I am in the process of building up a new commuter bike from scratch with all new parts that will hopefully be a highly enjoyable ride. However, I'm having a hard time selecting a crankset that fits my needs.

My current setup is 1-10 with a 38 chain ring in front and a 12-26 cassette in back. My new bike is going to be 2-10 with a a 12-30 10 speed rear cassette. I commute about 10 miles a day, 6 days a week. Most of my commute is rolling hills with about 20% steep hills and 20% flats. The front 38 chainring I'm currently using fits 80% of my needs and I can handle climbing steep hills moderately well, but I spin out coming back down. Ideally I'd like a 38-46 crankset...but this does not seem to be very common. I'm aware of cyclocross cranksets that are often 36/46, but I will be in the small ring 80% of the time and 36 is just a little too small.

My max budget for the crank (without bottom bracket) is $160 and these are the cranks I've considered:

Velo Orange Polyvalent 46/30 Crankset - Love the way this looks with the chain guard, but the 30 tooth small ring is way too small. Wish it came 46/38.

2012 Shimano Tiagra 52/39: The 39 would be perfect most of the time, but I feel the 52 might be total overkill.

Shimano CX50 46/36: The gearing is close to being good, but I think this crankset looks bland and I do care about aesthetics.

Any suggestions?

Get a compact road crank 50-34 with a 12-27 on the rear. That should get you up and down a pretty wide range of hills.

Could you just swap out the chainrings to get the gearing that you want? Save to original chainring as a spare, or trade fodder, or just sell it, or build up a single speed around it.

FSA either made or makes one, but I can't seem to find it for sale or on their website. Here is a photo of one that sold on ebay fairly recently though.

Sounds like what you are looking for is the way, more or less, that many cross bikes are set up. So it should be possible to find a cross specific compact crank. I have an FSA compact crank that came with a 38/48 that works very well for me. This one might work (36/46): https://www.amazon.com/FSA-Gossamer-M.../dp/B002SR02RY. I have been thinking about getting this from Soma: https://store.somafab.com/suswcrdocr.html. I think if you google around for cross specific compact cranks, you will find what you are looking for.

Thanks for the suggestions! I should have specified slightly further:

I want a double crankset with the small ring having 38,39, or 40 teeth and the big ring with 46 or 48 teeth. ALSO, has to be available in silver (because a black crankset would look silly when every other component is silver on this build).

I know I'm probably just going to end up having to buy a crankset and switch out the rings, but I was hoping that maybe there is a ready made crankset out there that comes like this already that I don't know about.

I'd just go for a wider-range cassette, and I dunno, tuck and coast on the downhills?

You can get close. Campagnolo sells a 10 speed Cyclocross crank in silver with 46-36 chain rings



https://www.campagnolo.com/jsp/en/gro...S_catid_16.jsp

Ordering one from your favorite UK retailer (ex: Ribble) will be much, much less expensive than buying it stateside.

Single ring is fine, think about a hybrid rear hub.. 3 speed IGH + a cassette.
S-A and Sram both make one.

the IGH part has advantages since you can downshift the hub at the stoplight.
while stopped , after using a higher gear right until the light turned red.

I'm running a VO Grand Cru crankest 48/34 with a SRAM 11-36 cassette, long cage derailleur. I love it for a 19 mi o/w, half-hilly commute.

why not stay with the 1x10, use a 44 t chain ring and 12-36 cassette ? will give you a gear-in range from approx 33-99.

I run a silver sugino xd crank, 39- 48 with 30 -12 cassette. Just buy the rings you need.