Thursday, April 28, 2011

Velo Orange Grand Cru Crankset Update

Readers of our blog will recall that we recently updated our retro Benotto with a "Grand Cru" compact crankset from Velo Orange. Since that time, we've been very happy with the crankset--with the exception of a bent tooth on the big ring that we discovered a week or so ago. Here's the latest:

  • After being gently coaxed back into alignment, the bent tooth hasn't given us any more trouble.
  • Worried that the old Campy bottom bracket in the frame might give us problems in the French countryside later this year (Paris-Brest-Paris), we installed a new Velo Orange cartridge bottom bracket (photo below). The new unit (we selected the recommended 118mm width) installed easily, and the crankset runs truer and (perhaps) a little easier on the new bearings. We're very happy with it so far. (The Grand Cru crankset uses JIS standards for the square taper; Campagnolo uses ISO. The JIS tapers moved the arms a little farther out--perhaps 1.5mm on each side--but the crank seems to fit a bit better and run straighter.)

Note: The crank fixing bolts supplied with the bottom bracket aren't needed with the Grand Cru crankset, which comes with self-extracting nuts.

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