Stevan wrote ;
> Hi Jerry,
> Here is what I know:
> They aren't a "top" quality, or perhaps the better term would be "racing"
> crank.
mmmmm.... donuts
For "racers" from the land that once never trusted those new fangled alloy jobs, Williams had everything from a budget crank to a 'racing' crank - they never changed much over the years and at least since the mid 1930s through to the late 50s. Starting with the common "clubman" crank - the C34 - plain squared off cranks, through the C100 ? C1000, and C1200 each having some minor tweak, and the increase in number increasing the quality / finish / lightness - a more slender arm, or fluting down the back and/or front faces of the arm. C1000 is my own favourite which is (I'm sure) fluted on both sides !
Post war - at least I'm told, and it appears it was this way in Scotland, it was more fashionable for the Racers to fit "foreign" French & Italian steel cranks from the likes of Gnutti emulating Coppi et al... Of course if your budget could stretch to it, these were incomplete without Simplex rings fitted using those expensive 3 to 5 arm adapters Hilary sells from time to time. Pre-war, it was a more "French" period for the ultimate, from the likes of Durax - who could resist the exotic looking long thin hexagonal section hollow crankarms ?
A list of "quality" steel cranks to seek in order (personal preference) , would be ;
Durax : hex section arms ideal for the late 30s machine Chater-Lea : the Round-arm cranks are lovely, but bend marginally eventually flaking the chrome, the plain cranks better. Williams : Go for the higher numbered models with the fluted arms if you can find them, deck them out with Simplex rings... Gnutti/Simplex et al.. Nice but the chroming quality is questionable. Obligatory fitment on your post-war period replica British race machine.
Bob Reid
Stonehaven
Scotland
> In a message dated 12/3/03 4:18:14 AM Pacific Standard Time,
> jerrymoos@sbcglobal.net writes:
>
> > They look fine, but I know very little about Williams and cottered
cranks
> > generally. I'm trying to educate myself.
> >
>
> Hi Jerry,
> Here is what I know:
> They aren't a "top" quality, or perhaps the better term would be "racing"
> crank. The genuine racing cranks of the day had the spider as one piece
with the
> drive arm. It was harder to make and generally a tad lighter. The Williams
(I
> only ever saw this one model) has a separate spider "swaged" to the arm,
with
> arms that are considerably lighter than many swaged, inexpensive cranks.
The
> advantage of the Williams cranks was a bolt circle that allowed fairly
small
> chainrings that were easy to mount and I think could be wiggled over a
pedal
> without removing it.
> Steel cranks generally had two bolt circles. One was the 5 pin close (like
> T.A.) that virtually necessitated the removal of the crank arm and the
pedal to
> change the gearing, but you could fit a 26 tooth inner ring. The other
circle
> was what Magistroni (and others) used, that allowed gearing changes with
the
> arm in place and without removing the pedal. The disadvantage was that you
> couldn't really put on a ring smaller than 46 (or so) teeth.
> With the Williams, you could fit a moderately small ring without having to
> remove the arm, although maybe the pedal does have to come off.
> Bob Freitas has told me that Merry Sales used to stock lots of rings for
> these!
> Cotters are generally in only a couple of diameters, and usually you have
to
> file them a bit to make sure the arms are in line. In the old days,
cotters
> were chrome, sometimes with high quality nuts, often domed. Nowadays, most
> cotters are cad plated and just not as nice looking as when cotters were
considered
> part of a high quality racing crank. I know that large supplies of the
best
> quality cotters went to the dump many years ago. It's kinda sad, but they
were
> seriously obsolete. Now, nice ones are hard to find, most are Taiwan, $75
bike
> quality. If you run across good ones, get what you need (plus spares!) and
> then tell the list!
> Stevan Thomas
> Alameda, CA