Fred,
I doubt these were widespread, since they were available only for two years or so. There were other quality cottered cranks among cyclotourists... before the war, the Duprat hollows steel ones were used on many cyclotouring bikes. Stronglight made some cottered cranks, too. If they were alloy, they could have been the Maniplume - very slender.
The TA cranks are easy to recognize: The axle isn't round, but roughly triangular (but one side of the triangle is rounded). The idea is that they fit tighter and don't come loose. They have an Allen-key cotter, which is quite flush in the crank. I believe they weren't used a lot on cyclotouring bikes, because everybody by then was using the Stronglight 49. I only have seen them on racing bikes.
Of course, it is possible that a bunch of Youth Hostel types all got those cranks in the two years when they were available.
I am not 100% certain, but from the literature, it appears that the square-taper TA crank replaced the cottered one. Anyone got more info?
--
Jan Heine, Seattle
Editor/Publisher
Vintage Bicycle Quarterly
http://www.mindspring.com/
> TA cranks were introduced around 1960, first > the cottered model... So that's who made those cottered triples we used to see on French touring bikes! This was in the mid 1960s when my friends and I would visit the American Youth Hostels office in Greenwish Village. There would often be people hanging around with these French made randonneur bikes. These would be "old timers" (this was when I was roughly 15, so ny Old Timers I eman guys who were in their 20s). Anyway, the ones I remember best were high quality cottered cranks. Now I know who made them. By the way, these were relatively common in Quebec Province - at least in Youth Hostel circles. Regards, Fred Rednor - Arlington, Virginia
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