Re: [CR] Stronglight Timeline Needed

(Example: Production Builders:Peugeot:PX-10LE)

From: "R.S. Broderick" <rsb000@hotmail.com>
To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Date: Tue, 4 Aug 2009 20:04:15 -0500
In-Reply-To: <199888.70960.qm@web82207.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Thread-Index: AcoVWAd2aVeuDyYzQXqIbZGAV+DfwwAB0n6Q
Subject: Re: [CR] Stronglight Timeline Needed


Jerry provided a good accounting of Stronglight cranksets, most especially with regard to their various models 52, 53, 54, 55, and TS three arm editions with which I have little to no personal experience. And while I do have a pretty thorough selection of Stronglight catalogs residing in my filing cabinets, only the 1958 edition has been digitized and posted to Velo-Pages thus far:

http://www.velo-pages.com/main.php?g2_itemId=108

Nevertheless, I thought that I might take a crack at providing a little more information with respect primarily to their forged aluminum offerings, if not a true timeline per se.

The original Stronglight 49 debuted prior to W.W.II and it was eventually supplanted by the designated 49D (...same basic crank arms but with altered chain rings - and I do believe that this change-over came about sometime around 1949, if not just prior) that was quite common to find during the 1950's all the way through the early 1980's in subtly different forms while their models 57 and 63 (...which were introduced in...you guessed it...1957 and 1963 respectively) were the competition counterparts to the 49D. On the other hand, the Stronglight 93 was introduced in either late 1967 for model year 1968 or during 1968 proper and was produced through 1977. The Stronglight 105 became available in 1976 with the 105 bis and 105 ter versions (...bis having factory "drilled" chain rings and ter being factory "drilled" and also Black anodized) following in 1977 and all of these 105 variants remained in production into the early 1980's, at which point Stronglight had proliferated its line up like never before. To summarize in approximate chronological order of their appearance in the market:

Model 49 - 50.4 mm BCD (outer) / 122 mm BCD (inner) - a traditional five arm crankset from the pre war era where the spyder of the outside chain ring attaches to the drive side arm by virtue of five bolts. The crank arms themselves have slightly rounded edges with an interrupted center channel having an oval Stronglight logo at the center point of those arms. Intended as an all purpose component with an effective chain ring capacity of 38 to 56 teeth.

Model 49D - 50.4 mm BCD (outer) / 122 mm BCD (inner) - the first Stronglight crankset to incorporate the distinctive "star" shaped profile, albeit based upon on the drive side outer chain ring itself, which continued to be attached to the drive side arm using a series of five bolts. The crank arms themselves have slightly rounded edges with an interrupted center channel having an oval Stronglight logo at the center point of those arms. Intended primarily for touring use with an effective chain ring capacity of 38 to 56 teeth.

Model 57 SC (...or 57 Super Competition) - 122 mm BCD - incorporating a distinctive "star" shaped spyder, but said spyder was now cast as part of the drive side arm itself as a single unit. The crank arms have decidedly rounded edges with an interrupted center channel having an oval Stronglight logo at the center point of those arms. Intended for road / racing use with an effective chain ring capacity of 38 to 56 teeth.

Model 63 (...sometimes referred to as the 63 SC or Super Competition) - 122 mm BCD - an update to the Model 57 SC, it has a distinctive "star" shaped spyder, again cast as part of the drive side arm itself as a single unit. The crank arms have only slightly rounded edges with an interrupted center channel having an oval Stronglight logo at the center point of those arms. Intended primarily for road / racing use with an effective chain ring capacity of 38 to 56 teeth.

Model 93 (...sometimes referred to as the 93 SC or Super Competition) - 122 mm BCD - uses a distinctive "star" spyder similar to the 57 SC and 63 SC but having flat faced arms with angular edges, an unbroken center channel, and no logo "oval" in the middle of those arms. Being a replacement for the 63 SC, the 93 was intended primarily for road / racing use with an effective chain ring capacity of 38 to 56 teeth.

