Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 9,835
Likes: 1,816
From: Northern California
Bikes: Cheltenham-Pedersen racer, Boulder F/S Paris-Roubaix, Varsity racer, '52 Christophe, '62 Continental, '92 Merckx, '75 Limongi, '76 Presto, '72 Gitane SC, '71 Schwinn SS, etc.
I'm on board.
Last (CX) season, at one of our early practice sessions, I had my left TopLine crankarm loosen after many, many years of needing no attention.
I feather-pedaled the bike home, removed the bolt and put Loctite on the threads. Previously I had relied on metal Sugino dust caps torqued against a plastic shim between bolt head and dust cap, and as I said, this endured many years of racing with no attention given.
Fast-forward to the second race of the season at Clarksburg, and I felt my crankarm start clicking at the start of the last lap. I was running 6th or so and sprinting the front straight to grab a higher spot, so decided to power out the last lap with the bolt holding things together.
Turns out the Loctite product I used was very old and no good at all. I lost my left crankarm/pedal halfway through the last lap. I one-legged it to 16th position, then retrieved my lost arm.
The square bore was chewed at the big end, but most of each flat's mating surface seemed still to be intact. "Hard metal" I thought.
I went home and this time used fresh blue Loctite on the bolt's threads, after re-testing (failed) the old stuff at an accelerated-cure temperature in my laboratory setting (using cig lighter).
I had no more crank trouble at all in the 11 or so races since then, including several extra hours of intense interval training using the big ring up a very steep local hill.
That said, I weigh only 150 or so and use the standard-model 110mm TopLine crankarms, not the SuperLights. I bought these in a well-used condition in 1996 or so, and have done over 100 races on them, including several hours-long MTB races, plus thousands of training miles. The bottom bracket is a "Real" 113mm cartridge unit from the same era.
I am considering a more-modern crankset with shorter crankarms, for easier sprinting atop my bike's "hammock" saddle.
If these TopLine cranks could talk... ...every race I ever did on the Pedersen.