When I bought my Huffy Rock Trail bike at a rummage sale few years ago, I admired it for having a one-piece crank. Metallurgically speaking, I thought it was really cool to have the entire crank made from one forged piece of steel opposed to three separate pieces screwed together. The reality is, this style of crank is inferior to the cartridge style bottom brackets that come standard on most modern bikes of adequate quality. I wasn't convinced until recently when the bearing assembly started failing on me, and then kept failing after I repaired it 3 times in less than 2 years.
