Originally Posted by
echo victor
Good point about using an aluminum chainguard instead of plastic. I should keep in mind that the current plastic one is cracked...
That Lasco crankset you linked to is certainly interesting, but I'm also unable to find any significant comments about Lasco's quality. Might be worth trying, though.
Any other recommendations? Now there's (at least) two of us looking for good crankset replacements.
Regarding Lasco, I have two of their cranks, one which came stock on a BikesDirect bike and an aftermarket crankset branded as Brev.M but stamped with the Lasco name on the backside of the crank arms. IIRC, they model # was the same for both cranksets.
The stock unit is unattractively finished, looking like pot metal, if you know what I mean. There are visible flakes or grains in the crank, like raw aluminum. It's just very basic looking.
The Brev.M branded Lasco is polished, but only on the face and sides; the back is matte. It is also blue anodised, so while the polished faces look quite good, the finish quality difference on the unfinished backside is noticeable.
Although I've had no technical problems with either crank, I don't think I'm qualified to speak to Lasco build quality. They seem fine and are reasonably light, though clearly not top flight units, but priced accordingly.
In fact, if you want the stock silver cranks, which are 170s with a 130 BCD, I'd be happy to send them to you for just the cost of shipping. I can throw in a pair of practically new-- maybe 10 miles?-- black cage/silver body pedals, too. They're the stock items that came on the same BD bike and which I replaced for platform pedals. Like the cranks, finish quality is low to middling, but hey, they're practically free!
I'll put up some pics when I get home in a few minutes.