converting to cotterless cranks?
 

I have a few questions regarding cottered/cotterless cranks.

-what is/are the advantage(s) of cotterless over cottered?
-how easy is it to switch over, if you have cottered cranks?
-how much would it cost, and is it worth it?

My 2 cents:

If your bike has a cottered crank, it is:

a) too cheap to be worth putting much money into

or

b) a beautiful old vintage bike that should be forever kept as original as humanly possible.

I had a Gitane touring bike with cottered cranks back in the day. It was a pretty nice bike, I ended up with a cheap Japanese cotterless crank on there. It's a big advantage from a maintenance perspective. It really depends on how much the bike has been ridden, and how cheap you can get the new crank for. A cottered crank that has been ridden to failure of the cotter pin is effectively junk. It can be put back together and run for a few months or longer, but it's really hard to fix them properly to stay fixed once a cotter pin goes.

-what is/are the advantage(s) of cotterless over cottered?

Lighter weight and ease of maintenance. R&R of cotter pins to service the bearings is a PITA. And while not technically a benefit of going cotterless, you'll probably also gain the ability to swap chain rings a lot easier as it can be hard to get chainrings for those old cottered cranks.

-how easy is it to switch over, if you have cottered cranks?

It depends. If it's a British or Italian thread bottom bracket it's simple - just replace the bottom bracket and crankset. If it's one of those UO8s in your sig it'll be a little harder as the BB cups are French thread. It can still be done. I did it and it worked great on my UO8.

-how much would it cost, and is it worth it?

Again it depends. I'd need more information on what kind of bike and what you want to achieve by doing it. For me it cost about $20 for a new BB spindle and a 2mm shim plus a couple of hours of my time. I already had a crankset in the spare parts box.

I've also done this to an AO-8 (twice to the same bike - once in 1975 and again in 2005!) - you can reuse the original cups if you can't find a set to go with your cranks.

For the UO-8 advantages are looks, weight, and availability of replacement chainrings (to alter gearing), depending on what crank you go with.

Mark

Cool, thanks guys. It is indeed for the UO-8 in my sig. If I were to do this, what would you guys recommend for cranks? I want something decent, but I'm a starving university student, so something cheap would be nice. Suggestions?

Well, personally I like to keep the UO8 with the vintage French theme so I would choose a vintage French crank like a Stronglight, TA, or Nervar. I bought my Nervar for about $38 IIRC. I put the Nervar on another bike and used the Stronglight I took off for the UO8 so that plus the $18 Stronglight spindle would be $56. Not too bad. Of course going this route does present the problem that the chainrings will likely be non-standard (Ok, not modern standard before all you Francophiles out there write in to tell me the French created the standards in 1892 or something) so you wouldn't be able to just pop into the nearest LBS for a replacement but they come up on eBay frequently enough. A little more work and effort but waaay cooler than going the Japanese route IMHO. Here's how it came out:

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z...r89/tn_016.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z...r89/tn_015.jpg

Kommissar, that is one sharp-lookin' UO-8, and those cranks suit it perfectly.

I bought Capo #1 after someone had converted it to Nervar Star aluminium cranks, but I am keeping Capo #2's original Agratis, with the somewhat unique integrated spider and right crank. I did find a nice 49-46 aluminum Simplex ringset (not pictured) to replace the original Agrati 52-48 steelies.

Thanks John. As a sufferer of OCPD, I have to make sure my bikes look good. Hmmm...maybe we could put together an OCPD cure tour. Probably wouldn't do any good but man the bikes would look sharp! :lol:

BTW, since that picture was taken I've put 27 x 1 3/8 cross tires on it and I've been taking it offroad on 30-40 miles rides along the MUP here. It handles nicely on dirt and loose gravel and even the occasional bit of single track.

You can convert a Peugeot pretty cheaply as a number 5 square tapered axle can be used to replace the cottered axle... just as long as your bb cups are in good condition.

My '62 Peugeot got an SR / Peugeot branded crank after the cotted axles and Nervar cranks were removed.

http://www.ravingbikefiend.com/bikep...tenewbars1.jpg

http://www.ravingbikefiend.com/bikep...enewcrank3.jpg

My Phillips Twenty was more work as it had an English threaded bb (26tpi) that needed to be re-tapped to 24 tpi before I could install a cartridge bb and a Stronglight model 90 crank.

http://www.ravingbikefiend.com/bikep...ronglight2.jpg

Great minds think alike. I very happily ran 27 x 1-3/8" knobbies on my UO-8 for several years, and when my Vittoria 27 x 1-1/4" street tires wear out, I hope to find another set of the knobbies. Where did you get yours?

A guy at work had a lightly used set sitting in his garage that he was just going to throw out so I took them and found them a good home :)

I have seen them out there for sale new though. Check these out: http://www.bikepartsusa.com/bikepart...y=tire-27_inch