I think the 15.5 mm thing must be real, since it's also on Sheldon Brown's pages. I just didn't have any of those to measure, among the 12 spindles in my pile.

But I asked on CR and got some pretty authoritative confirmation that Stronglight at least (maybe not all French) was 16 mm. I mean they made both sizes, 5/8" and 16 mm. And the "A" stamping on the spindle does mean English (5/8"). Magistroni also was 16 mm, but maybe not all Italian cranks.

I checked in Sutherland's 3rd edition (1980), it says French and Italian are 16 mm, no mention of 15.5 mm. Still that's just one source. I think we need more data to say anything definitive, but I can't believe that Mark Stonich or Sheldon Brown would get this wrong. There must be a 15.5 mm standard also.

- Mark B