DIMcyclist

Hey Everybody!

I was kinda vintage perusing 3-arm cranksets- T.A., Nervar, Stronglight... and thought to myself: so many of these would still be perfectly usable if you could only find new chainrings for them- esp. if they were compatible with newer chains. They can do a lot these days with custom C&C machining, so I looked around online & noticed there are a few outfits that do in fact make full-custom chainrings to any client's specs.

I was curious to know if any of you have ever done that? And if so, what it cost & how your experience went? Was it worth it? Would it be worth it to have 10 sets made?

repechage

Could be good.
TA rings are getting scarce
The shape could evoke a Rene Herse chainring look.
Spread between the rings can be adjusted by centering the teeth at the thickness vs offset to the inside as how the originals were

rhm

I have not. I have looked into it a few times and always came to the conclusion that it's not worth it.

The cranks you mention have a 116 mm bcd which was a standard for many years, so there are a lot of rings out there, though few in the smaller sizes.

There are several other three, arm cranks worth a look. Shimano made a pretty one with an odd size bcd. I'm partial to the SR Custom-3 which was made for only a short time but, by good luck, a modern manufacturer has adopted the same bolt pattern, so some new rings are available. Small ones

DIMcyclist

Thanks for the input, @rhm; actually, it was the Shimano GC-100 that first prompted my curiosity- beautiful (even kinda 'Bauhaus') design; really, really odd (almost unique) BCD- but made with what appear to be basic flat rings, which aren't that difficult to make via C&C.

Sugino's flat rings work Okay for touring, commuting, etc.; they don't really have to be super high-performance in those roles; so- I thought: usable rings for some of these old cranksets are getting expensive on the collector market; ergo, would it cost more in the long run, or less, to have a small batch of flat rings custom made, than to buy vintage chainrings- at (ever increasing) collector prices- that will only get used up & tossed out over the course of normal riding? I'm kinda looking at factoring in the relative costs over the next ten years or so; that's to say, how much will a set of NOS 116mm BCD chainrings cost ten years from now?

So- I dunno... It seems (to me) that paying $100 for a custom ring & paying $100 for an NOS vintage ring are about an equal proposition.

CliffordK

I tried to do a semi-custom order from a place called KING. They took the money, then no confirmations or communication. The phone number on their website was a dead-end. Anyway, I can't say what happened. PayPal issued a refund. At least talk to them on the phone and get some bidirectional communication if you choose to use that company.

Bespoke looks like they do some nice work, but the "custom" option isn't cheap.

DId you find some other place? Maybe China direct?

Another option might be a custom spider adapter, allowing cheaper rings to be used with your crankset.

DIMcyclist

No, @CliffordK, I haven't looked into this idea with any detail; haven't made any calls to any companies or checked any actual costs or price-points. I'm just floating it to see if anyone else has already tried it, and whether or not it turned out well. Or not.

Apparently, "not" is the more common result, sad to say.

jonwvara 

I had the same experience with King years ago. I also struck out with an outfit in Australia called Cycle Underground. I don't know if they still have a website or not. They said they would make a triplizer ring for me years ago, and maybe they even did--they did send me a picture of it. But I never actually got the ring itself, and after a few months I stopped trying to get them to send it. I assume they've either gotten organized or folded in the years since.
Edit: I just checked and CycleUnderground is apparently still in business. https://www.cycleunderground.com.au/faq/. Their site makes it sound like they'll make pretty much anything, and I can say that the price they quoted me was very reasonable. Someone else should give them a try--maybe they'll have better results than I did.

Big Block

I had one custom laser cut in stainless steel sympathetic to the Williams crown design c.1940s. I designed it in Illustrator and exported as a dxf file which they could use.
I used a program I found online to input the number of teeth required and the chain specs. All easy enough for a novice like me.
I manually filed the leading teeth edges and gave it a good polish.
It works well.

repechage

Just recalled, Cyclomondo who does repro graphics, also has had a number of chainrings made, trillium type like Masi and Colnago, obviously he had them done somewhere. An email may be worth it.

top506

I've been looking for a 116BCD ring in the 40-38t range for years; no luck.
I once suggested to a BF member who makes 122BCD tripleizers that he make one in 144BCD as well. He told me that they outsell the 122 by a considerable margin.That's the closest I've come to having a ring made to spec.

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