I can't give you a timeline, but I can offer a few datapoints. My 1967 PX-10 has an original mod 93 crank. Some people assert that the names of models 49, 58 and 63 referred to the years of introduction, although others dispute this. I think these models were available close to those years though. Pretty sure the mod 49 was available at least by the mid-50's, so it is a good choice for 50's or 60's bikes. Also continued in production into the 80's, so it is pretty easy to find. Now some people will probably get anal about the undoubted small differences between 50's mod 49's and 80's ones. Personally, I ignore those, and thank God that Stronglight didn't date crankarms like Campy. Another nice thing about mod 49 arms is that they fit TA Cyclotourist rings. In fact mod 49 arms with TA rings were de rigeur for 60's and maybe 50's French constructeur bikes.
As to rings for Stronglight cottered steel cranks, the original steel ones, in addition to being a bit rare, are a quite large BCD, limiting the range of gearing. However, the arms themselves are 116 BCD, which will take a 36T ring, or maybe a bit smaller. So TA and other three-hole alloy rings will fit, and indeed I have maybe three Stronglight steel cranks with just this configuration. I'm increasingly becoming convinced that the original three hole TA alloy rings were designed to fit 116 BCD steel cranks like Stronglight before TA ever released the their own three arm alloy crankarms, just as the Cyclotourist rings were designed to fit Stronglight mod 49 and similar cranks several years before the Cyclotourist arms were introduced.
There are also Stronglight 6-hole 116 BCD alloy rings, which used to puzzle me. I've now concluded these were designed for the 116 BCD steel cranks, with three holes used to attach the outer rings to the arms, and the other three used to attach the inner (three-hole) ring to the (six-hole) outer ring.
Regards,
Jerry Moos
kevin sayles <kevinsayles@tiscali.co.uk> wrote: Hi Listers.
I'm sure this has been brought up before, but is there a Stronglight timeline so the different type of cranks can be sorted into the correct period?
I seem to remember someone asking when did 93 chainsets start recently.
What Stronglight chainset would be appropiate for a 50s style bike with Simplex rod front gear, early Gran sport rear, Dural Forge Mafacs, Steel Campg seat post, and so on.........?
I'm thinking a steel 3 arm cottered Stronglight might be a good choice, but are the rings easily available?
Any advice would be welcome.
Oh, just read the 'rules' on CR list, what does 'attaboy' and 'me too' actually mean?
Cheers
Kevin Sayles
Bridgwater UK