Originally Posted by
jgedwa
The crank you have on there now appears to have bolts holding on the inner ring, so that ring can be removed, but then you will be using the larger ring which is considerably farther outboard. I doubt that you have much chance of getting a useable chainline using that large/outboard ring. You could use the inner/smaller ring, but then you will have to leave the larger one on. This might work just fine, but it will be ugly to have that bigger ring out there doing nothing. People in this position sometimes grind the teeth off the larger ring and have it play the role of a bashguard. This would give you two bashguards, so I am not sure that is any cosmetic improvement.
jim
I don't think they are bashguards -- the original one is a for stopping trouser cuffs getting caught in the chain.
The "bolts" on these old steel cranksets sometimes are faux ones and sometimes real. On this one, the original cuff-guard is likely attached with nuts and bolts and the chainrings are riveted.
On my set-up, I removed the cuff guard, then attacked the teeth on the outer chainring with a pair of pliers first, before grinding down what was left with a file. Looks pretty good to me and serves a vital function -- if you've ever had the cuff of pants caught in a fixed-gear chainring, you'll know what I mean. But then it's probably not cool to ride with the right pants cuffs rolled down...