non-fixie 

The inscription "Rosa" and the riveted inner ring certainly suggest that. Paging @ReidH ...

non-fixie 

Schauff tandem, I pictured (you can tell by the quality) in 2016 in Ghent.

non-fixie 

Spotted at a jumble sale in Belgium:

southpawboston

I love TA so much that they were the inspiration for my logo:



With the nearly limitless chainring combinations for 50.4 BCD cranks, I just keep a stash of rings in my collection and can usually come up with any combination I need for a given build. Also, they have a low Q-factor, which seems to work well with my physique.

steelbikeguy

at what point did the light bulb turn on and the idea for the logo develop? I have to admit, I do think it is clever.

I think I was primarily a fan of their water bottle cages, especially the handlebar cage. I've still got them on 3 bikes!



I purchased stuff from the Cyclo-Pedia catalog way back when, and the pages showing the T.A. cranks always looked so great! I loved the idea that you could build just about anything out of the Cyclo-Touriste crank, albeit with a ton of little nuts and bolts. Still, that emotional attachment was created, and I stole borrowed their mascot Fifi as my avatar. I'm still waiting to hear the story of Fifi and how this little kid became the company mascot.

A couple of years ago, I did finally buy the SunXCD clone of the Cyclo-Tourist, and it's made a fine compact crankset. At least it has real T.A. chainrings.



Steve in Peoria

southpawboston

Steve, the "lightbulb moment" happened a number of years back when I was helping Peter Weigle with the wiring of some of his bikes. He had been using his own milled battery-powered seat tube taillights on his builds and didn't have to run wiring other than at the fork for the headlight. But more of his customers were requesting full dynamo lighting so he was sending the frames to me to wire up. At one point, he suggested I make a logo to slap on the bikes that I wire up. I hadn't given any thought to the idea of "branding" what I do until then. At some point after that, I was looking at a TA logo and saw my initials in it... et voila! But when I started a website I couldn't use it because no one (including myself) knew how to pronounce the made up word "Electricalites". (Is it "Electrical-lights"? or "ElectriCAL-iTAYS"). And what the hell does it even mean? So I gave up and came up with Velo Lumino which no one has trouble spelling or pronouncing. Also, our own mkeller234 did the graphic design for both Electricalites AT and Velo Lumino!

uncleivan

i picked these up on a bike a few weeks ago. Havent polished them, and probably won't. They are in great shape. Rings are 52, 42, 30.

Sir_Name 

I have two bikes that make use of this BCD. Great looks IMO, and of course great versatility. Not much more to add to the thread besides more pics.

49d arms with modern TA 50/28 rings:



49d arms with SunXCD ramped and pinned 46/30 rings:



@Stevensb here’s a full shot of the Woodrup:

non-fixie 

Looking back through this thread I found this loose end which deserves a response. These tandems were designed by Jan Groot and/or his son Frank. The higher end "Strada" model was built to measure by themselves, and this more budget-friendly "Populair" version was farmed out to a Belgian outfit and came in standard sizes. However, you could order the Populair in any combination of sizes as well, as long as you were prepared to accept a longer lead time. Which was apparently just what the previous owner of our tandem did.

Both versions were based on the same design, and in the picture of the Strada below you can see how the brake set-up was designed. Our tandem also features the braze-ons for that third brake, but it wasn't installed when I bought it, and I never bothered to add it, as out country is as flat as a pancake.

CriticalThought

I've been enjoying this thread and though I don't have much. to contribute, I thought I'd share this mess that ended up in my hands. I think it's a Raleigh Grand Prix and although it's a disaster there are all kinds of quirks to it.

Someone has set it up with as a triple with A. Duprat cranks. Unfortunately they don't seem to be anything special (and they are in awful shape), but I found them curious nonetheless. I'd be interested to hear any thoughts any of you have to share that may educate me a bit more about Duprat cranks or this curious setup. The inner ring has to have less than a mm of clearance between it and the stay. Anyone think these are worth cleaning up and installing on a better frame, or at least one without a bent fork?

Cheers.

steve sumner

a great thread with some lovely pics but.......seeing as how the TA crank is the only one to include
pedal washers lends creedence to the long held theory that the arms are soft and flexible. also the
Nervar arms remind me of the Nervar Star which was used on mid-line at best so not the top-line that
I've become so used to. I'm much more enamored of the TA Tevano. I"ll get my low gears with a large
rear cog. Long arm Jubile mechs work just fine.

Hproduguidon

solida

JaccoW

This setup still needs some finetuning but at least I can upshift to the 48T from the 28T chainring.
Doesn't seem to play nice with the 11-speed chain (48/28T x 11-32 11-speed) but that might just be the spacers between the two chainrings. My bet is that I can get them closer with some stainless steel rings or thinner spacers.

Just like @southpawboston said these can be too narrow for some setups. No issues on my 9-speed triple setup but this 11-speed double is rubbing. Are some of the modern (VO, SunXCD) cranks wider than the classic cranks? It seems like the end of the cranks is rubbing against the chain in the Big/Small combo.
I will shoot some pictures tomorrow of the chain in between the two chainrings.

juvela

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one o' me favourite five-pin chainwheel patterns are the ones with the "pickles" cutouts

suspect they were produced by more than one manufacturer

does anyone have any hard information on them?

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here is a Magistroni set exhibiting the "pickles" from the famous Bozzi catalogo di MCML:




[image courtesy of condorino.com]

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obrentharris 

My 1957 Carlton came to me with these 2nd generation cranks from TA. There was a first generation, very similar but with deeper flutes on the arms. According to VeloBase the 1st generation was introduced in 1962. I'm trying to determine when these 2nd generation cranks were issued.
Do any of you have access to TA catalogs or other catalogs showing TA cranks from 1963 or 1964 that would help establish the date?






Brent

juvela

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CriticalThought & obrentharris -

for information on the history of frankish chainsets and their makers this thread over at the veloretrocourse forum is simply wonderful

advisory: visitation could create what is known in the UFO community as "missing time" - whole days could go by as one takes in these chainsets...

https://veloretrocourse.proboards.co...95/les-strongs

CriticalThought -

lots of A. Duprat material right on the first page


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non-fixie 

Got me another set of Stronglight 49D's, this time the older "Depose" version:

juvela

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chainwheel set cannot be earlier than MCMLXXIII with those allen key fasteners...


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Roger M 

Crank arm length question:

Which 50.4 arms are/were available in a 175-180mm length. I've seen a pair of the Sugino Maxy in a 175mm. However, in my ebay searchs all of the available lengths seem to be 167.5-172.5.

I like the SunXCD unit, but it maxes out at 172.5.

clubman 

I've got a 180 mm steel cottered 5 pin but no matching NDS. I think it's Nicklin.

hazetguy 

Nervar double on a 1976 Schwinn Superior. There is a ramp plate between the chainrings.

oneclick 

I may have posted this in another thread, but it fits here too...

juvela

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'76 was first year for this edition of the NERVAR Star series

it received a cosmetic revision between '75 & '76

all parts interchange between the "Mk.I" & the "Mk.II"

'76 also first year for relaunch of Schwinn Superior model


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obrentharris 

TA made both. I have owned a pair of TA 180s and currently have a pair of TA 175s mounted on my “gravel” bike.
Brent

obrentharris 

Many thanks once again Juvela. I hope google translate will render it accessible to my French feeble faculties.
Brent