I guess I didn't make my point very well about the Nervar. I kind of assumed it was a replacement. What I was questioning was the name of the Nervar model with the very small bolt circle like Stronglight 49. I have such a crank marked "Sport". All the Nervar cranks marked "Star" I have seen are the 5-arms ones with 128 BCD for both rings.
Yes, I agree it was the Zeus Competition crank on the late 60's/ very early 70's Raleigh Competition. Does anyone know for sure if the bike was named after the crank, like the Motobecane Grand Jubilee and Grand Record were named after their derailleurs sets?
I have a couple of Zeus Competitions and I wouldn't call them extremely rare, but I guess that is a subjective term. Plus I've had them a while, so maybe they have become extremely rare of late.
I'm still puzzled by the eBay seller's claim to have an original 52/42 Zeus crank for what we all seem to agree is a 1973 or 1974 Raleigh Competition MkII. In the first place, the consensus and the Raleigh catalogs say that frame should have been equiped with 3-arm TA cranks. Now I suppose it is possible Raleigh used up some leftover crank inventory, but then the bike should have had a Zeus Competition, which unless I'm mistaken had a 151 inner bolt circle, and so couldn't possibly be a 52/42. Anyone have a Sutherlands or an actual Zeus Competition handy to confirm the smallest possible chainring? I suppose it is possible Raleigh could have put a few Zeus Criteriums on Competitions MkII's in the transition between the Zeus Competition and the TA Professional, but that would be bizzare, even for Raleigh.
Regards,
Jerry Moos Houston, TX
Donald Gillies <gillies@cs.ubc.ca> wrote: Jerry,
if you recheck the email, i said that the nervar star on the 1971 competition was a _substitution_, not original kit. nervar star cranks were substituted on many mid-level raleigh bikes - mostly competition and gran(d) sport(s).
the zeus crank that came on raleighs is a "Zeus Competition". It can be seen in the 1972 raleigh catalogue on the GRAN SPORT, despite the fact that the specifications says "stronglight", and the 1969 competition in the catalogues. Here is very pretty one from Dale at classic rendezvous :
http://www.classicrendezvous.com/
This is the crankset that I think is "darned hard to find!" I also have (somewhere) a picture of a late 1960's ebay competition with that crank installed - to verify the catalog picture.
- Don Gillies
San Diego, CA