Originally Posted by electromethod

I ordered 2 new mtb's from a bike shop. I assembled the first bike and everything was peachy. The 2nd bike however has a bent 48 ring on the crankset. The inner 2 rings are true as far as I can tell but the outer ring looks like it was bent as if someone put their weight on the box right where it was. What do you guys think I should do? I really don't want to deal with the hassle of sending it back. Taking it to a "nearby" LBS isn't an option since the closest is a good 30-40 miles away, thus why I have been learning how to do all the work on my own bike.

The LBS that shipped them to me is such a nice guy and gave me a great deal. Thus, I would be willing to put some effort to fix it rather than drive it 2 hours to drop it off at his shop. So, I was going to ask him to send me the parts and I would fix them myself and send him back the damaged parts. You guys think that's fair? Everything else on the bike seemed ok to me.

So here are the questions I want to ask about the crankset:

Is it possible to take apart the crankset and replace just the outer ring? What is the difficulty of this job?
Should I just ask for a replacement crankset?

Thanks for the patience with my posts guys I am learning more with each day