Varying perspectives may be the most fun part of our shared passion. I have never found much to appreciate about anything from Nervar. Jerry, I can't tell from your pix, but I'd be surprised if the Nervars you show are actually forged, rather than a swaged-on 5-pin mount. Need to see the back side to tell. I use Stronglight Competition 5-pin on my Hamel, and the right crank is a forged piece, with much sharper and crisper lines on the crank arm and the stampings than the Nervars you show.
Not that Nervar's don't have some redeeming values. The 5-pin cotterless did use the same 51.5 (??) BCD as Stronglight 49 and TA - I used a 3 sets of Nervars to convert a Town & Country tandem to cotterless. Got 'em really cheap, NIB, at a shop's bankruptcy sale. To me, it was all but unforgiveable for them to do the Nervar Star 5-arm with a barely non-standard ring set (128 mm, as you note). At least they used a std. 22 mm. puller.
So, without exception, all of the Nervars that I've handled have been second-class wannabes. Sort of reminds me of the conversation between Lloyd Bentsen and Dan Quayle: I know Nervar. I've used Nervar. Nervar, you're no Stronglight. :-) IMHO.
regards, harvey sachs mcLean va
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ I think Nervar may be the most underappreciated and undercollected classic crank marque. Recently received from a list member these photos of a Nervar crank I've never seen before:
http://www.wooljersey.com/
http://www.wooljersey.com/
Note that steel arms appear to be bolted onto the spider, and the BCD looks very similar to that used by Stronglight 49D, TA, and many other alloy arms to attach the outer ring. It is then possible these arms would take TA rings, and would be sort of the equivalent of the steel Stronglight 49A. Anyone know if that is the case? The arms are slender, logoed and fluted, much like the high-end Stronglight Competition steel arms. Does anyone now when Nervar steel arms like this appeared, and where they ranked compared to Stronglight, Duprat, and other high end steel cranks?
Steel arms very similar to these appeared on 5-arm cranks with the unique 128 mm BCD Nervar rings. In that case, the 5-arm spider was swaged onto the arms. That crank came both as cottered steel and as COTTERLESS steel. I have both. The cotterless version is shown in some early 70's Raleigh catalogs as OE on Gran Sports, although neither of my Gran Sports actually came with that crank.
Nervar also made alloy 3-arm 116 BCD cranks, 5-pin alloy compatible with TA rings, 5-arm 128 BCD alloy cranks, and in the 80's they made 5-arm alloy cranks with the Stronglight 122 BCD circle at about the time Stronglight was abandonning that circle.
Finally, a while back I bought three 36T inner triple Nervar rings offered by a list member. The circle is close to the 86 BCD Stronglight mod 99, but seems just a mm or two off. I never knew such rings existed until they were offered here. It was only then I noticed that some of my Nervar TA-compatible outer rings were actually drilled for two inner rings, one 128 BCD, but the other matching these inners.
Regards,
Jerry Moos
Big Spring, Texas, USA