[CR]Re Cotterless crank history.

(Example: Bike Shops:R.E.W. Reynolds)

From: "Bicycle Specialties" <mike@bikespecialties.com>
To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2008 11:02:02 -0500
Subject: [CR]Re Cotterless crank history.

There were certainly cotterless cranks made by CCM (Canada Cycle & Motor) in the early 1900s. They used a three sided taper axle rather than the four sided and it was very successful and stayed in production until around 1940. Their cranks were steel and seemed to stand up very well unlike the steel Stronglight cotterless cranks which wore very quickly becoming loose on the axle. This was also a problem with the steel Gnutti cranks on their tapered spline axle. It is strange that the steel cranks wore yet the aluminum alloy cranks didn't. One theory is that the axle bedded itself into the softer aluminum and produced a tight fit where the steel cranks did not bed down and any slight difference in tolerances could not be accommodated. The CCM cranks had a much steeper taper than the Stonglight, maybe that had something to do with them not wearing. Of course there have been many other cotterless cranks dating back to the 19th century. Some time ago I overhauled a 1890s bike that had a b/b very similar to the current Campag "Ultra Torque". Nothing much has changed in the last hundred years.

Mike Barry. Toronto, Canada

Wesley Gadd wrote: Now that we seem to be entering the twilight of the reign of the taper squa re cotterless crank, I've been wondering about a couple of historical quest ions. First, did Stronglight originate the concept, and, if so, when? I'm guess ing late '30's? Did they hold a patent that kept other manufacturers from u sing this design? As far as I know, the first company to make a taper squar e crank after Stronglight was Campagnolo in 1958. Others used different met hods (Gnutti, T.A. "Criterium", Williams AB77 come to mind) but did the alm ost universal adoption of the taper square method have somthing to do with the expiration of a patent? I checked the archives but couldn't find much about this.

Best regards,
Wes Gadd