At 1:02 PM -0400 5/12/09, Edward Albert wrote:
>FYI,
> I feel like I am being picked clean like a dog's bone. But that
>is the nature of the beast.
>Anyway, I found a copy of a Caminargent catalog on Joel Metz' site.
>A British one dating to 1936. Take a close look at the crankset and
>blow the PDF file up a bit. Looks like points to me and just like
>on the one I now own. IMHO
><http://www.blackbirdsf.org/caminade/catalogue_1936_uk.pdf>http://www.blackbirdsf.org/caminade/catalogue_1936_uk.pdf
>
Page one looks pointy, but the resolution is low, and light can do funny things.
Pages two and three are definitely round.
Page four looks half pointy and half round on the same cranks, but I suspect it's a lighting effect.
In any case, your bike has one round and one pointy crank, so that matches the catalogue, doesn't it? ;-)
Catalogue images are hard to use, because they often have been retouched more extensively than you think. It took us a while to figure out whether the Delangle tandem in "The Competition Bicycle" was the one used for the hour record or not. We finally concluded that it was - it had the correct provenance, but some minor details seemed to be different, until we realized that they probably were retouched in the photos.
When dating cranks, I'd go by original cranks on original bikes. Check out the Caminargent in "The Competition Bicycle" - it's very similar to your machine, but it is said to date from 1939. The serial number, visible in one photo, starts with 39 and contains at least one more digit. However, I have no way of corroborating the 1939 date for that machine.
Jan Heine
Editor
Bicycle Quarterly
140 Lakeside Ave #C
Seattle WA 98122
http://www.vintagebicyclepress.com