144BCD Stronglight rings fit?

Older Suntour Superbe Pro, Tevano, Zeus, and others as well.

"Bob" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

What Stronglight crank did these fit ? Was it a 49 with some odd
adapter ? Or did they just make them to go on Campy cranks ? Any other
makers with a 144BCD ? Zeus maybe ?

Bob said:

What Stronglight crank did these fit ? Was it a 49 with some odd
adapter ? Or did they just make them to go on Campy cranks ? Any other
makers with a 144BCD ? Zeus maybe ?

Thanks,

Wow. It never fails to amaze me how many people are so new to
bicycling and know nothing of its history. Campagnolo came out with
its 135mm bcd cranks in the mid 1980s. C Record I believe. Before
that all of the higher end Campagnolo cranks were 144mm bcd. 42 tooth
was the smallest chainring. I think this was the standard from about
the mid 1950s to the mid 1980s. Pretty much all of the European crank
makers copied Campagnolo and made its cranks to the same standard.
Zeus, Ofmega, etc. Can't think of any others at the moment.

Track cranks have more or less always been 144mm bcd. For the high end
ones. You can find a few makers using 130mm bcd but they are not
considered the top end track cranks.

As reported on this forum, Shimano used 130mm bcd from the early 1970s
on its Dura Ace brand, and maybe all of its sort of higher priced
lines. Don't know and don't really care what Shimano did or does.

Quoted message said:

Wow. It never fails to amaze me how many people are so new to
bicycling and know nothing of its history. Campagnolo came out with
its 135mm bcd cranks in the mid 1980s. C Record I believe. Before
that all of the higher end Campagnolo cranks were 144mm bcd. 42 tooth
was the smallest chainring. I think this was the standard from about
the mid 1950s to the mid 1980s.

144mm dates from around 1967; Campagnolo used 151mm before that.

42 tooth rings were the smallest in wide distribution for 144mm;
41 tooth rings exist, although they can have interference problems
with some chains and crank spiders.

Tom Ace

Quoted message said:

Wow. It never fails to amaze me how many people are so new to
bicycling and know nothing of its history. Campagnolo came out with
its 135mm bcd cranks in the mid 1980s. C Record I believe. Before
that all of the higher end Campagnolo cranks were 144mm bcd. 42 tooth
was the smallest chainring.

Er... 41T, actually.

Quoted message said:

I think this was the standard from about the mid 1950s to the mid
1980s.

Campy changed from 151mm BCD to 144mm BCD in 1968; others followed suit
later.

Quoted message said:

Pretty much all of the European crank
makers copied Campagnolo and made its cranks to the same standard.
Zeus, Ofmega, etc. Can't think of any others at the moment.

Zeus uses 120mm BCD, which is unique.

Quoted message said:

Track cranks have more or less always been 144mm bcd. For the high end
ones. You can find a few makers using 130mm bcd but they are not
considered the top end track cranks.

Zeus used 120mm BCD on their track cranks as well.

--

John ([email hidden])

Tom Ace said:

144mm dates from around 1967; Campagnolo used 151mm before that.

42 tooth rings were the smallest in wide distribution for 144mm;
41 tooth rings exist,

Campy, Ofmega, and TA made 41T rings for 144mm BCD arms.

Quoted message said:

although they can have interference problems
with some chains and crank spiders.

Nothing a file can't cure, in my experience.

--

John ([email hidden])

John Thompson said:

Campy, Ofmega, and TA made 41T rings for 144mm BCD arms.

If I recall correctly--Campy 41 rings were rare
(the catalogs only referred to 42 and up),
and Sugino (who sold a lot of 144mm rings in
their Mighty series) only went down to 42.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

although they can have interference problems
with some chains and crank spiders.

Nothing a file can't cure, in my experience.

I've noted two different problems with 41 rings in 144mm.
If the chain contacts the spider, that can be fixed by filing
the spider.

The other issue was that older chains (like the Wippermans
that were popular back in the day) had large side plates that
don't stay clear of the ledge under the teeth on a 41 tooth
TA ring I have. I found it better to use a modern chain with
small side plates.

Tom Ace

John Thompson said:

Zeus uses 120mm BCD, which is unique.

Are you sure Zeus never used 144 ?

Tom Ace said:

John Thompson said:

Campy, Ofmega, and TA made 41T rings for 144mm BCD arms.

If I recall correctly--Campy 41 rings were rare
(the catalogs only referred to 42 and up),
and Sugino (who sold a lot of 144mm rings in
their Mighty series) only went down to 42.

Super Record rings (without the inner web) were only available down to
42T, but Record rings were available at 41T:

http://www.os2.dhs.org/~john/41t.jpg

The 1982 Campy catalog lists them as such (3.4MB download):

http://www.campyonly.com/history/catalogs/1982_olympic_catalog.pdf

c.f. page 26

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

although they can have interference problems
with some chains and crank spiders.

Nothing a file can't cure, in my experience.

I've noted two different problems with 41 rings in 144mm.
If the chain contacts the spider, that can be fixed by filing
the spider.

The other issue was that older chains (like the Wippermans
that were popular back in the day) had large side plates that
don't stay clear of the ledge under the teeth on a 41 tooth
TA ring I have. I found it better to use a modern chain with
small side plates.

I've only used Sedisport chains for many years now; those don't seem to
have the problem you describe.

--

John ([email hidden])

John Thompson said:

Super Record rings (without the inner web) were only available down to
42T, but Record rings were available at 41T:

http://www.os2.dhs.org/~john/41t.jpg

The 1982 Campy catalog lists them as such (3.4MB download):

http://www.campyonly.com/history/catalogs/1982_olympic_catalog.pdf

c.f. page 26

Thanks for that reference.

Catalogs 17 and 18 (available on the campyonly.com site) only
mention 42 and up. Do you know whether the 41s were available
all along, or whether they were introduced around the time of
the catalog you cited (1982)?

Tom Ace

Bob said:

John Thompson said:

Zeus uses 120mm BCD, which is unique.

Are you sure Zeus never used 144 ?

Not to my knowledge. They made two types of arms for most of their
production life: one was a 5-pin arm rather like the TA-Cyclotouriste
but just slightly different enough that the rings wouldn't interchange,
and the other was the 120mm BCD used on the Criterium and 2000 groups.

--

John ([email hidden])

Tom Ace said:

John Thompson said:

Super Record rings (without the inner web) were only available down to
42T, but Record rings were available at 41T:

http://www.os2.dhs.org/~john/41t.jpg

The 1982 Campy catalog lists them as such (3.4MB download):

http://www.campyonly.com/history/catalogs/1982_olympic_catalog.pdf

c.f. page 26

Quoted message said:

Thanks for that reference.

Catalogs 17 and 18 (available on the campyonly.com site) only
mention 42 and up. Do you know whether the 41s were available
all along, or whether they were introduced around the time of
the catalog you cited (1982)?

Good question. I'm not certain. I picked up my 41T ring around 1983, so
that's not much help I'm afraid...

--

John ([email hidden])