New Nervar Cranks

Well it turned out the left arm was toast on my sweet old Nervar Star cranks. I am still looking for another set to replace them. Next time I am used serious Lock-Tite on those bolt threads. In the meantime I need to ride something to work. So I headed down to the Recyclery and asked about a pair of vintage cranks to replace my injured Nervar cranks. They didn't have anything up at the counter or out on the floor, but the nice guy at the counter kind of smiled, walked into the back and came out with these pretty Nervar cranks. I scored them for a really great price.

Sure, they're not as cool as the Nervar Stars, but they are really nice, and astoundingly light. I wish I had the correct rings for them, though. These seem to be the right BCD (122mm like Stronglight) but not exactly the right shape. They came home looking pretty rough, but some 400 grit and 1000 grit sandpaper and some Nev'r Dull later and they shine like almost new. The rings got the same treatment and look excellent now. The only thing not excellent is the Sugino chain ring bolts that need to be replaced. But they work for now.

The left arm is already on the bike and the drive side will go on today. Too bad their first ride will be in the rain!

Crank Arm Toast?

After nearly a year riding them, my Nervar Star left crank arm came loose about 2 months ago while I was riding. I put the bike on the train and walked it home from the stop. I tightened back up, this time with lock-tite on the bolt. It seemed ok for awhile, but a few weeks ago this clicking started when I was pedalling hard. I checked and the bolts were still tight. It got much worse this week so I decided to take it to the bike shop downtown by my office to see if they wanted to take a look at it. After being treated badly by the staff and with lots of "French stuff, ooooh, yeah that could take awhile" comments, I left in disgust. I tore the arm off last night and figured out that it is not deformed in the normal way that an arm deforms when it comes loose (rounding it out), rather the flat sides have been dug into too much by the spindle at the point, so it rocks impercetibly on the spindle while riding. But you can sure hear it. I'm now looking for a solution or a new crank arm. What a bummer. These are really pretty cranks so I hope I can fix it.