Hilary wrote the following wonderful comment about the Q factor:
"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. I think, if riders had been at all concerned about Q-factor, there would have been some evidence in contemporary literature."
I agree with everything here except to point out that Steel cotterless cranks were very common in Italy on city bikes (also known as roadsters) as far back as the late 20's. In fact many bike brands used them almost exclusively (Taurus is one brand that comes to mind). Oddly enough the same brands that used cotterless cranks on their city bikes rarely did the same on their racing bikes.
Ray also makes a good point when he writes:
"And dont forget just how cheap the old Directeur Sportivs were. Antonin
Magne bought jerseys without zips just to save a few old francs (check those pictures of Poulidor). Not the kind of guy who would be keen on equipment that might not last a season (or two)."
Most teams were indeed obliged to make due on very little. Many riders then made their own personal agreements with component manufacturers.
Steven Maasland
Moorestown, NJ
USA