Peter Jon White wrote:
>
> The offset does provide some ankle clearance. But the reason Mavic made the
> change was that the straight arm was so close to the outer chainring that
> there was no room for any modern front derailleur. Once Simplex shut down,
> Mavic had no supplier of a FD with a thin outer plate. So they flared the
> arms to make them compatible with Shimano FDs.
The last version of the Mavic "starfish" crank also had the ends of the spider arms abbreviated (bolt circle unchanged) so you could use a smaller outer chainring without the ends of the arms hitting the chain.
Chuck Schmidt South Pasadena, CA
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