I'm digging around ebay/various stores and I'm having trouble finding any silver double cranksets in stock that aren't >$400. I'm looking specifically for a square taper 165mm crankset with either a 110 or 94 bcd (so I can throw a 30t climbing ring on there). Closest I've gotten is a Sugino Mighty on ebay that's missing the left side, or the IRD Defiant that doesn't seem to have stock at 165mm anywhere I've looked. Should I be looking elsewhere, or is the sub-compact dream dead on arrival?

I have found the 5mm difference between 170 and 165 to be relatively insignificant. For a good looking, on the cheaper side (80 USD), silver, square tapper, crank consider BikinGreen.

Ebay: "bikinGreen Classic 170mm 46/30T BCD 110mm Crankset Silver Retro bike"

Yup! Just came across that now. Looks like this will do the trick...was hoping something with a bit more flare, but unless I stumble upon a good sugino vintage in the next few days, I think I'll be going with these...

Velo Orange TA clones--works for me.

Orgin8 stuff on ebay ranges from 140-175mm

Stronglight Impact at Peter White or Spa Cycles in Britain. (cheaper and fast delivery, at least to Canada). Triples, doubles...

also for the flexion-challenged, they have junior cranks down to 135 length. I have them and they are decent.
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Velo Orange Grand Cru 110 Fluted Triple Crankset (velo-orange.com)

165mm crank arms and a triple for (coincidentally) = $165usd.


edit: Unabashed recommendation = for $12.00 usd per year you can ask that question (and all your future needs) directly to people selling stuff - in the C&V Sales section.

I have the 46/30t BikinGreen 110bcd rings on a vintage Sugino 165mm crankset. Win-win!

I've used this Origin8 crankset:

on my wife's bike and it work fine. They are available in many different lengths including lengths much shorter than 165mm even.

5mm can be very significant depending on it and many other factors.

Quite awhile back I swapped some cranks in a hurry for a ride at Crater Lake.

I had 172.5's on the bike and wanted to change the granny from 28 to 24, another crank I had was handy with out a granny on it so I set it up and put it on the bike.

Took it out for a quick test ride and immediately thought , what did I do wrong?

Inspected the set up to find the swapped in crank was 170, huh, changed it all back out with the 172.5's and it was fine.

Couldn't believe there was such a difference but there was to me.

Later on, Dave Levy at TiCycles explained how it adds much more than 2.5mm to just the top and or bottom of the pedal stroke, it multiplies exponentially through the whole pedal stroke revolution, affecting cadence, time to revolution.

Just 2.5mm adds 15.7mm to the total distance your foot travels with each revolution, multiply that X RPM.

This is what accounts for such small increments of crank lengths.

More important to me (than crank length) is Q-factor and teeth on the rings - and maybe the bicycles' climbing characteristics.

I adapt to the triple's wider Q after a while, without special cycling shoe inserts.

However, I 100% agree that, if everything else is equal, when the going gets tough, small circles are easier to spin than bigger circles. If you are a masher, then IDK.

Don't forget to change the saddle height if making jumps in crank length. As I age my saddle height has dropped ever so slightly, ie effectively serving a shorter crank with the sam saddle height.

Velo-Orange also has a 46-30 Grand Cru in 165mm for $200:

https://velo-orange.com/collections/...-crankset-mkii

Yep... I get ya for sure.

For me personally 5mm on the Crank Arms has not been a big change. But Holly Mackerel Bat Man... Change my seat height, or Bars, or Stem, or Brake Reach just a few millimeters and I am totally

DISCOMBOBULATED!

I fondly remember the days when I could just jump on any kind of bike and take off. No longer though...

It makes me wonder how much better it could have been while young. I think the small changes at the seat are the most noticeable and the most effective if done slowly.
2.5mm less at the crank was huge for me yet 10mm longer works great on this, more power, better up hills and way better all the way around, weird and amazing.

I like these, they are sugino xd2 cranks rebadged

I've had good luck finding 165mm cranks on smaller sized vintage road bikes. In the end, 9% of my parts come to me in the form of a complete bike. As you have noted, 165mm cranksets sell on fleece bay for serious $$.

Searching for the exact same thing, my 2 cents:

165 mm is common for track, and some cranks support dual position (inside/outside) for the chaingring for chainline adjustment, so you could technically fit them as a double. BCD's will be invariably larger than 110, though.

Many BMX cranks are made down to 165 mm an below, and again, some support two chainring positions for bashring + chainring.

I would suppose there should be a market for 165 mm road doubles or triples. Here in Europe, Studio Brisant manufactured some Sugino replicas at some point.

Big thumbs up one these cranks. I've ridden them for some 5 plus years now. Despite being marketed as singlespeed cranks they are in fact regular 110mm BCD cranks with the same double ring mounting as any other like crank. Don't let the low price fool you, or should I say, the high price of other cranks fool you into believing these are lesser in form or function. Having formerly ridden flexy Sugino XD's prior I immediately noticed none with these.

SR made 86 BCD cranks that came in 165mm. The Apex is nicer, the Custom is less fancy. I did manage to find a 165 mm Custom and scrounge up a selection of chainrings. For a while hunting for random bike parts was very entertaining. If I was going to just spend the money and go riding, Merry Sales has a 94 BCD double crankset available in 165mm, and there are still plenty of chainrings around if you want to do something besides 46t-30t.

I forgot the LBS installed this on a my '94 Specialized M2 and it is really nice.

https://newalbioncycles.com/xdt-crankset

Well hello....

https://newalbioncycles.com/gs-crankset