The long awaited Stronglight Impact cranks have arrived. They now come with auto-extractor crank bolts and the finish is really nice. The chainrings are black; that's all they had. Of course the chainrings are 10-speed compatible with the latest shifting features. So you can use them with the newest Campy or Shimano drivetrains, with your old 5-speed freewheel, or with anything in between.
We have the proper bottom brackets as well.
And for those of you who have the old classic Stronglight cranks, we now have a 23.35mm JA Stein crank puller. The Impact cranks have modern 22mm threads and those extractor bolts. So you don't need any puller for them.
Looks a **lot** like a Sugino but with a nicer finish. The Sugino is a great crank but I've always found the finish to be a definitely step below what you see on Campy/Shimano. Chainrings also look nicer than the stock Sugino rings, even if they are black.
ReplyDeleteC,
ReplyDeleteThe arms are made by Sugino. The chainrings are second only to TA rings in quality. The rings alone are almost worth the price of the cranks.
BTW, if you look at the Sugino web site, you'll see that they have a couple of very nice cranks that are hard to find in the US. We might import the Alpina crank for next spring.
Yeah, the Alpina/Cospea is one I've long been after. Splined, silver, and compact - pretty much a perfect crank. Only downside is it's pretty expensive - not TA expensive but still pricey compared to an almost as nice Interloc or FSA Gossamer.
ReplyDeleteAndrew, I've never seen 23mm auto extractors.
ReplyDeleteI have noticed that very few if any serious cyclists I know use auto-extractors. Rather, they just get some regular hex head crank bolts, dust caps and a regular crank removal tool. I've always followed suit. Is there some kind of advantage or disadvantage to autoextractors?
ReplyDeleteAuto-extractors cost about $20, almost as much as a crank tool. And they can be hard to find. Plus, the hard-core racer boys probably don't like that extra 20 grams on their cranks. But when you have them you never need to carry an extra tool, which weighs a whole lot more than 20 grams. I like auto-extractors and I'm surprised that Stronglight includes them at this price.
ReplyDeleteAuto extractors are nice though I'm not sure how practical they are. I can't recall a time in 20+ years of riding where I've needed to remove a crank arm at the side of the road. One of my bikes has them, the other doesn't. Dust caps I just don't get. They're deadweight serving no purpose. I guess the people who use them are probably the same people who put caps on their valve stems.
ReplyDeletec,
ReplyDeleteGotta have them dustcaps. They function as a locknut. You can literally have a crank bolt fall off ... not that that's too dramatic since the crank is usually way honked on there. But it's preferable not to do that. Dust caps weigh, what, a couple of grams? Whaddaya, some doper from Phonak trying to wrest some unfair advantage? ;-)
Rene Herse did not supply dustcaps with his cranks. Cranks that went on the finest bikes built. That's good enough for me. I'm going to take mine off right now ;<)
ReplyDeleteIf you need dustcaps as a safeguard against cranks coming off you need to learn how to properly wield a wrench! ;)
ReplyDeleteDunno, c. We once had a guy's uncapped crank bolt go missing on a training ride. (I think I vaguely remember it being one of those flange bolts that did not use a separate washer; that may be the reason.) Obviously the crank arms themselves stayed on since on most bikes they're mashed down like you read about. But then one of our more techie friends on the ride pointed out, a set of dust caps would have licked that.
ReplyDelete(Many of the Herse crank bolts had threads on opposite sides in opposite directions. That never made much sense to me, but heck, love is a many-splendored thing.)
Long and short, I say there's a small amount of upside and no downside to using dust caps. To wit, I conjecture that
NPV(dustcap) > 0.
Chris
ReplyDeleteI am partial to the Alpina/Cospea, but only the ones for the square axle bb/s, not the Octalink ones. Any chance you will be getting those?
Mark
I don't think the Alpina will be be made in square taper in the future. We hope to put in an order with Sugino soon, but I hear that there are some changes coming in their cranks and I'd like to see what they come up with.
ReplyDeleteTake a look at: http://www.suginoltd.co.jp/
david,
ReplyDeleteSeeing as no one else has bitten, what is the formula NVP(dustcap)>O ?
Ha, Neil, i was just saying the Net Present Value of a dustcap [to wit, NPV(dustcap)] is probably positive. There's no downside and arguably some possible benefit.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteI have a TA Zephyr. The TA chainrings on the Zephyr are second to none. TA quality is amazing. How can you not love the French who put out a product for bikes of such stunning quality?
ReplyDelete