Well, this proved an even greater drama than I thought. I finally ordered a set of Sugino triple chainring bolts just to get the spacers, after checking the advertised thickness was correct for spacing a Stronglight mod 49 double. For some reason, I was confident that a Stronglight spacer would have the same ID as "modern" ones. Got the Suginos today and stole the spacers. But no, the Sugino ID is too small for the Stronglight bolts (or actually the nuts on the backside). Someone had suggested hub axle spacers. As luck would have it, a hub spacer is a perfect fit for the Stronglight bolt sets, fits like a glove. How about those Stronglight designers? Over half a century ago they cleverly designed the diameter of their bolt sets to match the hub spacers that would be available 50 years later, so their stuff would never be obsolete. Yet another demonstration of the superiority of French design. Vive la France!! :-)
Regards,
Jerry Moos
Houston, TX
> Just received a Stronglight 49D crank missing a couple of Chainring bolts.
> The bolts are no problem, as Stronglight used generic unmarked chromed
steel
> hex wrench bolts, which are easily bought today. Current ones are made in
> Japan or Taiwan, but pretty much undisguishable from Stronglight
originals.
>
> But because the mod 49 inner ring bolts to the outer ring rather than to a
> crank spider, I was also missing the spacers which space the rings apart.
> No problem, I thought, I'll steal a couple of spacers off a set of TA or
> Lambert rings, where the inner rings likewise bolt to the outer. However,
I
> soon discovered that Stronglight, TA and Lambert all have different inside
> diameters for these chainring spacers. The TA and Lambert spacer IDs were
> too small for the Stronglight bolts to pass through. I could have tried
the
> spacers from Nervar Sports, which might be more likely to be compatible
with
> Stronglight, but by now I recognized that there was a basic problem.
Since
> it was only a couple I was missing, I ordered a set of triple chainring
> bolts with spacers for the inner ring from Bike Tools etc., after checking
> that the 4.7mm spacer thickness they list was correct.
>
> Does anyone know of a source for chainring spacers for various cranks like
> TA, Stronglight, etc. without buying a complete bolt set, which in the
case
> of Lambert and probably Stronglight 49, aren't available anyway? I
presume
> that all the spacers had the same thickness to space the chainrings apart,
> so maybe if the ID is a bit too large, it still works OK as long as the
> bolts are well tightened. Anyone tried this? Was there anything
> approaching a standard spacer ID, or did every manufacturer use a
different
> one?
>
> While I'm on the subject of crank fasteners, anyone know of a source for
> the Campy C-Record/ Victory/ Croce D-Aune self-extracting crank bolts,
where
> the colllar threaded into the left hand crank extractor thread, or some
> reasonable replacement? Evidently, modern self-extracting crank bolts use
> normal right hand crank extractor thread, although on a strictly technical
> basis, the old Campy design was probably superior.
>
> Regards,
>
> Jerry Moos
> Houston, TX