Force 

Greetings all - I am looking to see if anyone has a Stronglight crank puller I can borrow. Will pay for shipping both ways and some extra to sweeten the deal. I am near Atlanta. I found a bike with a Stronglight 93 crank that I need to remove. As I am looking to thin the herd, I would prefer not to purchase a puller at this point. Thanks in advance for your consideration.

Bianchigirll 

I wish you had posted this yesterday! I have the old double sided Park tool that is supposed to fit those. Let me know if no one else pipes up.

icepick_trotsky 

I'm pretty sure the old Park puller has a standard 22mm side and a TA size 23mm size, but that won't work for Stronglight, which is 23.35mm or something.

Katiesmalls

That park tool CCP-1 definitely will not work. Unfortunately I found out the expensive way. The Stronglite puller is a rare tool that has had very little use except for that one Stronglite 93 odd specific crank, mostly found on Peugeot PX10's and some LeJunes, and Gitanes.. I tried in vane to find one recently, hit up every bike shop in the neighboring 50 miles. One old time mechanic thought he may have one in the bottom of his tool bin, but it never materialized. To the OP, Force, I do have a pair of the crank fixing bolts on that 93, if you end up getting the crank off and tearing up the bolts. Let me know.

long john

I have a few pullers for ta and maybe the strong light to I'll look to nite.

lostarchitect 

You can borrow mine if you'd like, just PM me where to send it.

long john

Pick a number. I think it's one. Lol

Katiesmalls

one it is

long john

Now you have to choices pick one lol. If it's me pm also with info.

eschlwc

i've come across two, and i've only rebuilt16 bikes. thirteen percent seems like a lot. or is that just bad luck? nah, they're really pretty and easy to polish.


'73 pr10


'80 trek 414

Katiesmalls

I recently got so disgusted with trying to remove that Stronlight crank ( finding a puller ) I sold the PX10 frame and crank attached on the BAY, because I just couldn't be bothered anymore, ( very short attention span ) for about $100. The french have always been sort of odd sizes, threads, seat posts stems etc etc. That said I still love those old classic Peugeots and their kin. When I was a kid and worked in Franks Bike Shop NYC Still there 40 plus yrs later. 553 Grand st NYC, the Peugeots use to come boxed but inside heat shrink plastic wrapped. And I mean wrapped. For every 10 I built, I would guess removing them from their entombment, I slashed the tires of at least 1/4 of them with the box cutter unwrapping them. I guess it was the revenge of the free giving of the Statue of Liberty. Anyway, The real problem with these old bikes, and motorcycles, and cars, is the expense finding the original parts for a reasonable fee. As long as they weren't hit, or chained to a radiator in a storage facility for years with extreme heat, and bicycling is your only hobby, not to bad on expenses, but if you split up your time ( money ) between boating, motorcycling, cars, pets, antiques, family, and other hobbys, it adds up real quick, and not a question of how much you can make off it, but how much you can afford to lose. Reality really kicks in when, doing so with your eyes squinting and you're trying not to look, although you are the only one there, you add up all the real small expenses you put into building this old bike. We all could have probably bought our own Grail bike off EBAY, and not have to have done a single refurbishment. ( and that is said with love and personal trial/error, and unfortunately personal experience ) ) To everyone who contributed here, thank you

John E

I have one, as well, but perhaps you want to borrow from a source closer to the southeastern US. I also have a TA.

LeicaLad 

bad rice. bad rice.

Just send all those nasty old Stronglight models 93, 63, 57 cranks to me. I think they're wonderful.

JohnDThompson 

No, the old Park double-ended tool is 22mm/23mm and can not reliably remove a 23.35mm Stronglight crank without very real risk of stripping the extractor threads.


Source: Sutherland's 4th Edition

Ed.

I have at least one of the desired pullers.

Force 

Wow - thanks to everyone for the responses! I wasn't expecting them so quickly! Thanks to everyone who offered - looks like I am covered now. Looking forward to getting the crank off an early 70s Peugeot PX-10!

rhm

It's funny that people complain about Stronglight pullers being an odd size, when they were making them decades before either TA or Campy. It's kinda like complaining that Thomas Edison's light bulbs don't fit a standard socket.

eschlwc

yeah, these c&v folks are pretty wonderful.

jonwvara 

I think the Model 93 is the best-looking crank of all time--there's something about that blocky look that I really like. It's like the designers were channelling the chunk-style designs of the 1980s fifteen years ahead of time.

Plus, of course, there's that wonderfully cut-out crank spider with all the open space. True, it's not as beautifully finished as the Campagnolo cranks of the same era, which had that silky anodizing, but the Stronglight cranks had the advantage of being pretty much indestructible. The Campy cranks had a distressing habit of cracking where the crankarm merged with the spider. Great Italian design, flawed execution. The only damaged 93s I've ever seen got that way because someone without the right tool took hammer or a gear puller to them.

I knew a mechanic once--a pretty good one--who swore that he'd taken off countless Stronglight cranks with the TA puller, and claimed never to have ruined one (He did concede that it wasn't "a class A fit." ) I think he was nuts, though. Use the right puller. They're out there.

dddd

I also pulled many Stronglight cranks off back in the day using the Park extractor, and never stripped one.

I didn't use the greatest of force trying to get a stubborn one off. I've seen guys break the handle off. If the crank seemed stuck on particularly well, I would leave the puller tightened in place and jump on the pedals with the crankarms horizontal, and after a few reversals of crank position and re-tightenings of the puller bolt, the crankarms came off with the Park puller.

72Paramount

I use a shower/tub faucet puller on all of my cranks. I got mine for like 19.99 and so far it has worked well on everything I have encountered.

long john

+1me two

long john

Very interesting I like your ingenuity.

JohnDThompson 

Yes, I've used those on arms with stripped extractor threads, or goofy stuff like early Lambert/Viscount arms with 7/8" x 24tpi extractor thread. Some crank designs don't make it easy to fit the arms of the puller behind the crank, though...

rootboy 

you mean…they don't? D'oh! Man, am I behind the times.

I've used my Park double tool to remove my Stronglight crank a couple of times. Wrapped a few wraps of plumber's tape around the threads. It worked.
But I finally bit the bullet and bought the correct one from J. Stein tools.