capnjonny 

I was digging through boxes at the Bike Exchange the other day and this popped up. It is an Avocet crank. I have never seen anything by Avocet except saddles until recently when I found some wheels with Avocet hubs and then this crank. This looks like a quality piece And i am intrigued by the tapped holes drilled in the arms. I can't for the life of me see why anyone would do this unless it is for lightening and then why tap the holes for threads. Anyone want to guess? Also does anyone know of a bike where this crank was used? The back is stamped 9/16 x 20 F 170 road.

philpeugeot 

Those smaller holes are for more chainrings to make it a triple; came from the factory like that. This would have been mounted on some touring bike. It would appear that you crank is missing the adapter bolts to mount those chainrings.

steelbikeguy

It always looked pretty interesting in the advertisements back in the day.....









These are from around 1980.

Steve in Peoria

Bianchigirll 

They used to make some great tires. The Avocet FasGrip in 700 x 23 Kevlar used to be my favorite tire.


pic from internet, so no complaints about pad angle

79pmooney

Did Avocet make anything? Miche (I believe) made the cranksets. Selle Italia made the seats. Quality was all over the place. Seats were the same good seats as the Selle brand. Those cranksets were beautiful, light, and many broke. I broke the inner chainring bolts when the cranks were in their second years. Much later, the right crank broke across the pedal hole. Seatposts - I broke first a clamp bolt 50 miles from home in the first few months, then the clamp 5 years later. Years later I was using a post of unknown history when the post broke at the clamp. So, every Avocet bike part I've owned has broken at least once while I was riding it except those excellent seats. (The aluminum railed Avocet 3 seat that I put 12,000 miles on as a racer. I did sell that bike with the seat on so that someone else would be sitting on it when it went. Yes, high quality seat but aluminum doesn't go forever, especially as a seat rail.)

Mr. 66

I have a set of the cranks on my 716 Trek, they came with the bike when I bought it. I remember them being touted as very lightweight and aerodynamic, unfortunately they were also know for breaking at the pedal eye. They look nice and are functional but I would not go out of the way to get them. I do not recommend for "heavy" users due to the known issues.

bwilli88 

I recently found some Avocet chainrings at a local bike shop.
they are inner rings with a 102mm bcd.
I think they are 36t and 40t. Cost me $5 each.

SurferRosa

I thought it was Ofmega. I bought some nos Ofmega cartridge bearing hubs a few years ago on eBay. They're really nice.

Had a '79 Trek with an Ofmega crank. Again, really beautiful. I had no problem with it.

nesteel 

Beautiful cranksets. I have one on my '83 Trek 720, along with the matching BB. I don't ride it as often as I should, but I've never had an issue with it. Same bike also has the Avocet seatpost.

MeadMan2

I have an Avocet crank which I originally installed on my Follis but is now on my frankenbike Armstrong 3speed. I have never had a problem with it though I am light weight & not very strong. I also have an Avocet Racing 1 saddle which is similar to a Turbo & two Avocet computers, either of which work. Back in the day the computers were quite popular & unlike computers today, came in a multitude of colors. I also thought the crank was made by Omega.

Road Fan

Btw, I think those threaded holes on the chainring arms are for installing a small granny ring.

repechage

I liked them also, I retired my last road tire last year. casing ruptured under the tread and was shifting out.
cannot be upset with the lifespan.

I also have a set of 26" "slicks" for my Ritchey mtb.

The cranks were a bit "dainty", esp near the pedal eye.

Chombi1 

I think most of Avocet's components came from Ofmega. Basically, their higher end stuff re-branded as Avocets.
One of my favorite items from Avocet was their Cyclometer, with its nice, simple, and compact design.
I have one (a model 20) on my PSV that has been on the bike since 1984 and it still works perfectly!
I recently just bought another model 20, NOS, for a 1983 race bike build I'm doing right now.

verktyg 

Avocet was an innovator in introducing new high quality, aesthetically pleasing cycling products plus their catalogs set the bar for marketing expertise. Sometimes their supply chain couldn't meet their requirements.

Now that I'm coming up last man standing I can talk about a few things. In the early 80's Avocet had a CNC prototype shop in Red Woodcity, NorCal. A business associate was doing most of the work machining new components for them. Jobst Brandt was deeply involved in the project.

Unlike many small component manufacturers in the US who's designs were really cobby and crude looking, Avocet's designs and cosmetics exceeded those of Campagnolo. Plus they made improvements to the short comings of some Campy components.

Some small batches of headsets and maybe some hubs made it into the distribution pipeline. I think that these old pictures were of one of their original headsets??? The seatposts were made somewhere else.





I think that the original plan was to design and develop components then have them made by someone else. Apparently a "business decision" was made to have existing products private labeled and that's where Ofmega and maybe another European company took over.

Avocet saddles where designed and produced in Italy by ​​​​Selle Italia. They were the first truly ergonomically designed bicycle seat system. The saddles were sold globally under several other marques. We could buy them from Cycles Andre Bertin / Milremo in France. BTW, I placed an order for at least one of every style when they were first announced.... Almost a year latter the first one came in, a Woman's Racing 1. Being it was the Silicon Gulch, vaporware was par for the course.

Contrary to different claims Jobst Brandt while still working for HP in Palo Alto, was heavily involved in the Avocet Cyclometer project. I was given a pre-production sample to evaluate. Note the wiring connectors. Never did get around to trying it but donated it to a SoCal collector a few years back.



Meet me at the church wall at sunrise.... hahaha

verktyg

The Golden Boy 

Avocet parts have always had an attraction for me. I have one of these cranks on my 1985 Trek 400 Elance. I also have a seat post on my Trek TX700, a wheel set with Avocet sealed bearing hubs and a few Avocet saddles.

