I'm building up a new bike and want some nice cranks to put on it (it's definitely a bike worthy of a nice set of cranks). I just spent $50 on a surly stainless steel 130 bcd chainring that I was going to put on the bike and get some new cranks that would fit the ring. But now that I've decided to spend a little more for the cranks but all the nice track cranks are 144 BCD. Trying not to accumulate spare parts, should I ditch Surly ring and go for a super nice crankset like Sugino 75s or Omniums? Or should I just get the Sugino RD and forget about it? Other nice 130bcd track cranks? Road cranks? I was originally thinking getting some vintage Dura Ace...

144 BCD is track standard, so all the good track cranks are going to fall under that category. In 130, you have options like Sugino RDs and road cranks. Both of which will work fine, but I don't know of any "nice" track cranks in 130.

Superlight, a French manufacturer, has, in the past, made a 130bcd track crank.

I have one.

The SRAM S300 1.1 crank appears track dedicated, as does the Origin8 Propulsion crank.

(I don't know about the two above, for sure.)

However, the rest of the offerings, such as the Sugino RD and the Pake look like two-ring road cranks.

As the quality of bike components increases, the price goes up disproportionately.

If you compare a Sugino RD to a Sugino 75, with your hands and your eyes, you will see the differences in quality, and the differences in price will make sense.

However, comparing the two by riding them will not reveal that much difference, if any at all, and you might decide to save yourself some money and go with the Sugino RD.

I really like my S300's. Good price, Fair looks, external bottom bracket... I would recommend the S300 if you want to keep the chainring, but it just depends on how much money you want to throw at it and what you want as the end result.

S300s look nice. They were my first 130BCD choice for my build, but I decided to go a step or two up and got myself 144BCD Omniums.

i dig 110bcd.

There used to be more variety in track cranks.

Sweet, thanks for the input guys (especially you, adriano). I think I'm just going to try to find some 75s used. If I pick some up for 150 I think that's a good deal, and it's not that much more than a set of RDs. Anyone want a practically new Surly stainless steel 46t chainring? haha (but seriously it is quite nice).

Is that your bike Johnny T? It's pretty sick if it is.

Yes, it's mine!

You got full picks somewhere?

Sure: https://picasaweb.google.com/JohnDThompson/FixedFrame#