cottered...cotterless...same axle?

can you upgrade from cotterless to cottered cranks by simply switching them? or is it a different axle?

Re: cottered…cotterless…same axle?

Changing from cotterless to cottered cranks would be a downgrade. Cottered cranks are a PITA and the setup is not as strong as cotterless.

Cottered and cotterless hubs are different. You can’t just switch cranks, you’d have to switch the hub too.

Here is more than you really want to know about cotters. Unfortunately I don’t see a good picture of the cottered hub or axle there.
<http://www.sheldonbrown.com/cotters.html&gt;
<http://www.sheldonbrown.com/tooltips/cotters.html&gt;

Nope. Cottered cranks have round holes for the axles, with a second hole that runs tangential to the axle. In this second hole is where you wedge a piece of metal (the cotter) to secure the axle. The axle, thus, is round, with a flat spot for the cotter to wedge against.

Cotterless cranks have square holes, to accomodate the square axle. Sometimes the axle is tapered. The crank is retained using a nut on the end of the axle.

-Jon

ok thanks

and i got my ‘ered’ and ‘less’ just mixed up

:o

I put an old cottered axle in my 20. It significantly outlasted the three cottered axles it replaced, it also gave a smaller Q factor. I quite like it. It was an upgrade for me.