steel cotterless cranks, was Re: [CR]Steel cranks, aluminum cranks...

(Example: Production Builders:LeJeune)

Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2007 20:32:34 -0400
From: "Harvey Sachs" <hmsachs@verizon.net>
Subject: steel cotterless cranks, was Re: [CR]Steel cranks, aluminum cranks...
To: hilary.stone@blueyonder.co.uk, Classic Rendezvous <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>


I'm sure that Hilary inadvertently overlooked a couple of steel cotterless cranks that are probably still more common than the 49a. At least, I've seen them, and I've never seen a 49a.

The first example is the lovely and graceful 3-arm Campagnolo, which I think is called the "Gran Sport." Real eye-candy, forged, with aluminum rings. Although the mental gears are not spinning freely this afternoon, I also remember a fairly down-market Nervar steel cotterless that came on some Raleigh Super Courses. But this is just a clarification, and doesn't detract from HIlary's message.

harvey sachs mcLean va ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Historically riders and manufacturers considered Q-factor (what they called tread) to be important back in the 1890s... However I have not seen any reference since to anything to do with Q-factor in the cycling press until the late 1980s. I have hundreds of copies of technical articles from Cycling magazine and the CTC Gazette from 1900 to the 1960s. It is undoubtedly true that steel cottered cranks nearly always have a narrower Q-factor than cotterless cranks. Steel cotterless cranks are very rare (the Stronglight 49A is almost certainly the most common and it is a rare crank...). But I am almost certain that 49As have an identical Q-factor to 49Ds and in any case the Q-factor of 49D, 57/63, TA and Campagnolo Record are all low compared to later cranks from the major manufacturers in the 1980s and 1990s. <snip>