Donald Gillies wrote:
> 1. RALEIGH logo 144 bcd cranks - made by SR
> 2. SR Royal Cranks - made by SR
> 3. OMAS Cranks - made by SR
> 4. MAVIC 144 bcd cranks - made SR
>
> I believe all 4 of these cranks are the same thing. They
> all have exactly the same type of unique fluting on the
> crank arms, and that fluting first appears in the SR Royal
> Crankset, circa ~1975 or so.
>
> - Don Gillies
> Proud Owner of items #1, #2 above
> San Diego, CA, USA
Archive-URL: http://search.bikelist.org/
Mark Bulgier wrote: > > Greg Parker wrote: > > > As a nerd Engineer, I can tell you that scenario makes a TON > > of sense - I once worked for a Japanese Manufacturer that > > often bought their forgings from Forging Specialists, and > > machined them here in the US into the final product > > Except it's the machining that makes those cranks identical! If three > different companies were machining the forgings, it would be a pretty > unbelievable coincidence for them to all turn out the same. > > I see two possibilities: The Mavic catalog has a photo of the cranks being > machined at SR, or Mavic machined the cranks for SR and OMAS. (Not that > those are the only possibilities, just two we haven't aired yet)
Judging by all the photos in the Mavic catalogs over the years of the factory and the way the components were designed and produced (the first generation derailleurs had the typical look of early CNC produced parts... simple and angular) it's pretty clear that Mavic had the machinery to machine its own parts. Plenty of photos of ladies in shop coats alongside forged hub shells being machined (and the already mentioned cranks).
OMAS was machining parts in the 1960s for E. WEBER carburetors and doing all the titanium parts for Campagnolo in the mid 1970s. (Company history <http://www.classicrendezvous.com/Italy/OMAS.htm>)
Also, remember that the part of the crank forging that gets machined are the sides, back and ends of the spider. I have a Mavic, SR and OMAS crank and the flutes in the arms and spider are formed during the forging stage and are not milled in later, hence the identical look to the three. Same thing with the bevel on the crank arms.
Logically SR, MAVIC and OMAS were all doing their own machining on the SR crank forging.
Chuck Schmidt South Pasadena, Southern California
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Archive-URL: http://search.bikelist.org/
How about this!
Grant McLean e-mailed me saying that he thought there was a photo of the cranks being machined in one of Mavic catalogs from the 1980s.
I cracked open my copy of MAVIC, A Brief History of MAVIC Bicycle Components (422 pages, covers Mavic components from 1977 through 1995, available from http://www.vel-retro.com ;) and there it was in the Mavic catalog for 1988-89, pg 27, full page color. Pictured is a mill that's machining the edge of a crank forging.
My best guess is that Mavic bought the crank forgings from Sakae Ringyo (SR) and did their own finished machining?
Anyone?
Chuck Schmidt
South Pasadena, Pacific Rim