im pretty sure the ta ref:1500 "criterium" cranksets - the "cottered/cotterless" ones were talking about here - were available for a while longer than the 2 years between 1960 and 1962, given ta and their penchant for keeping things in stock/continuing production of older components...
they definitely *both* appear in ron kitching catalogues of the period, but ive always been of the impression that it wasnt a hard and fast "ok the pro 5 vis cranks are here, criteriums are no longer available" type thing...
of course, id love to get any further info so i can add it to the ta site :)
-joel
>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/~heine/bikesite/bikesite/
>
> > 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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--
joel metz : magpie@messengers.org : http://www.blackbirdsf.org/
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==
i know what innocence looks like - and it wasn't there,
after she got that bicycle...