Bicycle Mechanics - Disturbing Lack of Quality Square Taper parts

For grins I was researching parts online for upgrading my girlfriend's '99 Hardrock and I came up really short in the department of quality 9 speed square taper cranksets out there. This concerns me because if this trend continues our bikes with their 124.5 mm Bottom Brackets (I actually run a 127.5) will be obsolete in short order with absolutely NOTHING wrong with the frames other than their needed bottom bracket size. I suppose I'd better hope that someone has some NOS stuff laying around.

RaceFace still markets the Taperlocks. I'm still running one of those. They're also adjustable which is great for tuning your chainline. You can get them with ti spindles too. FSA has the Ultimax series which come with either cro-mo or ti spindles. I also believe you can still get the Shimano BB-UN70 too.

I'm looking more for cranksets than anything. Bottom brackets I've got covered for now. I see that Truvativ has a semi viable option in their OVERdrive line up but she isn't going to go for that on this bike

I'm looking more for cranksets than anything. Bottom brackets I've got covered for now

Ahhh... yeah, I misread your post. Sorry. I know it's sad to ditch a perfectly good BB but why not just upgrade both at the same time? A new ISIS BB isn't all that much extra cost if you're considering getting a high-quality crankset. Or if you have the moolahs, might I suggest one of the RaceFace X-type integrated crank/BB designs? Sorry to sound like a RaceFace spokesperson but I really have had lots of good and carefree experience with their components. There are of course other excellents brands too.

Ahhh... yeah, I misread your post. Sorry. I know it's sad to ditch a perfectly good BB but why not just upgrade both at the same time? A new ISIS BB isn't all that much extra cost if you're considering getting a high-quality crankset. Or if you have the moolahs, might I suggest one of the RaceFace X-type integrated crank/BB designs? Sorry to sound like a RaceFace spokesperson but I really have had lots of good and carefree experience with their components. There are of course other excellents brands too.
Largely due to the fact that she want's to do this as inexpensively as possible. Up until now I didn't know that there was a viable BB from Truvativ so that does give me some glimmer of hope for these oddballs but for now I'm stuck doing things the way she wants which means square taper.

Just wondering...What is her price range?

Square taper BBs and cranksets:

Specialites-TA (http://www.specialites-ta.com/produits/composants_gb.htm)

Tune (http://www.tune.de/tune_gb/index.php?lang=gb&ebene=1&typ=1&nr=1)

Enjoy

Just wondering...What is her price range?
More than $50 is going to get a raised eyebrow as the budget is EXTREMELY tight right now. I found a set of OEM Truvativ X-Forges for $25 which will do the trick until I can scrape together the money for a true upgrade. I'm concentrating most of the cash into dérailleurs and shifters (decided on LX level for performance and durabilty while still being inexpensive) and I'm working on getting parts to build a wheel for her. I'm planning on reusing her old rim (it's in fine shape) and going from there. I'm also trying to spread this out so it's easier to manage rather than one big clump

If it was me I'd go for a new bottom bracket so I had a better choice on the crankset. The TA's mentioned above are very expensive and geared for touring and general road bikes. They have more vertical crank arms so you'll need a new BB anyhow just to get the extra spacing to clear the chainstays.

I just purchased a TA Zephyr triple and had to go to a Phill Wood BB ($100) just to get a spindle long enough. Shimano square taper spindles are too short.

You can get a Sugino for around $60.00 at Harris Cyclery, http://sheldonbrown.com/harris/cranks.html , but you may run into the same problem. You can E-mail Sheldon Brown to find out. The Sugino's only have 24/36/46. You probably have 22/32/44 which is better for a mountain bike if that's what she has.

LX works about as good as XT. Hard to tell a difference.

Al

What's up with all this bb upgrade talk, what's wrong with the old square jobs?

What's up with all this bb upgrade talk, what's wrong with the old square jobs?

Marketting... As the original poster has discovered, it's becoming increasingly difficult to get a broad range of choices for new cranks. Switching to ISIS opens up more options. I personally have found nothing wrong with square tapers and the ones on my MTB have not given me any reason to replace them but when it does come time for new cranks then I suspect I too will be forced to move to a new spindle design just to get what's available.

Marketting... As the original poster has discovered, it's becoming increasingly difficult to get a broad range of choices for new cranks. Switching to ISIS opens up more options. I personally have found nothing wrong with square tapers and the ones on my MTB have not given me any reason to replace them but when it does come time for new cranks then I suspect I too will be forced to move to a new spindle design just to get what's available.A fat spindle stuffed into the same bb shell equals smaller bearings--this is why a lot of bikes with low-mileage ISIS and Octalink bb's have rough'n roachy bearings. There are still modestly and immodestly priced square spindle cranks and bb's in production. Many of the cheaper ones are wholesalers' house brands; ask your LBS. I am an LBS of sorts and can get at least four different $100> cranksets with either 110/74 or 95/58mm chainrings.
Shimano, Tange, and a couple of other companies still make bottom brackets. Bottom brackets still come in under $30; a square-taper bb with decent bearings is not an expensive thing to make, still. BTW, the Sugino cranks someone else mentioned don't need a long spindle; the XD series cranks can use a 107 to 110 mm bb depending on frame design--for triple chainrings.

I'm glad I have a servicable bb on my old Le Tour, 1974 bb still going strong(same bearings I think), just clean and grease every few years, the casette types don't go much more than a few years (same reason- grease goes bad) and they must be replaced as a whole, ba.
Ok thats all I'm going to say, let this get back to the crank upgrade question.

Dimension (http://aebike.com/site/page.cfm?PageID=30&SKU=CR2389), $31 and will do the job just fine.