I wish I had known this earlier - TA Cyclotouriste
 

I think this may be old news to cognoscenti, but it might help a person who's new to the TA Cyclotouriste world. I'm bot a longtime TA Cyclotouriste user and a newbie. I put a new Cyclotouriste on my bike in 1982 or 1983. Recently I started looking at switching from a double to a triple, and it's taken me a while to figure out what I see on 2nd hand equipment sites. Some things just don't look like what I need.

TA Cyclotouriste is often marketed as a 50.4 mm BCD crankset. In a sense, that's true - the BCD for attaching the outer chainring to the crank is 50.4 mm. That's true for other cranks, too, from Stronglight, Nervar, Sun XCD, Velo-Orange, and probably other manufacturers, too. (I'm not sure which company originated the standard - I came across it once, but I can't find it now.)

The trouble is that every thing on the 'bay with a 50.4 mm is marketed as 'Cyclotouriste.'

The 50.4 BCD outer rings are (apparently) interchangeable, but the inner chainrings aren't. TA inners may not fit on other manufacturers' outers. In fact, not all TA inner chainrings work with all TA outers. TA made (at least) 4 outer rings with 50.4 BCD for the crank attachment and with 3 different inner ring BCDs. If you want an inner ring for a Cyclotouriste outer ring. you need rings with an 80 mm BCD. (The other 2 TA models are Criterium, with a 152 mm BCD (smallest is 43 teeth), and Randonneur and Professional, with a 116 mm BCD (smallest is 36 teeth).)

Some ebay sellers don't seem to know what they have. For example, this listing https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-TA-...kAAOSwpoxdHy5l is for a Criterium outer. Note the outer bolt circle drilling. It's way out towards the edge of the ring - 152 mm, a Criterium ring. I wrote this guy over a week ago - no response and no change in his listing. Maybe he's on vacation or just not monitoring his listing.

This - https://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-TA-...MAAOSwG8Zcyc6- is for a Cyclotouriste. The outer bolt circle is very close to the inner bolt circle - 80 mm, a true Cyclotouriste. Some sellers actually list the BCD in their headline.

I hope this helps someone. I've been able to avoid buying the wrong stuff, but that's been due only to good luck.

And if anyone can tell me why it's called Cyclotouriste instead of Cyclotourist, I appreciate it. Or was it just TA's whim?

Yes, the inner ring bolt pattern differs model to model. Sellers are lazy and want to cash in on the rando cache without doing some basic measurement.

The 50.4 BCD was used before TA was established, I believe. Many old cottered cranks out there with the pattern.

I'm a little surprised it wasn't 50.8mm -- that would make sense if it had originated in England (2").

And I'd think it would have been an even 50mm if it had originated in a metric country. :foo:

SPECIALITES T.A. is a French company. It does not seem surprising that they would use the French spelling "touriste" rather than the Anglo.
Amicalement, Eric Pierre

joels bland self-referential home page

old site- “not secure”
does have quite a bit of TA info and links to more. Can help you divine what you need and what you don’t

my suggestion is to stick with one brand of rings. TA teeth are offset to the back side of the ring- VO are not for example
not sure about the others - Stronglight I think is but that is not authoritive.

There are plenty of new Cyclotouriste chainrings available in even sizes. It looks like TA is still making them.

Blackbirdsf.org is a good site for TA info. Is that Joel Bland's new site?.

'Cyclotouriste' has a feminine form. I didn't realize French had nouns that were both masculine and feminine.

I would reiterate that the new t.a. chainrings are excellent.

What are some sources for new TA cyclotouriste chainrings?

eBay
Spa Cycles

Others?

Pretty sure that Cyclotouriste is the proper feminine noun. No 'e' is anglicized.

There are also adapters that bolt onto the 50.4mm mount and allow you to use "inner" rings in both positions. TA made them for both the "Criterium" (151mm BCD) and "Cyclotouriste" (116mm BCD) style rings. SunXCD makes 50.4mm adapters to accept more widely available 110mm BCD, 5-arm and 130mm BCD 5-arm rings.

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/07...g?v=1579723342

the british stores have them. Do a google search for the rings and you will eventually find them. Merlin and wiggle i think both have them.

Peter White Cycles is a TA distributor: https://www.peterwhitecycles.com/ta-chainrings.php#pro5
If that link doesn't take you directly to the Cyclotouriste rings, here's the page (just scroll down and click on Pro 5 Vis for TA Pro 5 Vis aka TA Cyclotourist cranksets): https://www.peterwhitecycles.com/ta-chainrings.php
To order, you'll have to call or email as they don't do the direct online store for various reasons.
Oddly enough, he has the spelling as Cyclotourist!

Peter white has them for sure but i know i have bought them cheaper elswhere.

Good post. I've been wondering about this as well. This eBay seller stocks a good selection of TA cyclotourist rings and has what looks to be the correct information:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-T-A-Pro...r=500881723148

One thing I didn't know is that some of the 80 bcd rings are middle/inner and some are inner only.

great resource!

'Cyclotouriste' is listed as both masculine and feminine in 2 French-English online dictionaries. Go figure. If only we brought back classical Latin, which follows rules so much more closely than French (or English) does....:)

TA itself appears to be a good source for rings: https://specialites-ta.com/128-pro-5-vis.

I've done one transaction with Velo Duo Cycles (https://www.veloduo.co.uk) and it went very well, as well as transactions with BF members. They're the ebay seller cited above. I would go.back to Velo Duo Cycles without hesitation.

At the time I needed a ring, Spa Cycles didn't have what I wanted, and I didn't think of looking for TA itself. My other ring purchases were with a BF member and an individual ebay seller, both of which went without a hitch.

Those adapters are so cool! The thing is: more modern cranks make changing rings more convenient than the 50.4 BCD cranks. If I weren't a long time TA user, I think I'd go with a Sakae Ringyo or Sugino crank.

A small correction to a post above - the 116 mm BCD is for the Randonneur line, not the cyclotouriste.

Appears to be. Yes, lots of info.

ty man!

Yep, as others have said TA and the likes made several different BCD versions.

My favourite is this tandem-specific outer ring with 50.4mm/80mm/152mm drilling. Could also be used with different drillings to reinforce the middle and outer chainring.
http://i.imgur.com/CQL60n5.jpg

What triple tooth count are you ISO? Folks here may have rings in their stashes that could help.
-J

I got a 28 tooth ring from Velo Duo Cycles,.triple bolts and more from deux jambes, an excellent person to buy from.
Jacco, Thanks for the info on the rings with dual drilling. I have 2, and I wondered why they were made.

If you ever happen to have a 52T version let me know. I might be interested.
I have a couple in 52T undrilled, 42T and 32T.

One thing to be aware of when buying vintage TA rings is that there were also thicker versions made for 1/8" chains. They won't work with your average 7/8 speed 3/32" chain, as I found out to my initial horreur:

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...6277e9d074.jpg

See the difference in thickness?

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...d4753a6707.jpg

Should you find one, do not despair. The SRAM PC-1 chain fits and will handle a 5-speed block even though it is marketed as a single speed chain. Mrs non-fixie has successfully field-tested this with an Allvit derailleur. I would also expect the KMC X101 to work. I have one as a backup should the PC-1 fail, but have not yet had the need to actually mount it and verify that.

The TA track rings I have are marked with a "3" (signifying 3mm or 1/8" thickness) under the tooth count:

http://www.os2.dhs.org/~john/ta-track-rings.jpg

But they're not drilled to mount a second ring like yours. Perhaps yours was for a track tandem?