Originally Posted by
uprightbent
Thinking of buying another old Raleigh Grand Prix that looks like a time capsule. I would ride it on a pretty regular basis. I think it's a 74-75'? It has cottered cranks but the bike was barely ever ridden. A brief search here on Bikeforums has me worried about them slipping or worse yet removing them. Then there's the threading issues I've read about if I need to switch the bottom bracket, maintaining the width and chainline, etc? I'm not sure I want to get into crank upgrades along with wheel upgrades, adding a Brooks, etc. I don't want to invest $500 into a $150 bike.
The question is how much of a problem are cottered cranks that presumably are aligned properly and have little wear on them and are like new. I know they are heavy as heck but didn't they rule for years without slipping and injuring the world?
Cotterred crankset that were assembled right, such as on the old Raleigh sport and superbe 3-speeds, were not known to slip, at least by me and my childhood riding buddies. Such cranks could slip if they were disassembled and not re-assembled using the right tools to fit and set the pins. I saw a lot of this in college, when fellow students who did not know the risks took their bikes apart and couldn't always get them back together. I couldn't help them, because I didn't have the tools for cottered BB work.