Retro Bob said:In days of old, there were a fair number of 3 arm cranksets around.
I've made a WAG that the change to 5 arm cranks was due to flex
in the 3 arm when pushing hard. I know I can even distort a 5 if I
push out a little rather than straight ahead on the cranks when
pumping hard.Have I called this right ? Were the 3 arm cranks really poor in this
respect ? Should you (me) avoid them when building a "vintage"
machine ?
Splitting hairs. We humans don't usually flex any cranks
enough to notice.
There's no functional difference, the standard 3-pin format
went to 36t and there were plenty of vendors at one time.
Over the years, though, five at 144, 135, 130 and 110mm
became the more popular dimensions.
(The 6-pin format of TA, Sugino Dynamic and Cyclo also
drifted away)
If you own a nice 3-pin crank, as I do, ride it. If you're
buying a new crank, get one of the mentioned five-pin
cranks (but not a 144 unless it's a single ring).
Personally I'd ride a nice mid-seventies Campagnolo 3-pin
steel square taper chromed crank in a minute if I had one (
I do own rings for that already). It would look nice with
my Cinelli #1 steel chromed stem and a Svelto or a chromed
bronze Record changer. Oh, and a pair of shiny 1037 would
look sharp in them as well!
--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971