Cycling UK Forum

I bought at 28/38/48 TD-2 crankset some years ago. Not much used. Decided to get the cranks shortened, so took off the filthy chainrings in a hurry, cleaned the spider and LH crank and posted them. They duly came back. Looking at reinstalling the rings I noticed some washers on the outer face of the middle ring, and not a complete set either, 4 not 5. What the heck?! I guess it's possible I lost one but why are they there?

I've had occasional issues with the chain momentarily jamming when shifting between middle and outer rings. This is a 9-speed set up. Maybe there's too much of a gap with the washers? Strangely I'm getting the same issue on a new XD-2 triple 9-speed crankset.

I'm losing confidence in the Spa triple cranksets. Unless the KMC chains I use are somehow different from Shimano ones?

The washers are there because without them the big and middle rings are too close together.
Assemble it without the washers and it looks comic....because, of course, like a dishing stick showing you twice the error, the middle ring is too close to the big, and too far from the small.

OK, just never encountered this with Shimano and RPM triples. I guess I better find the missing washer then. As I said, I've been having occasional momentary jamming in this and a new XD-2 triple. I might look at other options in future but choices have become limited.

I cannot see any washers on my TD-2 chainset (but I am not going to dismantle it to be absolutely certain). I bought it a couple of years ago, so maybe the latest Spa chainrings are thicker to eliminate the need for the washers.

The washers are certailnly very thin which is why I didn't spot them when I took the rings off.

If your cranks have 5 normal arms, you'll need 5 washers,
If it is 4 arms plus a 5th bolt behinbd the crank, you'll probably need 4 washers.
The thin washers have appeared on a few middling/cheaper Shimano chainsets and Suntour. It allows them to sell pretty looking cranks but saving money by using cheaper thinner steel chain rings. The washers just make up the difference in thickness between the thinner/cheaper steel rings and the thicker alloy rings, a cheaper solution than machining different crank arm spacing for steel rings.

Well, i can only find 3 washers now which is odd because I thought I had put everything into a shoe box when I took the crankset off my Spa Tourer, albeit quite some time ago now. I guess these are 0.6mm spacers. One comment by SJS seemed to say these are used for converting a 10 speed crankset to 9 speed presumably increasing the gap between the rings. But I have a triple so removing these spacers would increase the gap to the granny ring. Guess I shall just have to use trial and error.

If you can't find the missing washers maybe you could make new ones by cutting them from an Aluminium coke can? It is quite easy to cut with scissors and you can stack up multiple layers to get the desired thickness you want.

I see Spa sell 0.45mm spacers. These could well be the size. Bit annoying to pay £4 p+p for them.

UpWrong wrote: ↑19 Apr 2021, 9:19pm Well, i can only find 3 washers now which is odd because I thought I had put everything into a shoe box when I took the crankset off my Spa Tourer, albeit quite some time ago now. I guess these are 0.6mm spacers. One comment by SJS seemed to say these are used for converting a 10 speed crankset to 9 speed presumably increasing the gap between the rings. But I have a triple so removing these spacers would increase the gap to the granny ring. Guess I shall just have to use trial and error.

No, you will have to use the spacers, because nothing has changed. The "Spa" chainsets are exactly the old "Stronglight" "Impact" chainsets....actually made by somebody like Sugino. (Heres somebody flogging them as Sugino brand https://southerndistributors.co.uk/prod ... -crankset/
Stronglight used to make chainrings in France, but the cranks were always imported. Anybody with an old Impact chainset will find TD or XD impressed on the back of the crank, exactly like the Spa chainsets, because they come out of the same factory. Still.
Now its almost 9 years since I retired from Spa, so things are getting a bit hazy. My recollection is of fitting the spacers to the TD chainset with the 5 visible arms. (They got the numbers wrong when they made the tooling; so rather than re-tool, just use some washers....simples!)
I don't remember fitting them when assembling the XD chainsets with the 5th fitting at the back of the crank.....but as I say, 9 years.....

Thanks Colin. I'll try giving Spa a call to check it's the 0.45mm ones I need.

Some 0.45mm spacers have arrived from Spa. They look the same as the originals.

Someone else identified that the chainring bolt set sold to go with the XD-2 triple includes spacers (mentioned in the description but not shown in the photo): https://spacycles.co.uk/m8b0s173p483/SP ... ring-Bolts

531colin wrote: ↑19 Apr 2021, 9:42pmThe "Spa" chainsets are exactly the old "Stronglight" "Impact" chainsets....actually made by somebody like Sugino.

I have both a genuine Sugino Alpina2 crankset, purchased directly from Sugino via their web store, and one of the Spa TD-2 cranksets, and they are exactly the same, with the identical forging marks on the back of both cranks. The only difference is cosmetic, in that the polishing of the arms and webbing on the spider is better on the Sugino. But it's also a more expensive item to purchase.

Sugino crank: Spa crank: