I'm a newbie and bought a used bike that I am trying to basically refurbish. I have an '08 Scattante R-560 with a TruVativ Elita triple crankset 50-39-30. The crankset is loose and will not tighten anymore, so I was told that I need to buy a new one. Do I need to replace the Bottom Bracket or the whole thing? I currently don't have the money to buy a brand new one so I have been looking on eBay, Craigslist, and in the classifieds here. Also, my uncle races bikes and told me to try and find a Shimano Dura Ace double crankset 53-39 length 170-172.5 mm. He told me to check around and make sure that would fit my bike. Does anyone have any advice, help, or input on this?
Is this a crank with an external bottom bracket (BB) or one with square taper bottom bracket?
Do the cranks each bolt onto the BB shaft?
If so then it's a square taper. The BB may well be fine in this case but you would need to make sure that the BB taper matches the crank and that new crank is installed tightly. If they come loose once it is often an uphill battle to keep them tight as time passes.
If it is an external type BB then I'm unsure as to what exactly would be loose unless the BB shell is not to specification, the binding bolt for the crank is stripped, or the bearings themselves could be loose.
