why not just changing to splined ?
I agree with Max, don’t fiddle with shitty equipment, go for bomber stuff.
Kookas, which are no longer on the market seem to be a good choice, and can handle some serious drops, you just need a strong hub as well. I guess Doteks can be pretty strong too. But really, a super strong square taper doesnt exist yet. I don’t see why there arent any, but there arent.
Really, with perfect rollout and technique you wont bend your cranks, or hub… but since nobodies perfect, i’d suggest spending the 150 or whatever on some Qu-Ax cranks from unicycle.com
Run some searches on MSN Search or Google, and you may be able to find a bike supplier that still has some stock. If not there, e-bay perhaps. At least I can say that six months ago, when I thought I might want to buy some, I had no problem finding several different places with stock.
How much do you and Max pay for rent and food?
Much as I take the point about rent and food, Id have to say you should start weighing up how serious you are and considering splined. If your only playing around with muni a bit you may get away with tapered. However if you are planning to ride a lot, or improve far beyond basic trail riding, it may well be the most cost and labour effective choice to go splined. How many tapered hubs, cranks and trips to the bike shop for wheel rebuilding does it take to add up to a splined set?
Of course the other option is to just work hard on your technique. Thompson seatposts for example are a money waster, since with good technique you wont stress seatposts much at all. Similarly if you can learn to ride smooth and sweet, you can minimise crank damage. Ive droped 5 stair sets on square taper with no damage, just gotta think light 
Rob
Maybe they don’t make stronger square-hole cranks and hubs because everyone who is really serious switches to splined.
This thread, found in the articles/tutorials section of this site provides a good explanation as to why splined are better than square taper.
Figured I’d check just to see.
I went to MSN Search and typed in kooka cranks. A ton of hits came back, both for some being sold new via catalogs, and some like this one for used versions. Give it a peruse…you might find something workable.
Screw the opinion of the people who are still supported by their parents. If you can’t afford splined then you can’t afford splined. They’ll understand later.
My nimbus cranks do OK, but I think the price break for sturdy is black widow cranks on a suzue hub. It’s not cheap, but it’s way cheaper than splined. Just don’t do really big drops and you should be fine. My nimbus cranks do great as long as I don’t do muni drops more than 2-3 feet. I’d get black widows if I were you and just realize that your equipment has limitations and respect them.
Read the few post by john childs in this thread: review of nimbus X cranks for more info. (the way the cranks were broken in that thread was from trials, not muni)
Re: Strongest square-tapered cranks
On Sat, 3 Dec 2005 20:01:23 -0600, uniMcPeat wrote:
>So if anyone knows of some strong square taper cranks please tell me.
The problem with uber-strength square taper cranks (if there is such a
thing) is that the hub may become the weakest link. And that’s a lot
more cumbersome and more expensive to replace than a crank.
The Muniac used to have the strongest hub-cranks combo in the field of
square taper. Not sure if he makes them anymore though now that
splined has become so much cheaper.
Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
“erectile function trumps public image - David Stone, commenting on the importance of seat comfort”
black widow cranks are incredibly strong. you’d probably break your hub first. sadly, saving up some cash and getting splined is the best way, especially if you’re going to be going 5+ ft drops on a regular basis.
I have 170 Doteks. They are just barely bent so this question was more for when I get fatter.
Thanks
No, actually. Black Widow cranks suck. I dropped the $90 on them and bent them of a 3 foot drop the day after I bought them. No only that, but when I hopped around on them, I could actually feel them bending and rebending back into shape (read: they felt bouncy and weak). Aluminum cranks are rarely incredibly strong.
Quoted For Truth. Black Widows totally blow for heavy technical riding (i owned a pair once, and bent them very quickly doing something very dumb.)
edit: by “dumb” i meant something that shouldn’t bend expensive cranks, like dropping of a bench seat and not rolling out. they also bent slightly when i stopped quickly on a technical MUni downhill. Now it’s better–profile wheelset for the win.
Well, black widows do better than nimbus, and my nimbus survived several months of sloppy trials and moab. (I’m 180lbs)
Maybe it’s the length of your cranks, my nimbus are 152 which I figure would be harder to bend that 170’s etc.
How can you take a comment on gear selection and turn it into an argument of personal finance? Are you trying to start some sort of classist warfare? Is there something else you guys would really like to say? Can’t you make your point without calling someone out? Let’s all play nice, here!
The cranks you guys are talking about retail around $100, and for just a little more one can score a Qu-Ax splined hub + crank set. If you want to talk economics, consider this:
-
Break / bend a few sets of $40 cranks, and a $20 UDC hub, and spend gobs of time rebuilding wheels for a total cost of $160 + ~6 hrs labor.
-
Buy a Qu-Ax hub + crankset, invest $125 + ~ 3 hrs labor upgrading your wheel, never have any problems with breakage, etc.
Now which is the better deal?
And remind me again how one’s financial backing changes this situation? 
You’re no more likely to taco a wheel with square tapered hub than a splined one. You can break about 8 sets of Bicycle Euro cranks before you’ll match the cost of your splined setup.
I think it’s better to have a splined setup, but max and Evan were both insulting and dismissive of the original poster. I have counseled people to start with a Torker LX instead of a CX, because I think it’s a better use of their money, but I don’t dismiss the idea that $20 is a lot of money to some people.
And especially, punks who’ve never had to pay for anything in their life have no standing to tell other people to spend more money.
Quax requires you making a sacrifice for rim though, since it’s 48 spoke. Buying a new rim makes it more expensive. Furthermore, if you don’t abuse your square taper it will last and if you are on a budget the difference in 20 bucks is a big one. It doesn’t matter if dropping 150-200 bucks now is cheaper in the long run if someone only has the 60 bucks to drop now. For them square taper is the best option.
Those of us bringing up how much some people here spend on rent/food etc was a response to them saying to buy the more expensive parts no matter what. The question the thread asked was what the best square taper was, not the best overall type of crank to buy. Therefor highschoolers saying “buy splined cranks no matter what” really wasn’t helping - nor was their attitude that everyone on this forum must of money falling out of their asses.
Pointing out to some younger people that we aren’t all rich or supported by our parents is neccisary. Budgets exist and sometimes the extra 20-50 bucks simply breaks that budget and people need to understand that and not act like those of us who don’t throw money around must somehow be idiots.
Given that he’s doing 5’ drops, and that he considers $25 cranks to be cheap, I’d say go splined.
…if money’s an issue, you’ll have to rethink doing those 5’ drops, since no matter what square-taper cranks you get, you’ll keep breaking them or ruining hubs.
I sell trials-quality cranks in 150s and higher sizes… contact me via www.livewireunicycles.com if you are interested. These are Kooka-quality or better, and (haven’t weighed them yet) should be lighter.