Model 99 - 85 mm BCD - the spiritual successor to the 49D and one which is quite often seen in a triple ring configuration. Its smaller BCD allows for consequently smaller inner chain rings, hence its popularity with the touring crowd. This was an economy model intended primarily for road / touring use with an effective chain ring capacity of 28 to 54 teeth.

Model 105 - 122 mm BCD - again, uses a distinctive "star" spyder as the 57 SC / 63 SC / 93 before it but returning to slightly rounded edges on its arms and a new Stronglight logo appearing inside the milled channel of said arms. The successor to the model 93, intended primarily for road / racing use with an effective chain ring capacity of 38 to 56 teeth.

Model 104 - 122 mm BCD - a totally new look for Stronglight and one which was intentionally similar in its appearance to the venerable Campy Record crankset yet still retaining the smaller and traditional 122 mm Stronglight BCD. Intended primarily for road / racing use with an effective chain ring capacity of 38 to 56 teeth.

Model 106 - 144 mm BCD - might well be considered a Campy Record / Super Record clone, this was Stronglight's top of the line "Pro" kit from the early 1980's. It featured fluting in the webbing and cutouts in its chain rings and for the first time used the same BCD as Campagnolo (...but at a fraction of the weight). Intended primarily for racing use with an effective chain ring capacity of 42 to 58 teeth.

Model 107 - 144 mm BCD - something of an "aero" successor to the model 106, again intended for high end racing bikes. The cutouts and fluting are now absent the spyder and crankarms and there is distinctive Stronglight logo running horizontal along the length of the arms. Intended primarily for racing use (...there was even a time trial specific version having a single solid plate chain ring) with an effective chain ring capacity of 42 to 58 teeth.

Robert "occasionally known to be somewhat cranky himself" Broderick ...the "Frozen Flatlands" of South Dakota Sioux Falls, USA

-----Original Message----- From: classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org [mailto:classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org] On Behalf Of jerrymoos@sbcglobal.net Sent: Tuesday, August 04, 2009 6:05 PM To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org; Amir Avitzur Subject: Re: [CR] Stronglight Timeline Needed

Chuck Schmidt has some repro Stronglight catalogs, though maybe not a complete timeline.

49 was a Stronglight model number, the actual circle is the same as TA Cyclotourist, 50.4mm. There is an urban legend that the model 49 was introduced in 1949, but I believe it was actually available before WWII. There was actually a model 49D (Dural) and 49A (Acier=Steel), both cotterless, but the the 49A was steel. The 49D continued to be made well into the 80's. Many classic constructeur randonneurs used 49D crank arms with TA rings. The first 122 BCD Stronglight (I think) was the model 57 followed by the model 63. These may or may not have been the years of introduction. The most famous Stronglight model was the mod 93, introduced sometime in the mid to late 60's. In the early to mid 70's almost every highend French racing bike that didn't use Campy cranks used the Stronglight 93. The 122 BCD mod 93 was followed by mod 105 and 104, among others, with this circle. In the early 80's Stronglight switched to the Campy 144 BCD circle about the same time Campy was abandoning this circle. The models 106 and 107 were 144 BCD. Stronglight cranks are still made, but most recent ones are 130 BCD. Also in the early 80's (1982 I think) Stronglight switched from their own unique crank extractor thread to the Campy-compatible 22mm thread. Several Stronglight models were made both before and after the switch, which can lead to some interesting cranks with mismatched arms, each requiring a different extractor. Especially so since the arms can also have either French or English pedal thread.

The best known Stronglight touring model (not counting the 49D with TA rings) was the 5-arm 86 BCD Model 99, introduced in the early 70's or maybe the late 60's. It was often configured as a triple. The mod 99 survived into the 80's and there are examples with the later 22mm extractor thread.

