|
|
Cranks
Generations.
|
I got an email the other day asking about the different generations of Profile Cranks that we've made. So I dug up some old stuff and took some pictures, and here's your BMX history lesson for the day.
The first crank with the lovely pedal from the period is our first generation of cranks. These were made for only a couple of years, from 1980-81 or so. These were the same as the original Hutch cranks, which we also made. These were a box section crank, like the second generation cranks. They were made by folding a plate of CrMo over into the shape of a squared C, and welding a plate on the back at the same time the spindle and pedal bosses. The example I have here of the second generation shows this clearly, since it doesn't have the back or the bosses welded onto it.
The second generation cranks were made from thicker, heavier material, and they had the indentation for the sticker, but they were otherwise similar to the first generation. They were made from about 82-84. While many have fond memories of these cranks, they still weren't all that strong, due to the box-section welded back design. We knew we needed to come up with a new, tubular design.
The third generation Profile cranks looked a lot like the Profile made GT crank pictured here. There was still a square shape towards the spindle boss, but they were made from a CrMo tube, and were so strong that we didn't really mess with the design a whole lot from 1984-5 until around '98 or so, when the current generation of round, tubular cranks with the stamped logo came out. The tubular cranks are made by swaging a CrMo tube into the rough shape of the crankarm, machining out the areas for the spindle, crank bolt, and pedal bosses, welding the bosses into place, and finally powdercoating or chrome plating the arms.
While the shape of our cranks hasn't changed a lot, there have been a lot of small changes to the metal over those years. Our Mini Magnutanium cranks use a very thin walled tubing to produce an incredibly light crankset, one that's also surprisingly strong. Our Flatland crank has a double boss to enable you to run sprockets as small as 18 teeth, and as large as 46 teeth. Our massive SS cranks from the early 2000's grew our cranks as large and as strong as possible, while our DJ arms brought those oversized arms back to a more standard 19mm BB spindle.
But still, our Race crank keeps plugging along. Some years, we make them a bit lighter, some years heavier (the wall thickness is the main determiner of the weight and strength,) but for the most part, the Race cranks remain unchanged. And made in the USA, to boot.
|
|
Article id# 594
| Added Sep 5, 2007 |
| |
|
