Tell us more about Stronglight

[horizon]

AFAIK, Stronglight is a French company that makes bicycle parts, many of which are valued for touring use. Spa sell their chainsets for example. But that's about all I know.

Given the criticism that is now being levelled at Shimano, are Stronglight the saviour? Can anyone fill us in on this company and what they do?

Here's the French version:

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stronglight

and the English version:

https://translate.google.co.uk/translat ... rev=search

But any views on how Stronglight relates to what we talk about on this forum would be good.

[Samuel D]

I think the Wikipedia article tells the tale of a once-influential company that has changed ownership several times in recent years and now (or in 2013?) employs just 31 people.

What it doesn’t tell but can be guessed from the products is that Stronglight doesn’t make much anymore. It’s mainly a badge-engineering outfit putting a prestigious name on generic components from the big Asian centres of manufacturing. Maybe the chainrings are still machined in France; maybe. The cranks may be good and by most accounts are, but they’re imported from who knows where and certainly not profit centres likely to support the future of touring. If Stronglight stopped importing them, someone else would. Maybe Spa Cycles already does.

In short, Stronglight may not even save itself!

The truth is that economies of scale in manufacturing can hardly be overstated, and low cost, high quality components are impossible without large volumes. Since the wider bicycle market is obsessed with change and choice, costs must go up. I take solace in knowing that even expensive bicycle components can be acquired by determined savers lucky enough to have been born in rich countries.

[Brucey]

IIRC some stronglight crank models are basically sugino ones. I don't mind this because sugino cranks are pretty good quality.

Some stronglight designs live on; VO make a crankset that uses the stronglight 99 style chainrings to this day. This allows an inner chainring of 28T and is one of the few designs that allows for an 'alpine double' type setup at reasonable cost. The original stronglight 99 cranks were not super quality or anything, but they had their good points.

cheers

[Mick F]

I bought a Stronglight 99 as a double 52/36 back in 1985 from Colin Lewis Cycles of Paignton.
I had that in use until 2004 in various combinations with outers of the original 52 and then 53, with the inner varying between the 36 and 40t. It now resides as a single 36t on Barbarella with her Nexus8. I still have all the rings.

My Moulton came with a Stronglight Z-Light triple.

[foxyrider]

There's a Stronglight inner ring on my Campy SR chainset - very nice and half the price of the Campy one.

OTOH I used to have a standing order for SL left hand cranks as I bent or broke them that regularly!

There just isn't enough demand for touring components to support more than cottage industry production - a chainset bought 30 years ago does nothing for the company today. We might not like the Shimano model but it's the way to stay in business, just look at the automotive industry!

[rjb]

There is a nice timeline of their crank sets on the classic lightweights site.
Just the ticket if looking for some nostalgia
http://www.classiclightweights.co.uk/co ... -comp.html

If I recall strong light manufactured a nice chainset recently ( maybe 5 years ago) which featured a reversal pedal insert which allowed the crank length to be altered. Anyone have any info on this?

[Vorpal]

If I recall strong light manufactured a nice chainset recently ( maybe 5 years ago) which featured a reversal pedal insert which allowed the crank length to be altered. Anyone have any info on this?

Adjustable length system (ALS). There are some bits available, and a couple of other companies also do bits for it.

[landsurfer]

Use their chainsets and all my bikes have their chainrings ... its all good kit.

[rmurphy195]

Very happy with mine from Spa, looks good as well!

[RickH]

I reckon that TA chainrings are much better than Stronglight ones - they seem better made & also seem to last longer.

I don't think I've ever had a Stronglight chainset so can't comment on those, I've always used the rings on other chainsets.

[ANTONISH]

I've been using Stronglight impact chainsets for a number of years.
For touring the 110/74 BCD triple combination gives the choice of a wide range of rings.
I've fitted a triple with TA rings and its a very nice bur not especially cheap set up.

[Bmblbzzz]

There is a nice timeline of their crank sets on the classic lightweights site.
Just the ticket if looking for some nostalgia
http://www.classiclightweights.co.uk/co ... -comp.html

If I recall strong light manufactured a nice chainset recently ( maybe 5 years ago) which featured a reversal pedal insert which allowed the crank length to be altered. Anyone have any info on this?

I'm not sure how accurate that Classic Lightweights article is:

Model 49 - 50.4 mm BCD (outer) / 122 mm BCD (inner) - a traditional five arm crankset from the pre war era where the spyder of the outside chain ring attaches to the drive side arm by virtue of five hex bolts and the inner chain ring attaches to the outer using a total of five chain ring bolts in conjunction with spacers.

The outer has a smaller BCD than the inner? How does that work? And the accompanying photo clearly shows six arms not five.

Edit: I see how the inner does actually have a larger BCD than the outer. Unlike modern doubles, the outer chainring is a whole ring including the arms, bolting on to the crank, with the inner bolting on to the outer. But it visibly has six arms!

[meic]

The ring does have six arms.
If you look at the bolts that hold the ring to the spider, near the centre, you will see just five of them.
So the crank has five arms (or stubs) joining to the ring which has six visible arms using five bolts.

[andrew_s]

I reckon that TA chainrings are much better than Stronglight ones - they seem better made & also seem to last longer.

I don't think I've ever had a Stronglight chainset so can't comment on those, I've always used the rings on other chainsets.

Stronglight sell 2 ranges of chainrings.
The cheap ones are 5083 alloy (often sold as Dural)
The good ones are 7075 T6, which is the same as TA.
The cheap ones wear quite a bit more quickly

[Bmblbzzz]

It has five bolts but I don't see how it can be described as five arms. The bolts are in a ring of metal, not coincident with the arms.

On a more general Stronglight theme, I do like the star pattern of some of the other chainsets.