The Tester Approves thread (see first post)

Square taper is a Tester no no. No?

Is there a tester approved track crankset?
Budget and high end?
I'm sure SRAM Omnium has received a cursory nod.

I think he has a mod for Campagnolo ultra torque cranks somewhere but I haven't a clue about campag so my knowledge ends there.
I have said ex-Tester modded cranks.

Quite straightforward: the face of the spider arms needs machining to accept a 1/8" ring.

I think he's moved-on now, hence me gaining the crumbs from his table.

Square taper is a Tester no no. No?
Generally speaking, yes.

However a lack of demand for the track and something about new BB standards, mean that a range of external BB track cranks are not expected.

Therefore I will guess that he will approve...

External BB road cranks with a USE chainring.

Alfine cranks with 130bcd track ring

5700 cranks with 130bcd track ring

ftfy.

Alfine (or Tiagra, it's the same thing once you've taken the rings off) is OK if your budget doesn't stretch, but the hollow cranks are definitely better. Possibly not in a way which will actually matter, but let's not start pulling at that thread :-)

Chainline options when using road cranks are either ~46mm with a cheap flat ring e.g. Goldtec, Stronglight, TA etc. or ~42mm with the lovely but expensive dished USE rings.

The UltraTorque hack was based on the availability of very cheap end of line Veloce and Mirage cranks. UT remains the best of the external BB designs, but since Campag dropped it from the cheap groups, it's no longer so easy, for reasons identified previously.

I think he's moved-on now, hence me gaining the crumbs from his table.

I still have, and I'm keeping, a couple of sets, but I needed some 165mm track cranks. Hacking the 165mm UltraTorque 11v non-groupset cranks would have been my first choice, but the necessary £500 wasn't there :-(

...The UltraTorque hack was based on the availability of very cheap end of line Veloce and Mirage cranks... ...but since Campag dropped it from the cheap groups, it's no longer so easy, for reasons identified previously.
Set eBay to EU: plenty of NOS Veloce and Centaur to be had for around £75.

Even carbon Centaur can be had for £120.

Which reminds me: is having Fibrelyte adapt a ring, still what you would recommend when hacking carbon cranks? Apart from anything else, it would leave the cranks unmolested as a road double.

Set eBay to EU: plenty of NOS Veloce and Centaur to be had for around £75

Which is about 50% more than I've ever paid

If I were track-adapting carbon UT cranks, it would be the rings which went to the mill, whether that's carbon rings from Fibrelyte or metal ones from somewhere else.

We need the first post updated.

The concept of BB30? A self evidently good idea, with the scope (not yet exploited by anybody commercially, afaik) to combine a fat axle with narrow Q. PF30 is a cop out by frame manufacturers who can't be arsed to prepare their BB shell properly, BB86 is a dead end

As for the bearings to stuff into it, take your pick, it's just a standard 6806-2RS industrial cartridge.

I'd have to disagree hear slightly. Although I may take slight umbrage at 'can't be arsed' as a turn of phrase, you are essentially right that preparing the shell for BB30 is a task too far for most frame builders. I have milling machine, but it has a small amount of slop along the x axis, even with the lock out engaged, and having countered any lash back from the threads. It is unnoticeable to the eye, but enough to make it useless for BB30 (and other high precision work, fortunately I don't do much of that, and it will also be a good excuse for a bridgeport at some point). PF30 can be reamed with a Park head tool reamer and 791 attachment. So far, I have just confirmed your assertion, but for me the main issue with BB30 is that if you allow your BB to develop play, and then continue to ride on it, you can damage the frame itself due to the rocking forces placed on the bearings, and if you do that, you can just bin the frame (or possibly ream out to PF30 standard, dependent on amount of material left over. With PF30 you have a softer material than the frame in contact with the frame, so if anything is going to get FUBAR'ed, hopefully it will be the bearing cup.

This is obviously only an issue if the rider is a moron and rides with a fucked BB. As around 95% (being generous) of the population of the world are morons however, that makes for a good argument for PF30.

You may now explain to me why I am wrong.

You may now explain to me why I am wrong.

Could it be because you are in the 95% of the worlds morons you mention?

(purely asking based on probability)

I shall re-phrase:

You may now explain why my support of PF30 is wrong.

Off to pendants corner with you Kerley.

Off to pendants corner with you Kerley.

I'm sure this was deliberate pedant-baiting. :)

Don't ask me - I am squarely in that 95%

I'm sure this was deliberate pedant-baiting. :)
Hang 'em!

Hang 'em!
You just want to turn them into pendants.

Oh Oliver! That's why I writ what I did.

#no!ubinschicked

I know, but you still have to beat this kind of joke to death.

What's more tester-approved for a track front wheel, 50mm carbon with a Continental Sprinter or similar tub, shared from the road bike, or standard 27mm aluminium with a very fast track clincher?

Whichever one tests faster if you're racing seriously, something cheap and disposable if you're making up the numbers in the local track league due to the possibility of destroying it in a pile up.

what do you think of the Ellipses Tester? I quite like them for an all around track wheel, low spoke count, seems aero, and bomb proof and doesn't brake the bank

I had them almost as soon as they existed and kept them for about 7 years, they're a perfectly decent wheel and have the advantage of being ready to race, but if I had that budget today I'd get Flo30 rims laced to Novatec 24h hubs with CX-Rays. DT New Aero spokes if you want them a bit stiffer, Kinlin XR300/Halo Mercury if you want them sooner and cheaper.

the Flo30 seem very similar to the Hed C2, nice!