I just removed the bearing cages from my old school square taper bottom bracket and put in new lose bearings. Buttery smooth, however, my crankset is an older shimano biopace triple.

I haven't ever used the 28t chainring, and have actually set my derailleur limiter to prevent it from even going there.

So, I got the idea of looking for a new double crankset. I found a few on nashbar for cheap, one . . . a splined ultegra

http://www.nashbar.com/bikes/Product..._200276_200376 (which says it is 9 speed)

and another

http://www.nashbar.com/bikes/Product..._200276_200376 with a hollowtech II interface.

As I'm looking down the page the prices jump from sub 100 to close to 250, and I'm having trouble figuring this out.

Obviously, I'm going to be getting a new bottom bracket, although my current is buttery smooth.

I want a 10sp compatible crankset, and hopefully compatible with my 8 speed currently. Seems like both would work, any thoughts? I'm leaning Ultegra since I have ultegra hubs now, but is hollowtech II great? And why the discrepancies in pricing for the 200+ cranksets.

Computer hardware is so much more sensibly notated and standardized.

Also, as a sub question, does anyone use the lowest chainring on a triple? When I do my 44t (middle chainring)/25t I feel like I'm spinning out of control and have no problems climbing . . .