daviddavieboy

I puchased a couple very cheap bikes for parts and one of them has this crank on it a Stronglight 99bis. I pulled the Campy 2000 vintage campy crank off of my 84' Moser to see what it looks like and I like the results. My only question is what will the performance difference be?
I like the campy crank for the smoothness and it does shift well. I do not notice any flex (except when the bolt loosened once) but I don't think the 'look' fits the bike. The Campy crank is a 52/42 and with the cassette having a 23 for the biggest cog, it makes climbing interesting. With the stronglight the gearing is 50/34 so immediately the climbing will be easier and I rarely go into the log cog on thecassette on the flats so that is also a plus.
My concern is coming from the durability or strength of this Stronglight crank. I do use the bicycle regularly on 'what I call fast group rides (20MPG avg) especially when I know some of the people who think only the new will do.
I don't generally like french bikes and parts but the crankset really caught my eye. I will be stripping the Mercier Formule 1 and 70's Peugeot and probably scraping the frames unless I find them a home.

steelbikeguy

The Stronglight 99 is a nice crank for anyone looking for some kinder gearing. The Campy crank with the 52/42 will better for the fast rides, and is aesthetically a better match for the rest of the parts.

No harm in riding what you have and see how it works for you. I've got a couple of bikes set up with compact gearing i.e. 50/34 rings, and find that I need to have at least a 26T cog in back in order to not have a gap between the gears obtained with the large and small rings. There's also the issue of how hard it is to shift between the two rings. It's going to be a slower shift with the older style chainrings and with the larger difference in the rings.

If you decide to get rid of the Stronglight 99, I think you should be able to find some folks here in C&V who would be interested in it.

Steve in Peoria
(just replaced a 52/42 with a 50/34 this year)

gugie 

I have one in a triple set up.


I could use some drillium on the middle and inner rings.

daviddavieboy

Thanks for your input. Right now I am using a very low geared 9 speed cassette on modern wheels so I will be grateful for the lower gearing. I did not mention but I have super record brakes(drilled levers) so the crank will be a good match aesthetically IMO anyway. I have a set of ambrosio tubular rims with a 6 speed freewheel that I will put on later. It sure look good cleaned up.


If anything it would look great on another bike hanging on the wall. I do have this orphan though.

63rickert

The crankarms are as good as anything Stronglight, which is very good indeed. Most chainrings are on the soft side. However production continued through to the era when Stronglight finally began making good hard rings. If you find them in original packaging the hard ones say 'Zicral' very prominently. Lasts just as long as Campy. The rings are also still remarkably available. Most eBay sellers have no idea which alloy they have and if they don't show the package you don't know either. But if they show a Zicral package it's worth more. Hilary Stone has a large selection at the moment (and usually will) and his price is not terrible. Rings go all the way down to 28 teeth. There are also some Gebhardt rings around from Czech Republic and those are good too.