[CR] Stronglight Cottered BB's

(Example: Events:Cirque du Cyclisme:2007)

Date: Sun, 31 May 2009 17:50:47 -0700
From: Jerome & Elizabeth Moos <jerrymoos@sbcglobal.net>
To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Subject: [CR] Stronglight Cottered BB's


Well these pre-60's projects are always educational, though maybe "fun" only if one has a masochistic bend.

Tore down the BB today on the 1954 Duravia. This went surprisingly smoothly. With the cottered BB cleaned, greased, reinstalled and adjusted, checked the fit of the old slender Stronglight steel cottered crank I plan to use. The Stronglight arm would not go on.

Searching the parts bin, found a Stronglight BB (missing the fixed cup) bagged with a different Stronglight cottered crank. Happily, the Stronglight axle worked with the cups in the Duravia. However, the original Stronglight crank I tried would not go on the Stronglight axle either. The Stronglight arm the axle had been bagged with did go on, but there was not enough chainstay clearance for the double chainrings. And even this Stronglight arm would not go on the original axle from the Duravia frame.

Sutherland's is no help here, as it implies all French cottered BB's used basically the same axle dimensions. But clearly Stronglight themselves used two different cottered axle diameters, and neither one is the same as the unknown brand BB in the Duravia, which one presumes is French made - at least it's French thread.

Does anyone understand this? Did Stronglight use two different axle diameters for cottered steel arms that appear to be otherwide identical? Were both different from typical French cottered axle diameter?

Anyone have for sale a double-length Stronglight cottered BB?

Regards,

Jerry Moos
Big Spring, Texas, USA