Campy? Surely you jest. According the the Campy timeline Campy did nor make a crankset until 1958, while Stronglight was already making the cotterless alloy model 49 before WWII. The 122 BCD Model 57 seems also to have beaten Cmapy to the market. I suspect more research would uncover other French cotterless cranks and maybe even an Italian one before Campy's.
That said, from what I've seen, the general shift to cotterless alloy cranks seems to have occurred gradually over the decade of the 1960's. In touring circles I think it was the TA Cyclotourist arms, adding an important additional option to the Stronglight offerings, that made cotterless alloy cranks nearly universal on high end touring bikes by 1970. For racing, there is no doubt the Campy cranks were important, especially on Italian racing bikes, but I suspect the sales of Stronglight models 57, 63 and 93, no even counting model 49D, far exceeded Campy crank sales in that decade.
Regards,
Jerry Moos
Big Spring, Texas, USA
> From: Strickler, George M Jr. <gstrickler@tulane.edu>
\r?\n> Subject: [CR] Timeline on cottarless cranks?
\r?\n> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
\r?\n> Date: Thursday, August 6, 2009, 11:43 AM
\r?\n> >From pictures I'm seeing on
\r?\n> Dale's history page and on ebay, it appears that cottared
\r?\n> cranks (steel I presume) were still the norm on high-end
\r?\n> bikes in the immediate post-war era. When I got into
\r?\n> bikes as an adult in the mid-sixties the good bikes all were
\r?\n> equipped with Campagnola or Stronglight alloy cranks.
\r?\n> When did the change take place? Who led the way?
\r?\n> Campy?
\r?\n> George Strickler
\r?\n> Walden, Vt.