I just re-assembled my TA Specialtes cranks after tearing them down and having at them with the Simichrome. They're going onto my Dawes Super Galaxy that I"ve completely disassembled and am building back up. The Suntour Cyclone derailleurs are in fantastic shape. I'll be installing black cloth tape w/shellac and new gum hoods. I hope the bike fits as good when riding - it's about 59cm.

Sweet! Should be quite the looker.

Have you seen what those are selling for on the Velo Orange site? They're even more from Harris Cyclery.

I think Velo Orange has a higher grade than mine. I like the black inlay of mine better. My companies initials are TA so I guess I now have the company bike :0

It's ironic I paid $20 for the bike w/o seatpost/saddle. New CLB and other braided silver cabling from Velo orange, a special 23mm crank puller [aluminum trash that self-destructed], cloth tape, shellac, and other items will run the total up to about $100. I'm looking forward to the 1st generation Cyclone since I've always liked Suntour dérailleurs.

I have several pedal choices. Shimano double sided black SPDs, The MKS like pedals it came with. Shimano 600 track pedals w/straps - triangle shape very similar to the Dura-Ace on my Paramount [$400 NOS - not that I bought them]. Silver color Look style. Another MKS like that are trapazoidal shape - the front is narrower than the rear w/straps.

- current pedals are similar to these

The Velow Orange Cyclotouristes are the same as yours, but they're new. There's only one grade. By black inlay do you mean the sticker on the arms? They cost $4 last time I bought some.

I bought a new 52 ring for my Cyclotouriste and then I rememberd that sold the arms at the bike swap!

Haha, oops.

Wow! They look almost the same as these! except yours are slightly different and all shiney and prettyfied! notice the colors inside the rings?

Two great tastes that taste great together ... sounds like it's going to be a nice bike!

ILB, I believe yours is a Japanese copy made during the beginning of the MTB boom (These TA's were the choice for the Repackers).

-Kurt

With almost the same "TA" stamp? except mine doesnt have the "52" over the "T" and the "made in France" on top, just small on the bottom? also, his stamp is on the 5th leg (clockwise) and mine is on the first leg (clockwise)

The early 1980s Shimano Deore "Touring" group could use the TA chainrings, too. However, their crank arms were different, with no indentation {see scan below} ... a few years later Shimano adopted the Sugino 74/110 mm bolt circle and dropped that style.

BUT... I do believe that someone else in Japan (like "SR" maybe?) did also make some dead ringers for the TA crank arms. Might want to check if the cranks will take a standard 22 mm dust cover. - Boy, wouldn't that be convenient.

I love half-step-plus-granny gearing, and TA did a a good job of supporting this gearing system.

Stronglight also made arms that would take the T.A. rings.

I doubt if any but the T.A. had the recess for placement of the T.A. sticker. Velo Orange has the stickers if you need them, by the way.

The nice thing about the Cyclotouriste crank is that T.A. still makes the rings.

Any Cyclotouriste double can be turned into a triple with the addition of a ring, longer bolts and spacers.

Here's a pic of the Deore touring crank (a $17 Craig's List find), the right side of which I currently have on my Kogswell.

Neal

Yeah, Im 100% pos that my cranks are TAs Thanks to the OP and all others for the info!

Sugino made the PX crankset which used TA inner bolt attachment and TA BCD for the rings. I have a few of the "TA" Sugino rings; they are nearly identical to TA rings.

Ok, my 100% is slowly fading can anyone at all tell me for sure that any company that copies the orig "TA" crank arms have the indentations? and the do the "TA" Sugino rings have the "TA" stamp? Please help!!!!

Yup, my sons once found an abandoned old school mountain bike with Sugino's TA clone crankset and coincidentally the same 1.5-step-plus-granny 48-40-28 tooth progression I use on my own mountain bike.

Have any of you TA or Sugino crankset owners experienced any problems with the small inner bolt circle which attaches the spider to the crank? These bolts are subject to very high levels of shear, and I read somewhere that they are failure-prone, but I have no firsthand experience with this.

Lambert/Viscount did, so you might have a Lambert/Viscount spider with TA rings. On the ones I've seen the finish is a bit rougher, and the threads for the crank remover are fairly shallow (which leads to stripping them fairly easily).

Neal

ILB, take a standard dustcap and see if it fits snugly into that crankarm. If it does, you have a copy, if it doesn't, you have a TA.

-Kurt

John, one of my earliest bikes was a Track bike set up with a single TA chainring on a Stronglight 49-D crank arm (the predecessor to the TA). My buddy was the original owner of the bike, purchased new around 1965, and then retired to his basement when he had stopped racing. One reason he had not built the bike back up after stripping the frame for a re-paint was he had mangled the chainring bolt holes on the crank arm. When I bought the bike from him around 1970 I replaced the drive side crank arm.

BUT... the main reason the crank was damaged was that the chainring nuts and bolts had loosened and a couple had eventually fallen out and were lost. Not having correct replacements handy (and I suspect that being young and careless) he had attempted to use 5 simple machine screws and hex-nuts as replacements. These were ill fitting and left a lot of slack in the holes of the arm which then soon "ovalized'. After I had replaced the arm I used the bike with the same set-up for thousands of miles, on the road, and without brakes, which uses more torque than a touring set-up with a derailleur. I never had any problem with damage to the crank. I now have TA or Stronglight versions of this crank arm style in use on 9 different bikes. I love them. I'd feel comfortable bicycle touring around the world using them.

The TA chainring bolt kits do come with "wave washers" which are rather uncommon in the US. These are very thin... well... "wavey" (rather than split) lock washers. So, you really do want to be sure to use these to prevent the cheap looking zinc plated nuts and bolts from loosening. The nuts are a bit longer than the thickness of the crank base and these fit a short distance into the chainring making a snug fit. A simple yet effective joint.

This is one of the oldest bolt circle patterns in all of cycling and Stronglight and later TA had simply adopted this early standard on their alloy cranks. This pattern had been used for many dacades previously on steel cranks from many different manufacturers and there were never issues with sheared off bolts even under the most demanding conditions. Jacques Anquetil had even used a 49D alloy crankset with this bolt pattern as late as 1957... when winning his first Tour de France.

On the Stronglight 49D the "nut" enters the crankarm from the front of the chainring. The TA cranks have a smooth bore all the way through and their nuts enter from behind to rest part way through the chainring bolt holes. ... I see no advantage to one over the other.

OK, I took one of my Sugino caps and tried to pop it onto my crank, it didnt fit, fell right through without touching the threads so Im guessing that makes it a true "TA"!