Bike crank woes In late July I was stranded about 35km from a Murray river town when the left non-drive side crank arm came off my hardtail Stumpjumper and was hanging off the bottom of my shoe by the cleat. RACV Bike Assist came to the rescue with a taxi up to $50. So the bike went to a bike shop in the town and they put it back together. Then a week later having moved on in our motorhome several hundred kilometres, I went on my next ride ... this time I only got 15km out of town before the crank came off again! A few days later we were in Parkes where the local bike shop had a good look at it, but didn't have the parts to fix it and wasn't sure of the cause of the problem. So it was onto the internet and a lot of emails to Drift Bikes, the Specialized dealer in Newcastle, where we expected to be in the area for about two weeks. The email response was good, with several options canvassed including a double crankset (major loss in gearing range) instead of triple, a lesser quality Shimano crankset, or a higher quality but expensive Carbon set at $550 ... plus new chain and cassette as the worn chain wouldn't match the new chain-rings. Eventually we ordered a SRAM X5 Triple GXP crankset with the same range of gearing, bottom bracket, chain, and cassette, including fitting for $384. Drift Bikes even came up with a temporary solution of a left crank borrowed from another bike for two weeks while the new parts arrived! But after several rides the bottom bracket was groaning and creaking, so just as well that the whole lot was getting replaced. Now in Pitt Town on the upper Hawkesbury River, I had a great ride on the new drive train - all good! read more