Difference between track and road cranks

Fed up with my noisy chainline, I'm coming to the conclusion that track cranks MUST be the answer.

I'm currently running road double Campag Chorus on a road conversion, with the ring on the inside, with a 107mm bottom bracket. Now before I go and spunk upwards of £80 on a set of track cranks, I need to know what difference there is. Are they the same, just with a single chainring mount for the track cranks, or is there more, like the track spider being angled inwards for a better chainline?

Many thanks - and apologies if this has already been covered.

Track cranks won't do shit. If your chainline is fucked it's fucked. If your component mix is noisy it's noisy. Measure your chainline and find the actual cause before shelling out on expensive bits.
If chainline is fine then start with 1. lube 2. chain 3. gears 4. knees 5. your mum's car

Track cranks are narrower, but only in the sense that your pedals end up being closer together; i presume this is to help cornering. Also, they can afford to be narrower due to the rear dropout spacing being 120mm, compared to road frames which have 130mm spacing (meaning wider chainstay).

other than that, what hippy said.

If your chainline is a little out, the cheapest kludge would probably be to find a compatible BB with independent shells - that way you can dial the chainline in and out. The Miche 107mm BB is only around a tenner, for example.

Measure your chainline and find the actual cause before shelling out on expensive bits.

Hence my starting this thread - I just wanted to find out if I was at a significant disadvantage using road cranks rather than track ones.

I'm going to have a go at adjusting the axle - just by a couple of mm - enough that I don't have to re-dish. It's just odd that even though there's a 7mm difference between the BBs, the problem's the same. Damned conversions...

measure things up before you actually start tinkering. knowing what you should be doing before taking out your tools always saves you time and money.
things to check:

1. hub chainline
   
2. your current chainline on chainring
   
3. what cranks? - that'll determine what BB taper you need. campag - ISO.
   
4. your BB? - campag/miche are ISO. shimano and everything else = JIS. sugino = weird
   
   

with all that plus a little bit of sheldon you should be able to determine BB + crank combination to match your hub. using ISO cranks on JIS taper will shift the chainring out 4.5mm.

i've built many conversions and they aren't much difference to putting together a track bike.

You can get some of the lower end track cranks for about £40 with a sealed BB and chainring supplied. Things like FSA etc.

measure things up before you actually start tinkering. knowing what you should be doing before taking out your tools always saves you time and money.
things to check:

1. hub chainline
   
2. your current chainline on chainring
   
3. what cranks? - that'll determine what BB taper you need. campag - ISO.
   
4. your BB? - campag/miche are ISO. shimano and everything else = JIS. sugino = weird
   
   

with all that plus a little bit of sheldon you should be able to determine BB + crank combination to match your hub. using ISO cranks on JIS taper will shift the chainring out 4.5mm.

i've built many conversions and they aren't much difference to putting together a track bike.

Edmundane, you'll be getting a pint when I finally make my way to one of the meets. Two in fact.

I'd often heard of JIS and ISO, but didn't attach any significance to them until now - I just assumed one was splined/hollowtech/new-fangled while the other was square taper - I didn't realise that there were different types of square taper and so ignored their reference until now.

The cranks are Campag Chorus, the BB is Shimano UN52 - which explains a few things. I'll be looking out for a Campag BB now then...

Would 1-2mm make much difference? I think mines out slightly, just pondering switching the chainring for the inside of the spider to see if that helps - but that's gonna be more than a 1-2mm difference...

1-2mm might just be enough to get you out of the nursery.