Road Cycling - Crank help

I recently bought a trek 1000 Alpha off of eBay and have rode it maybe 5 times. Today I took it out and noticed that the left pedal felt very loose. Upon further inspection I noticed that the peddle (or crank) is stripped. I can't seem to get it tight enough to keep it from getting loose and I can't get it off of the crank to see which is which. So my question to all of you is what should I do? Should I take it in and have a helicole (if that is what they are called) installed? Or should I buy a new crank? If you answer buy a new crank, which one? I really don't want to put a ton of money into this (I saw some cranks as much as 300 dollars) but would like decent quality. As I said before my bike is a Trek 1000 and has cyclone cranks on it now. The front (ok no laughing because I don't know the correct terms) has 3 seperate gears and the rear has 8. I would like to keep the 3 in the front if I need to change out the gears as well. But is it possible to take off the crank and just install a new one? I really only need one as my left crank is fine. Maybe I need both ;) I really don't know.


Thanks so much for the input on this. Its going to be warm soon and I know that I want to get it in shape before those days come :)

Justin

A quick trip to a bike shop will give you the answer. I would think you could get a left side crank for less than $50.

I recently bought a trek 1000 Alpha off of eBay and have rode it maybe 5 times. Today I took it out and noticed that the left pedal felt very loose. Upon further inspection I noticed that the peddle (or crank) is stripped. I can't seem to get it tight enough to keep it from getting loose and I can't get it off of the crank to see which is which. So my question to all of you is what should I do? Should I take it in and have a helicole (if that is what they are called) installed? Or should I buy a new crank? If you answer buy a new crank, which one? I really don't want to put a ton of money into this (I saw some cranks as much as 300 dollars) but would like decent quality. As I said before my bike is a Trek 1000 and has cyclone cranks on it now. The front (ok no laughing because I don't know the correct terms) has 3 seperate gears and the rear has 8. I would like to keep the 3 in the front if I need to change out the gears as well. But is it possible to take off the crank and just install a new one? I really only need one as my left crank is fine. Maybe I need both ;) I really don't know.


Thanks so much for the input on this. Its going to be warm soon and I know that I want to get it in shape before those days come :)


Justin
Remember your left pedal is reverse threads, its not righty tighty, lefty loosy, its actually lefty tighty, righty loosy...
If it is stripped check ebay or your lbs, sometimes they have good used parts laying around, a triple chainring crak should be pretty easy to find thats compatible with your set up, if anything else you could find just the crank arm and put your existing chainrings onto the new crank arm..
good luck

Remember your left pedal is reverse threads, its not righty tighty, lefty loosy, its actually lefty tighty, righty loosy...
If it is stripped check ebay or your lbs, sometimes they have good used parts laying around, a triple chainring crak should be pretty easy to find thats compatible with your set up, if anything else you could find just the crank arm and put your existing chainrings onto the new crank arm..
good luck


Thanks for the replies, I'll look into that. Was planning on taking the bike in for a tune-up in the next few days anyways.

If you can't get the pedal to come out, I'm thinking that the threads on your crankarm are hosed. If that's the case, and if you aren't too particular about a perfect match, any average or better LBS should be able to set you up with a replacement left crankarm for about $20.00 installed. Now if your pedal is hosed too, it's going to cost you some more.