £10, I believe.
The flea market! I haven’t been to the one in San Jose… In Santa Cruz (every Fri, Sat and Sun) there’s at least one vendor with piles and piles of used cranks. You can also look around for a bike co-op (again, I’ve only been to those in Santa Cruz, one on Water St. and another on the UCSC Campus) and they’ve always got used parts from donor bikes.
Have you called any local bike shops? I know, you’re only able to communicate through the Internet, but there’s this 20th century technology called the “telephone” that you could use to contact others with. The shop just up the street from me always has cheapie used parts lying around; sometimes when people have the LBS do a component upgrade, the LBS gets to keep the old parts… give 'em a try, whydon’tcha?