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cotter pins

Posted: 17 Jun 2009, 11:11pm
by whoops
3/8" Cotterpins for Vintage, Classic & Antique Bicycles. Getting increasingly difficult to find and now an endangered componant due the the manufacturer closing down in 2008. Limited stocks. Available in Bright chrome, file them to suite if needed.
Sold as a Pair. Our Price: £8.00

Is it my imagination, but isn't this a tad expensive
or am i living in the past?

Re: cotter pins

Posted: 17 Jun 2009, 11:28pm
by Mick F
They used to be pennies! The thing is, it's rarity value now. Best I get some quick for when I re-build the Chopper as original!
(Good job I still have the Raleigh nuts with the red R on them!)

Re: cotter pins

Posted: 18 Jun 2009, 12:43pm
by 661-Pete-oldversion
Might have the odd pair or two, rusting away in the bottom of a bag of old bike bits which I never got around to throwing out. Should I hang on to them? Getting valuable?

P.S. just remembered: my unicycle (which gets no use nowadays) has cottered cranks. Another thing to hold on to.

Re: cotter pins

Posted: 18 Jun 2009, 1:56pm
by gaz
No cottered cranks, no cotter pins. I do have a cottered BB axle lying around in the garage, you never know when you might need one.

Re: cotter pins

Posted: 19 Jun 2009, 4:01pm
by random37
I'm well into my old bikes, but some of the prices of the things on that website are REDICULOUS.
Ordinary bike shops sell them for about 1/4 of that. In fact, last time I went in my local H*lfords had a set. Rare? Bah.

Re: cotter pins

Posted: 19 Jun 2009, 5:11pm
by pioneer
Yep, still got a few.In the "might come in handy one day" ice-cream tub of nuts n' bolts etc.Well, you just never know!

Re: cotter pins

Posted: 19 Jun 2009, 7:11pm
by glueman
Yes be careful where you buy classic items, preferably from shops that don't call them classic. I needed some track nuts a year ago and was about about to order them from a well-known specialist site when I thought I'd try the LBS. He sold me some for a tenth of the price!
Last time I bought cotterpins they were 50p each. And it wasn't that long ago. Also 'bright chrome, file them to fit'. Have you ever tried filing bright chrome anything without a workshop vice, let alone a circular, threaded, two inch long object?!?

Re: cotter pins

Posted: 19 Jun 2009, 7:57pm
by thirdcrank

Re: cotter pins

Posted: 20 Jun 2009, 7:36pm
by PW
Sorry folks :lol: I was very happy when I first found a cotterless square taper bottom bracket/chainset. I binned all the old stuff and good riddance! :twisted: :mrgreen:

Re: cotter pins

Posted: 20 Jun 2009, 8:56pm
by Mick F
I binned the ones I bashed and drilled and swore at and butchered too!

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=19556
Who invented them anyway?

Re: cotter pins

Posted: 20 Jun 2009, 11:38pm
by 661-Pete-oldversion
Their only redeeming feature was that you could remove a crank with ordinary DIY tools, no need to carry an extractor. Claw hammer, anyone?

But whilst I'm all for 'retro' when we're talking, say, rear hubs, headsets, pedals, etc. etc., the cotterpin is the one feature that I'm glad to see consigned to the 'classic' section! I was so relieved when I took possession of my first-ever cotterless crankset (at vast expense: I think it cost me £15 which was a lot of money in the 1970s!) and came to realise that the days of wrecked B/B bearings due to over-exuberant hammering, were at last over!

Re: cotter pins

Posted: 21 Jun 2009, 9:11am
by random37
Although you've got to admit, some of the designs of the old cotterred chainsets had an attention to detail nothing has anymore.
My personal favourite is the Rudge.

Re: cotter pins

Posted: 22 Jun 2009, 3:49pm
by Ivor Tingting
PW wrote:Sorry folks :lol: I was very happy when I first found a cotterless square taper bottom bracket/chainset. I binned all the old stuff and good riddance! :twisted: :mrgreen:


+1. They really were crap.

Re: cotter pins

Posted: 22 Jun 2009, 5:26pm
by hubgearfreak
they work fine for me, but i'll happily concede that they're beyond many informally trained shedgineers 8)

Re: cotter pins

Posted: 23 Mar 2010, 8:18am
by spanner
Freemans cycles still sell cotterpins £1.30 for standard size £1.50 for metric size but as they charge £5.95 p&p best to order them with other stuff at the same time i got a new sa sprocket and a brooks leather saddle from them in the same order
hope this helps