Current Projects chat and miscellany

Nice one. Looks amazing.

In my experience, unless you've a workstand it's easier to bash the cotter pins out with wheels in. That way you can stand the bike up and rest the cranks on a pile of wood or books or something to keep them steady while you give the pins a right good whack with a hammer. You'll probably need something to get into the hole when there's been no more pin showing- I've used an old allen key before and hit that.

Good luck with it.

Hope you're keeping the old bits. They look like Williams C34 cranks.

MDCC tester is quite right to advocate supporting the crank before hitting the cotter pins. I use a small bench vice supported on a pile of books, or whatever comes to hand.
One thing not mentioned is that it's best to unscrew the retaining nut just to the top of the cotter pin thread before applying the hammer. This saves damaging the thread, and should allow you to reuse the same pin many times. If the cranks have been in place for many years penetrating oil (WD40) may be helpful, but in this case, judging by the shiny paint in the photo I don't think there will be a problem.

When I was young I smashed up a large number of cotter pins, but eventually I acquired the knack of removing them. I'd say cottered cranks usually take no longer to remove than cotterless, so take courage and start practising !

They certainly do look like C34 cranks. These are very serviceable, and there are a great many chain rings still in circulation. When they were current no one had heard of 'just in time' stock control.