Just received a Stronglight 49D crank missing a couple of Chainring bolts. The bolts are no problem, as Stronglight used generic unmarked chromed steel hex wrench bolts, which are easily bought today. Current ones are made in Japan or Taiwan, but pretty much undisguishable from Stronglight originals.
But because the mod 49 inner ring bolts to the outer ring rather than to a crank spider, I was also missing the spacers which space the rings apart. No problem, I thought, I'll steal a couple of spacers off a set of TA or Lambert rings, where the inner rings likewise bolt to the outer. However, I soon discovered that Stronglight, TA and Lambert all have different inside diameters for these chainring spacers. The TA and Lambert spacer IDs were too small for the Stronglight bolts to pass through. I could have tried the spacers from Nervar Sports, which might be more likely to be compatible with Stronglight, but by now I recognized that there was a basic problem. Since it was only a couple I was missing, I ordered a set of triple chainring bolts with spacers for the inner ring from Bike Tools etc., after checking that the 4.7mm spacer thickness they list was correct.
Does anyone know of a source for chainring spacers for various cranks like TA, Stronglight, etc. without buying a complete bolt set, which in the case of Lambert and probably Stronglight 49, aren't available anyway? I presume that all the spacers had the same thickness to space the chainrings apart, so maybe if the ID is a bit too large, it still works OK as long as the bolts are well tightened. Anyone tried this? Was there anything approaching a standard spacer ID, or did every manufacturer use a different one?
While I'm on the subject of crank fasteners, anyone know of a source for the Campy C-Record/ Victory/ Croce D-Aune self-extracting crank bolts, where the colllar threaded into the left hand crank extractor thread, or some reasonable replacement? Evidently, modern self-extracting crank bolts use normal right hand crank extractor thread, although on a strictly technical basis, the old Campy design was probably superior.
Regards,
Jerry Moos
Houston, TX