Truvativ Rouleur cranks

Hi guys!

I needed BB replacement due to real bad cracking noises during the last week, and wanted to get that done ASAP, so I was looking for someone to do that for me this afternoon... After a couple of shops I ended up in Decathlon in Surrey Quays. They could fit a typical sealed shimano BB for me while waiting, but the guy there offered me another altenative... He proposed to installed for me this more recent kind of BB that has the bearing on the outside, but I had to get a new crank set as well... That must sound silly, but here come the cool part... They had in stock some Truvativ road cranks named "Rouleur" for almost nothing... £11,95 instead of £135 a couple of years ago, due to this product being "obsolete" now.
So I got some 170mm for my fixed, and a spare 175 for my geared bike that I might fit later...

Here is how it looks like:

So when I left, they still had at least one of 165, one of 170 and one of 180.
Also I have to say that the guys I had to deal with were really nice, helpfull and serious, I am not saying that because I'm french!!

Loic

Sounds a good deal, is the chainline ok on the fixed? Truvativ external bottom brackets are not the most durable but for that price you can't go wrong.

Great deal, almost bought them off him today when we bumped into each other today. Wouldn't have been right for my frame alas. Nice to meet you anyway veLLo!

Great deal, almost bought them off him today when we bumped into each other today. Wouldn't have been right for my frame alas. Nice to meet you anyway veLLo!

Yo!

Hehe, that's because of my bad english again, I did not intend to sell the spare crank, that was just to show you... I plan to fit it on my road/geared bike. Anyway, I agree that it would have been wrong on your bike... Your bike has real class man!
I can see also why one could think those cranks are not right for my bike too, as it is not historically consistant, but I wanted to try anyway, for the price, also it is always reversible... But I have to say that like the result, black gloss crank on black gloss frame, graphically it works I think, maybe I'll change my mind later...I had this bike for nearly 4 years, and it keeps changing!

Nice to meet you too...

Szia

Loic

Sounds a good deal, is the chainline ok on the fixed? Truvativ external bottom brackets are not the most durable but for that price you can't go wrong.

Yes chain line is fine, just have the chain ring fitted on the inside of the spider brackets, but it was already like this on my previous shimano cranks...

I did not know that these BB were less durable... Can't be worst that what I had before, that was a bad experience... I usually do all servicing on my bikes, but last october, when my old BB died, I thought I wanted to let a professionnal do it. I went into a shop that I will not reveal the name as I know people on this forum who go there... At the time this bike of mine was geared and I wanted to keep it quite vintage (I obviously changed my mind on that today...) so I asked for an old style BB, not sealed, with the good old cups etc... I took the bike back, and the same day in the evening as I was cleaning it I saw that the l.h.s. cup had been engaged at an angle!!! So depending on where the pedals were there the axle was loose or not... You can imagine how worried I was about the frame (which is from the late 50s) and the threading... The day after I went back to the shop, the guy apologized, said he would tell his mechanic how bad that was, and that he would do every thing necessary to get the thing right HIMSELF, as he was the boss, blabla... I took the bike back the same day, the cup was properly fitted this time and everything seemed to be OK, no play, etc...
I have converted that bike fixed after that and I used it almost every day since, with no trouble until this week, when it started to crack a lot, in a very dodgy way, but the funny thing was that when the chain was off, it seemed to run smoothly and there was still no play...
Anyway, because I was suspicious about the thread being damaged maybe, I wanted this time again that a professionnal would do it for me, to be on the safe side. The guy I had to deal with in decathlon was french so it was easier for me to explain all that and to tell him to be carefull when un-screwing / screwing... Everything went OK so I know now that the frame is alright!

Sorry for that long boring story...

Loic

Yes chain line is fine, just have the chain ring fitted on the inside of the spider brackets, but it was already like this on my previous shimano cranks...

I did not know that these BB were less durable... Can't be worst that what I had before, that was a bad experience...

When I mentioned less durable I didn't mean it wouldn't last as long as a standard internal bb, but that out of the different external bb's out there the Truvativ ones aren't the best.