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Does re-plating a part make it weaker?

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When Steve called me about this I was shocked-this doesn't happen that often. The first thing I asked was he standing up on the pedals/off the seat......answer=yes. In every incident of a busted crank I have heard of this was the culprit I feel. I am sure the above mentioned re-plating changes have something to do with it-but the drop forged crank after 75/80 years use and designed around an 80/100 pound kid may have some merit. When my dad was a kid his crank broke and a very sharp shard cut him across his ankle and up his leg. He joked he doesn't know how he made it home without bleeding to death-still had the scar-nasty one too. On some of the rides I go on with other riders they must be thinking-'that old guy can't keep up' because every hill/upgrade-I get off and walk my bike uphill. I never stand on my pedals. Just my opinion........
 
As kids, in retrospect we do "dumm things".

I was riding and racing Schwinn Paramounts when I was 13 years old. The first thing we did on a new bike was to unscrew the crank bolt end caps from the crank arms. It was a weight savings thing (in our minds, really just grams LOL). You guessed it, while on a training ride I scrapped my ankle with the open threaded hole on the Campy crank arm. I like to bleed to death by the time I got home. I could not get it to stop bleeding and did not have any first aid with me. The dust caps are there for a reason.

John
 
Not only crank arms but also peddle spindles do this...
Cheers,
John
Orcas Island, Washington



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Are these cast or solid
I think you mean Cast or Forged? They are all solid, and most cranks are forged. Cast parts look much different than Forged parts, can't be mistaken.

Some of the really cheap one-piece cranks, were bent, and formed. Yes, some were used on Schwinn's.

Over the years of Chicago manufacturing, I believe that Schwinn had earned the reputation as building the best one piece crank arms. The machining was better, the 28th cones and bearings were better. The chrome was better.

It's my opinion that Schwinn might not have actually Forged the crank arm blanks? It's my "unsubstantiated opinion" that they subbed out the forging of the parts and then brought the raw parts into the Chicago factory for final machine work, threading, polishing, and chrome. Same with forged handlebar stems, old seat clamps, flat fork legs, etc. It's just my guess that Astabula Bow and Socket was the Schwinn forging supplier. Ashtabula Bow was the supplier to the Detroit auto industry for all of the convertable top bows. This company went back to the horse and buggy days.

John
 
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