Desperately seeking dust caps for vintage Spidel (stronglight) cranks! Any ideas?
 

I just picked up a Raleigh Competition with non-original Spidel drillium cranks (made by Stronglight). The crankset is lovely, but it's missing dust caps.

I don't have a caliper. when I measured the opening it comes out to roughly 23 mm, but I don't know how that translates to inside diameter or threading. Any thoughts? Leads? I looked on the auction site but it seems thee are at least three different flavors of vintage Stronglight dust caps at different sizes.

In my experience there are only two possibilities, 22.0 and 23.35 mm. Someone here has said he's seen Stronglight canks that took a 23 mm extractor, but I've never seen that myself and I've worked on probably 200 bikes with Stronglight cranks in my bikeshop days.

Older ones were 23.35 mm, later they switched to 22.0 for compatibility with the rest of the world. When? Early '80s I think, someone here will know.

So, try a generic dustcap (Campy, Sugino, whatever) and if it works, ride and be happy, or keep looking for the same with Stronglight branding, which is probably rare.

If the 22 mm cap practically falls in, then you need 23.35. I have a pair of late-vintage Stronglight 23.35 in plastic that I'd sell for $10 including US shipping, PM me if you want 'em. The older metal ones are nicer IMHO but the plastic is lightweight I guess! Pics on request.

Another option is ride without any caps. Pretty much all the pros and wannabees left the caps off, so you really don't need them. But they don't hurt, as long as they don't get stuck in the crank... which does happen sometimes.

EDIT:
Oh wait, did you need them to say Spidel on them? Then you might be looking a long time. I've never seen them, that I can recall.

Mark B

Lol, I don’t need them to say Spidel. Can’t imagine that would be an easy task! Thanks for the info and the offer! I’ll grab a pair of cheap 22s and try them, if they’re too small I’ll definitely take the 23.35 set off your hands! Really it’s just for the aesthetics of it, I know they don’t serve much functional purpose

AFAIK, Spidel branded Stronglight cranksets never had caps that said "Spidel". They just used crankset caps from Stronglight with a big "S" on them.

If your cranks are old enough to use the original Stronglight 23.35mm x 1mm extractor thread, you may have a long wait finding the caps and expect to pay dearly for them. I'd just run them as is, or get some allen-head crank bolts with the built-in cap.

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/lGUAA...qnk/s-l640.jpg

These are what you are looking for
 

Yeah those are the ones I offered for half as much as this ebayer is asking with shipping.

I would never use plastic dustcaps myself because I'm a snob and I associate them with a cheapening or downgrade from the earlier metal ones. But that's irrational I know, since the plastic ones are just as good in any objective sense, but lighter — for you weight-weenies who still want to use caps. And possibly less likely to get stuck in the crank? I can't think of any real downside other than my snobbishness.

Mark B

Just to close the loop, in case future generations (!) are reading this: Roypercy dtermined his sockets are 23.35, and I sent him the plastic caps I had on hand. Happy ending?

Mark B

My favorite dust caps are the metal ones with the Allen head hole.If plastic caps have this this hole and get stuck you will ruin them when you put torque on the wernch to remove them . When plastic caps with the slot get stuck, if you try to use a screw driver to remove them they will usually break and you will have a dell of a time removing the pieces. My method for removing these caps is to first squirt some wd 40 into the hole to lubricate the threads then using one of the flat sheet metal cone wrenches as a screw driver, gently work them loose and then unscrew them. The edge of the wrench fits into the slot and fills it completely.

Whenever I find them in the parts drawer at the shop I take the combo bolt and cover shown above and use them. They look custom and solve the dust cap problem plus there is one less step to go through when removing a crank.

I didn't realize you could purchase them seperately. I will have to get the shop to order some.