I should have qualified by saying that the current standard square taper BB spindles were introduced by Stronglight. Basically, a 1933 crank should fit on a modern BB and vice versa.
Now who made the first alloy cranks? Anybody before 1933?
Jan Heine, Seattle
>Iver Johnson offered a triangular tapered "axle" at least as far back as the
>teens. I say "axle" because it was integral with the right side crank and
>you bolted on the left crank. I presume the idea goes bck further than that.
>Maybe Ray Homiski will give the off topic, turn of the last century origins
>of tapered axle setups. It was a free for all back then in terms of crank
>attachment ideas.
>
>So the the "cotterless" tapered idea is old, at least in steel.
>
>Joe B-Z
>GNNJ
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Jan Heine" <heine@mindspring.com>
>To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
>Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2003 12:56 PM
>Subject: [CR]How old are square-tapered BBs? Answer...
>
>
>> As far as I can ascertain, Stronglight were the first to offer square
>> tapered BB spindles (and cranks to go with them) in 1933. In fact,
>> this was Stronglight's first product. For detailed quotes, see
>> Vintage Bicycle Quarterly No. 4, p. 4-5. These cranks quickly were
>> adopted by the French cyclotourists, influenced by the technical
>> trials, where these cranks proved their durability and performance.
>>
>> There may have been others, but Herse is the second French one
>> mentioned, introduced in 1938. See VBQ No. 4, p. 16-17.
>>
>> Together with the alloy cranks (later called 49D), Stronglight also
>> introduced a traditional steel crankset for cottered BBs (shown in
>> the same ad in La Pedale Touristique quoted above). Racers didn't
>> adopt the square tapered spindles until the 1950s, so Stronglight
>> probably wanted to capture some of that market, too. I read somewhere
>> (Le Cycliste, 1930s?) that the racers' reluctance was due to the
>> higher Q factor of the alloy cranks (which by modern standards were
>> super-low, but times change).
>>
>> There were several attempts at splined BB axles. I have a Gnutti
>> crankset from the 1950s (?). Anybody got an axle to go with that?
>>
>> Jan Heine, Seattle
>> Editor/Publisher
>> Vintage Bicycle Quarterly
>> http://www.mindspring.com/
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