Back in the latter part of the 70's when I was just getting started in building bikes up from scratch, I thought crank arm lengths were associated with leg length; and being on the short side (5'-7"), I built up my Colnago Super and later my Picchio with 167.5mm Campy cranks. After Lemond came out and recommended longer crank arms in his book, I felt that I had made a mistake in not going with the "standard" 170's. Well, now it appears that I may have a more collectible crankset with my 167.5's! BTW, I have inspected, very closely, Campy 170's, and I swear that the "blood groove"s on the arms of my 167.5's are much deeper, wider and more defined than those on the 170's; also, the edges of my 167.5 arms are more chamfered than on the boxy looking 170's. There is a definite difference in the finish as well; my arms are a better satin finish than that on 170's. Has anyone else detected these differences? Art Yow San Francisco
GPVB1@cs.com wrote:
> Just to clarify (I thought someone would chime in with this, but see that
> nobody has thus far...):
>
> Campagnolo made road and track cranks every 2.5 mm from 165 to 180 in the
> case of "vintage" NR/SR. There were also "Junior" cranks of 150 mm length
> that were GS 3-arm parts. As Dale mentioned, probably 85-90% of the crankarms
> manufactured back then were 170 (road), so that's what is around today in the
> biggest numbers.
>
> In road cranks, I have found 167.5 and 180 to be the rarest of all; 165s are
> available fairly frequently, as are 172.5, and to a lesser extent 175 and
> 177.5 mm ones.
>
> In track cranks, since 165 was the de facto "track standard," 165 and 170
> seem to be by far the most common lengths available today. Again, 167.5 seems
> to be rather rare for whatever reason, as does anything longer than 170
> (which makes sense I think; more worry about scraping a pedal on a track than
> on the road in general IMO). I've only seen one set of Record Pista arms that
> were 180 - that's really long!!
>
> Regards,
>
> Greg Parker
> Ann Arbor, MI, USA
>
> From: Huemax@aol.com
> > Date: Wed, 1 Jan 2003 10:31:31 EST
> > Subject: Re: [CR]Campy Road Crank Lengths
> > To: teaat4p@yahoo.com, classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
> >
> >
> > In a message dated 12/31/02 10:54:46 PM, teaat4p@yahoo.com writes:
> >
> > <<Did Campy make road crank arms in 165 or 167.5? >>
> >
> > Yes, they did, indeed I have both 165 and 167.5mm STRADA set 151 BCD.
> >
> > Is there anyone who has an extra chain ring 151 BCD, 50, 51, 52T, and
> > willing to sell or trade?
> >
> > Happy New Year!
> >
> > KEN TODA, High Point, NC, very wet New Year's Day!