European square taper cranks with 130mm BCD?

wgwarburton

Hi,
I've found that the chainrings on my fixie(s) wear pretty quickly and would like to move to 1/8" alloy or even stainless steel rings, particularly on the winter hack.
Currently, I'm running Stronglight chainsets (86mm BCD) and can only source 3/32 alloy rings (unless I get them custom made, which is pricey).

The most common BCD for aftermarket rings in useful sizes seems to be 130mm, so I'm thinking of trying to find a cheap 130mm crankset (pref. from eBay or a recycler). can anyone help me identify which cranks are likely to work with my current BBs? I know there are potential compatibility issues between Japanese & European square tapers but not the details of what works & what doesn't, nor am I sure which chainsets have 130mm BCD (the TA Alize & Stronglight Pulsion do, but they are seriously expensive!!!).

Thanks in advance.

Cheers,
W.

biondino

Hang on, Buns - you're the go-to guy round here for exactly this sort of question! If you can't answer it, who on earth will?

(answer: nicklouse, probably)

nicklouse

Waves.

not really my thing but the old cranks, forget them even Sheldon lists the BCD as Obsolete.

130 is the current standard and what i would do is find a real LBS and they are more than likely to have some new old stock or some old cranks that have been replace with new.
have fun.

What size rings are you looking at? and what is the BB axle length?

wgwarburton

nicklouse wrote:

not really my thing but the old cranks, forget them even Sheldon lists the BCD as Obsolete.

Sure they're obsolete, but you can still find them quite easily for the moment. They are maybe cheaper because not many folk want them. I'm running them on all of my bikes just now and have a few spare chainrings of various sizes around, so I can gear my fixie down a little as the winter closes in, for example. OTOH, the supply is going to dry up at some point, and as I said initially, the 3/32 ones (especially the cheaper ones that arn't zicral) seem to wear fairly fast under fixed use.

130 is the current standard and what i would do is find a real LBS and they are more than likely to have some new old stock or some old cranks that have been replace with new.

Yup- there's a bike recycler in Edinburgh that would probably have what I need, but I'm not sure how to identify it. Maybe the best thing I could do is to grab an example 130mm ring and then root around to see what matches it! Most of the stuff I can see on eBay seems to be proprietry- octolink BBs etc.

What size rings are you looking at? and what is the BB axle length?

Probably about 48T. I'm hoping to avoid changing anything on the geared tourer (28/36/42) but would pick up spares when I can find them. I'm currently running 48x19 on the winter hack (WH) but might prefer 46x19, this is the bike that would really benefit, as it gets hammered during the winter months (in Scotland, BTW, so lots of rain, road salt etc). The "summer" fixie is awaiting a new rear wheel at the moment (hopefully with an S3X!) but it gets less, and kinder, use.
Surly do SS rings from 46T to 50T, I think, in 130mm, which would work for the WH. Alternatively I could look for a 110mm BCD chainset and go back to a 16T sprocket, with smaller (38-42T) ring. I'd prefer to stick to 19T, though, as I think that bigger sprockets wear more slowly and it is easier on rear tyres.

I'm not sure what BB lengths I have. The one in the WH was lying in my parts bin, and I just dished & spaced the wheel to suit... I think it's a "standard" size, probably 118mm, but I'd need to measure.
Thanks for the input!

Cheers,
W.