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alextdent

Hey all,

My bicycle has a Solida crankset on it but I cannot seem to find much more information on the thing than that. Anyone have any experience with them? The cotter pins were not standard 35mm French but instead 40mm with a 25mm pin and 15mm threads.

Any help finding info on these things would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Alex

Kinst VonSterga

This seller may know:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-SOLIDA-RoadBike-Cottered-Cranks-170mm-3Bolt-116BCD-52t-Chainring-Bicycle-/110789108819?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19cb8ba453

verktyg

Solida along with other makers like Nervar produced steel cottered cranksets by the millions for the early 70s bike boom.

Most of them were cheap entry level products. The quality was so bad that Gitane sent out bulk packed 3' x 3' x 2' cardboard bins with replacement cranks to larger bike shops for warranty repairs.

During assembly we frequently had to replace those steel cranks because the chainrings or carrier arms were so far out of round that they couldn't be adjusted to shift properly if at all.

The steel cranksets made during the 1960s were a little better quality.

French cotters were 9mm diameter x 40mm or 43mm overall length with a 7mm x 1mm pitch thread. They had a short, steep taper.

Most of the cotters were both cheap quality and soft! Rolling Eyes

They would mush or bend and come loose in use. Sometimes the steel in the crankarms was so soft that the cotter holes would deform!

Most likely the cotters in your cranks have been replaced with equally poor quality after market parts.

There were some quality cotters made of hardened steel. We used to get some from Zeus. They were reusable and didn't work loose.

See this web site for replacement cotters:
http://tinyurl.com/72qnk3v

Peugeot cotters were also 9mm diameter with 7mm x 1mm threads. They had long tapers that covered the whole length of the 9mm section.

Solida started making some economy "melt forged" cast aluminum cotterless cranks in the 1980s.

You can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear. Cottered cranks were a throwback to 1800s technology! Confused

Cheap cottered cranks were such a hassle to work on plus the steel chain on steel chainrings transmitted all of the vibrations into the rider.

By the mid 70s there were a lot of cheap "melt forged" cast aluminum cotterless cranks on the market. The cotterless mounting plus aluminum chainrings where much better than most cottered cranks.

alextdent

verktyg

For over 100 years, millions of bikes were built using cottered cranks. They are still being made that way in developing countries.

My message was intended as a warning so that someone wouldn't spend too much energy on a cheap bike boom crankset.

For general purpose use the cottered cranks on your bike should meet your needs.

A few suggestions for assembly, make sure that there are no burrs on the inside of the cotter holes in the crank arm. Same thing with the spindle.

Carefully align the flats on the spindle with the cotter holes before installing the cotters. Drill a 1/4" hole in a piece of 2x4 or similar wood block and place it under the bottom of the crank arm to support the spindle when hammering the cotter in (it's best to use a cotter press for the job but very few shops have these anymore).

Tap the cotter in so that the threads extend out of the bottom of the crank arm. Stop hammering if the pin starts to mush over. Tighten the nut snuggly but not too tight as some cotters can shear off.

Carry a 10mm wrench with you and re-tighten the nut after riding for a while. Do not try to over tighten the nut.

There were some very good quality cottered crankset that were still being manufactured as late as the early 1970s.

Stronglight and Zeus are 2 that come to mind.

Here's my 1965 Swiss built Tigra. This was a top of the line model but came with a premium quality Durax forged steel cottered crankset. The chainrings are Simplex aluminum alloy and it has a Campagnolo cottered bottom bracket. The cotters are hardened steel.

When I first started riding road bikes off road in 1976, I used Stronglight and Zeus forged steel cottered cranks.

So just because the cranks are cottered doesn't mean that they are inferior to alloy cotterless cranks.

A premium quality forged steel cottered crankset is going to be superior to a cheap "melt forged" cast aluminum cotterless crankset.

Christophe

No relation with the post - Chas , your Tigra is stunning ! You seem to have quite a collection of nice bikes. Is there a site where we could see all or at least a part of them ?

verktyg · Last edited by verktyg on Tue Dec 27, 2011 9:40 am; edited 1 time in total

Thanks,

Here's a link to my Flickr photos of some of my collection.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28267220@N05/sets/

Note, not all the bikes are mine and many pictured are not Gitanes.

I use the pictures for technical explanations and sometimes to show examples of model variations (Motobecane Le Champion and Team Champion pictures for example).

Joyeux Noël et bonne année

le Père Noël Chas.

Christophe

Thanks Santa Chas. But your reindeers have eaten the link ...

verktyg