Originally Posted by
lennyparis
I am not concerned about how to swap chainrings
But can I just purchase a 36 ring alone for $X instead of the whole crankset and swapping out what I want to then figure out what to do with the rest?
If your crankset is 110mm BCD, then yes. If it's 130mm, then no; 38t is the smallest possible size chainring for 130mm bcd.
Note that if you want to go with a single chain ring, you'll need single stack bolts.