Originally Posted by
John E
I have a Stronglight cotterless puller, which I bought after buying the PKN-10. Why did they have to use an oddball size?
Originally Posted by
JohnDThompson
Stronglight invented the square taper cotterless crank, so there was no existing standard for them to use. Why they chose that particular size is a mystery. Perhaps they got a deal on 16mm bolts and calculated that 23.35mm was an appropriate diameter for the extractor, to fit available 16mm sockets.
Another mystery is why Zeus chose to follow Stronglight in using 16mm mounting bolts, but put them in a 22mm extractor hole, requiring a particularly thin-wall socket to remove the bolts.
Oh, it's more oddball than that. There is no guarantee that your Stronglight crank (at least the 93) will actually have the Stronglight 23.35mm standard threading. They sometimes used the TA standard 23mm threading. I was clued into that by somebody here on BF, and it saved me from destroying the threads on my brother-in-laws Stronglight 93 when I was overhauling his early 70s Gitane TdF. I have no idea how common this issues is, but I can tell you personal experience it is real.