Crank set to me is the arms, assembled rings, including bottom bracket & spindle the arms attach to. You need that entire set up to be able to crank the bicycle. I include the bottom bracket & spindle also because not every pair of crank arms goes with the same splined or square spindle.

From Sheldon Brown's glossary:
end of story

I'm with Sheldon on that one.

Seller should have said:

Used Campagnolo crank arms with box and used SR chainring. Crankset is incorrect in this situation.

I don't think crankset should necessarily include the BB, but that is once again becoming popular, which is a good thing.

Is it still a Campagnolo Super Record crankset if it does not have a Campagnolo Super Record ring attached? I was told it is the ring that makes a crank a Super Record.

It would be a Record crank with or without Super Record rings.

This.

And, as I said above, there are no Super Record pista rings.

As someone pointed out early on, the ENGLISH English speak of a certain component group as a "chainset," which i understand to be equivalent to what we call a crankset. If seller was specifically using a term other than "chainset' it may be that he specifically meant something other than a chainset. I have no way of knowing, of course.

I have a problem with our habitual abbreviation of things that need not be abbreviated. Try searching for Sturmey Archer FW hubs sometime, and you'll get a lot of hits for freewheel hubs but precious little for FW hubs. And so on. People say NR when they mean Nuovo Record, SR when they mean Super Record, and so on. Certainly if he advertised an SR ring and sent a Super Record one you would have every right to complain, but in the inverse situation complaining seems pretty ironic. I am sorry you didn't get what you wanted, but endorse your decision to just let it go.

I concur with Sheldon's definition. That's my understanding as well.

To the best of my knowledge:

Campagnolo Record PISTA crank, is the track crank that will accept one chainring on the outside (144BCD or 151BCD) it is not a road double crank, you cannot mount an inner chainring. I am not aware of a Campagnolo SUPER or NUOVO Record track (Pista) crank...it's only Campagnolo Record Pista.

Campagnolo Record STRADA crank, is the road double crank, and depending on the chainrings, you can make it either a SUPER RECORD, or NUOVO RECORD...or mix a Super Record inner with a Nuove Record outer, as some racers used to do in the past...some preferred a stiffer Nuovo Record large ring over the weight savings of a Super Record large ring.

To me, a crankset is the crank arms and chainring(s), with bolts. I consider a BB to be seperate from a "crankset"

IMO the eBay ad has very clear pictures, which the OP should have looked at more closely. I don't feel the seller was being sneaky in any way. I do appreciate a seller who is courteous and includes a detailed listing with clear descriptions and pictures, but it's your job as the buyer to do your research before you drop $200 on some cranks.

Anyways that chainwheel is as nice as a Campy one, SR Royal is high quality stuff...but is it a track chainring, or a road chainring? I would be more concerned with that than the brand of the ring.

Maybe 35 years ago a crankset "always" included a bb, but in more recent geological times crankset = arms + ring(s) + ring bolts.

Oh, and the seller in the original post could/should have been more clear about the chainring. In the Campy context the general assumption would be SR = 'Super Record', not 'Sakae Ringyo'.

SP
Bend, OR

Crank arm: 1 arm either left or right
Crank arms: A matching pair of crankarms
Crankset: 2 crankarms, left and right with chainrings. Chainrings dont need to be original for it to be crankset.

Because the chainrings themselves are what differentiates Nuovo Record from Super Record the sellers description of Campagnolo Super Record Pista 175 Crank Set with Box automaticly gives the buyer the right to safely assume the crankarms have a Campagnolo Super Record chainring attached to them. Any other chainring would make the set a Pista Record crankset with SR (S-R) chainring.

Anyone vaguely familiar with Campagnolo knows NR and SR are synonymous with Nuovo and Super Record. There's a little shadyness on the sellers part....

Zinn says, "The crankset consists of the crankarms, bottom bracket, chainrings, chainring bolts and crank bolt"

Personally I agree with Sheldon's definition though - I wouldnt expect to find a bottom bracket if I purchased a crankset.

You can see in the picture that it's not a Campy ring. The seller was very clear about what you get.

if they were trying to be shady, they would have hidden the SR logo on the rings themselves.

If I were going to spend $200 on a pair of crank arms and a chainring, I'd take the time to look at the ad a bit more carefully...

I'll only post the pics of the box....

http://i.ebayimg.com/t/Campagnolo-Su...fztM9!~~_3.JPG
http://i.ebayimg.com/t/Campagnolo-Su...fjQvN!~~_3.JPG

IMHO the seller should have either stated it wasn't a Campagnolo branded ring or should have staed it was a Sakae/Ringyo (SR) chainring. As i mentioned earlier the ad title stating Super Record crankset in itself implies, Campy arms and Ring(s)

the seller did state it was an SR ring. He didn't say it was a "Campagnolo SR ring", just "SR"..

i can see how there could be confusion, but right there in the picture you can see it's not a campy brand ring.

the seller could have been more clear that SR didn't mean super record, but as the buyer you should ask any questions and look at the pictures clearly.

The seller didn't misrepresent anything, and imo could have easily made this ad without any malicious intent. Not everyone knows every abbreviation.

As I said, I'm chalking it up to a miscommunication and giving the seller the benefit of the doubt. Frantik is right; I should have looked more closely at the photos and asked questions.

I guess my biggest beef is that it was listed as "Campagnolo Super Record Pista 175 Crank Set with Box", and the item description begins with "Campagnolo Super Record Pista track crank set. Arm lengths are 175mm and the cranks are 144 bcd."

My bad for assuming the "Crank Set" consisted of arms and chainring, and that everything was Campy.

As I indicated in the original post, he did offer to let me return everything for a refund. I appreciate that gesture and because he offered it, I don't believe there was malicious intent. I should have looked more carefully at the photos and asked questions. Lesson learned.

Here in the UK:

Chainset is cranks together chainrings
Crankset is just cranks - that is why there are two words crankset and chainset...

Ah so desu ka; thanks for that explanation. Now I'm convinced the seller had no malicious intent. Somehow, over here, the two terms have become more or less synonymous.

Uh-oh. Between Hilary and Sheldon we have two conflicting opinions from two gentlemen who cannot possibly be wrong. Now what? ;)

They both speak English, but one's in the UK (where the seller is located) and the other in Massachusetts.

If you look at Hilary's website, it's pretty clear that "crankset" means only crankarms and "chainset" means crank arms and chainring on that side of the pond. Same language, same words, but different meanings.

They're both right. ;)

Thank goodness. I feared for the fabric of space/time.

Me, too. I would have expected a BB.

If it was just the cranks, it'd say "cranks" (two crank arms populated with chainwheels).

If it did not include the chainwheels, it's say "crank arms".

The use of CRANKSET implies - crank arms, chainwheels and a bottom bracket.

If nothing else, I've learned to be careful if I ever sell cranks on Ebay. It'd never occurred to me that some folks might even expect a bottom bracket to be included with a "crankset". I'm half expecting someone to demand to know why the brake levers weren't included!