Re: [CR]What makes these Stronglight cranks so special?

(Example: Framebuilders:Pino Morroni)

In-Reply-To: <75d04b480806261955m37ca61bp64f9bd68d797f3ee@mail.gmail.com>
References: <92155.61006.qm@web63415.mail.re1.yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2008 09:27:16 -0700
To: haxixe@gmail.com, raydobbins2003@yahoo.com
From: "Jan Heine" <heine94@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [CR]What makes these Stronglight cranks so special?
cc: Classic Rendezvous Bike List <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>

At 7:55 PM -0700 6/26/08, Kurt Sperry wrote:
>Type 57 SCs


>a pretty rare and beautiful vintage crankset advertised as
>the 1st alloy cotterless set where the rings could be swapped without
>necessitating removal of either the pedals or arms.

Rene Herse cranks allowed that much earlier - I think they were out in the late 1930s, when Herse was a maker of accessories and not yet making bikes. The Herse crank combined the aluminum material and cotterless taper of the Stronglight 49 with the three-arm configuration of a steel Stronglight model (which even had the "3-hole" pattern chainrings).

By the time the Stronglight 57 cranks were introduced, Herse cranks were available only on complete bikes, so Stronglight's ad claim was somewhat justified.

Jan Heine
Editor
Bicycle Quarterly
140 Lakeside Ave #C
Seattle WA 98122
http://www.bikequarterly.com