116 BCD was more or less the standard circle for old 3-arm steel cranks. Stronglight made some very elegant fluted and logoed one, which I think perhaps were called Competition. As you have noted, these are infinitely more elegant than the much cruder (and heavier) Stronglight cottered steel cranks found on UO-8's and the like. I don't know if Stronglight always made cheap steel cranks, or only started doing so after high end stuff switched to alloy cotterless. Also not sure how the nice fluted steel Stronglights were made so surprisingly light. The arms are definitely more slender than a typical alloy crank, but some highend French-made steel cranks also had hollow or partially hollow arms. I have not read that the Stromglight steel arms were hollow, but it is possible. Anyone know? I'm not about to saw mine in half to find out.

Note that before and just after WWII, the 116 BCD steel arms typically used large BCD rings (greater than 150 BCD) with "ring carrier" brackets attaching the larger BCD rings to the 116 BCD arms. Many of the rings were steel, but Simplex and others made alloy rings for this setup. Rings were typically 6-hole. At some point, perhaps after WWII, Stronglight, TA and others began making 3-hole 116 BCD alloy rings that attached directly to the 116 BCD 3-arm crankarms, including Stronglight steel arms, without the need for the "ring carriers". Later, alloy cotterless 3-arm 116 BCD cranks would appear using rings larely interchangeable with those originally used on the 116 BCD steel crankarms. Such alloy 116 BCD 3-arm cranks included Stronglight, Nervar, TA Professional, and one version of the Campy Gran Sport. I think the Stronglight model was the TS.

One puzzling ring that one sees from time to time on eBay is a 6-hole 116 BCD alloy Stronglight ring. I first I couldn't figure out what crank this ring was made for, but now I'm convinced it was actually made to fit the old steel Stronglight Competition. One clue is that this ring is usually seen in 48T or larger, suggesting an outer ring. The extra three holes were used for mounting the 3-hole inner ring to the 6-hole outer ring. The original bolts on the Stronglight steel arms were only single length, designed to attach the old "ring carriers" or later a single outer 6-hole alloy ring. They also threaded into a threaded hole in the crankarm from behind. Of course one could find longer bolts and spacers to allow the inner and outer rings to both attach with a single set of bolts, but I'm convinced the more typical setup was to use the original bolts to attach the 6-hole outer to the arms, then use the remaining 3 holes to attach a 3-hole inner ring to the outer. One more strong clue to this is that the Stronglight 3-hole inners have their web cut away midway between holes, exactly where the extra hole would fall in the 6-hole outer rings. This was pretty obviously to alloy the old exposed (non-recessed) hex head bolts attaching the outer rings from behind the arms to clear the webbing of the inner ring. I have several sets of the old fluted steel Stronglight crankarms fitted with these 6-hole/3-hole sets of 116 BCD Stronglight alloy rings. This makes an elegant and surprisingly light setup.

Regards,

Jerry Moos
Big Spring, Texas, USA


--- On Tue, 8/4/09, Amir Avitzur wrote:


> From: Amir Avitzur <walawalaoxenfree@gmail.com>

\r?\n> Subject: [CR] Stronglight Timeline Needed

\r?\n> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org

\r?\n> Date: Tuesday, August 4, 2009, 9:01 AM

\r?\n> I've got half a dozen Stronglight

\r?\n> cranks at home.

\r?\n>

\r?\n> Some are 3 arm steel 116 BCD

\r?\n>

\r?\n> While others are 5 arm aluminum with 122 BCD & 49 BCD.

\r?\n>

\r?\n> Does anyone have a timeline for Stronglight cranks?

\r?\n>

\r?\n> I'm trying to allocate them to some old frames and would

\r?\n> really like to know

\r?\n> during what years each was produced.

\r?\n>

\r?\n>

\r?\n> Another thing I'd like to know is how many variations of

\r?\n> the 116 BCD steel

\r?\n> 3-arm crank there were.

\r?\n> Mine range from crude (as found on Peugeot UO-8s) to very

\r?\n> refined (radiused

\r?\n> edges and fluted arms).

\r?\n> All 116 steel cranks look like they came off the same

\r?\n> production line but

\r?\n> the nice ones look like they got special treatment.

\r?\n>

\r?\n>

\r?\n> Amir Avitzur

\r?\n> Ramat-Gan, Israel