For as ubiquitous as Avocet saddles are- they’re really good. There’s a chart/ad out there detailing the differences between the Racing and Touring saddles and the I, II and III models. I have several Touring II and one Racing I.

As far as the crank- for being conceived as a “touring” crank, the BCDs do not allow for lower geared chainrings. I think the BCDs are 144, 102 and 74. IIRC mine came as a 52-49-24 triple. I acquired some drilled RINO 50-41 rings and a Campagnolo 28. It’s a beautiful looking crank, but I’ve heard stories about them breaking at the pedal eyes.

https://flic.kr/p/23dtuYs

JohnDThompson 

No, they contracted with others to make parts under the Avocet name, mostly rebranded existing models. The Avocet cycle computer is the only component designed in-house AFAIK.

Ofmega made the cranks, hubs, and pedals. Sella Italia made the first saddles, later moved to USA production. I used to know who made the seat posts and headsets but it doesn't come to mind at the moment. They were made in Italy, however. Tires were from National in Japan, IIRC.

capnjonny 

Thanks for all the info folks. I am going to hold on to this and maybe use it for an upcoming hipster build I have in mind. Thinking something like a 1 x 9 with flip flop bars and bar end 9 spd shifter. Looking for a light frame at the Bike Exchange that I can build up .

Here is my latest build, a 1987 Peugeot .

79pmooney

Brain fog last night. Ofmega, not Miche. I knew that.

Both my Avocet seats were made in Italy and served me like I expect a Sella Italia seat to. The one crankset I owned and two seatposts; different story entirely. A crash, a very painful 50 miles to get home and the click sound (and felt through the whole bike) of the seatpost cracking on a 14% downhill. Seat fell off two miles later. 4 failures in three units. I don't kill seatpost or cranks. (Well, I used to wear out my winter cranks rubbing them with my gritty winter shoes/boots/toe warmers and my inclination to slide my feet inboard so I have a box of Suginos with 1/4" polished off the outside. )

unworthy1

I used and liked the Avocet triple crank I rode BITD, but there were stories a-plenty of them cracking, usually at those additional tapped holes in the spider arms which was the main selling feature, but apparently were stress-risers, too.
Oh yeah, as well as "...I’ve heard stories about them breaking at the pedal eyes."
Mine never failed on me, but I sold the bike it was on before piling on a lot of miles.
Maybe the fail-rate was about the same per capita as the Campy cranks infamously cracking at the sharp edges where crank-arm meets the spider...?

79pmooney

I watched two Campy cranks break; from the front-row seat of being on that rider's wheel in races. But - Campy's were ridden by everybody who raced. Those without the bucks used old ones. Some of those old ones were ridden by strong riders. The cranks I saw break might well have had far harder lives than my Avocet ridden only by skinny me. (There was a reason I was on their wheel and not the other way around!)

squirtdad

this is my understanding also Ofmega made avocet cranks

noglider 

Yup, Ofmega, and back in 1981 or so, I thought it was the ultimate crank, because what couldn't it do? I've never had one.

I remember when Brandt wrote on Usenet about the design of the computer. Yes, he had a big hand in it. It was unlike all others. The others have a single magnet which passes the sensor once per revolution. The Avocet, had a constant magnet always near the sensor, and as he explained, the sensor would measure amplitude and create a sine wave. He said that this would prevent false readings from "bounces," and he said that all of the normal type create bounces. This leads to very high readings every so often.

I used a couple of the computers, and I didn't measure the accuracy, but they were reliable.

philbob57

I bought what I thought were Avocet sealed bearing hubs in '81. In a sealed package. Actually, they were cone/cup hubs, which I didn't figure out until 2016 or so. They were packed with lots of grease which seems to have stayed fresh.

If memory serves - and it might not, alas - didn't the Ofmega cranks have weird dimension, so they need Ofmega BBs?

My Avocet seat, which I think was purchased in 1982, is still going strong, as are the jersey and shorts I bough the year they came out. (Of course, they've been sitting in a draw since 1991, which is when they became too small.)

unworthy1

In my experience the cranks that Ofmega made for Avocet did NOT have the "proprietary spindle taper" than some of the Ofmega-branded cranks did indeed have.
So Avocet-branded cranks could use any of the Campy-or-Campy-compatible spindles without a hitch.

verktyg 

From the 1978-79 Avocet catalog:





I left the bike business in 1979. Avocet offered some really great products but so many of them were vaporware that we tended to give up on trying to sell them. Frequently when we got a product in, the next time we went to reorder it was no longer available and the replacement product was on back order. That left a bad taste in my mouth and I lost interest.

I guess that I forgot that Avocet was selling hubs and headsets in the late 70's....

These brand stickers from the 70's were still on one of the windows of our long closed shop in NM when I visited there in 2014.



I was surprised when I wondered into Avocet's machine shop in the summer of 1982. There were no markings on the building not even a street number. The shop was full of brand new top quality equipment including a CNC lathe and mill. Since they were making prototype products they didn't want to talk much but I got the idea that they were planning on having someone in the US or a European manufacture that they could have better control over than Ofmega make their products. By 1983 or so the venture "vaporized".

Thanks for posting that old info...

I'm thinking that the early Ofmega cranks were non standard. Later they became interchangeable (to a degree) with Campy and Sugino as advertised by Avocet???

Early Avocet BBs may have used the bastardo Ofmega BB design. I have a NIB Avocet replacement BB spindle. It lists crossovers for Campy/Sugino and T.A./Stronglight. The workmanship is quite cobby.




The finish quality of this 1984 Ofmega BB spindle is much higher, plus it's probably made of a steel alloy similar to US 4340 Nickel Chrome Moly.



Avocet cranks from their 1985 catalog courtesy of the velo-pages website: https://www.velo-pages.com/main.php?g2_itemId=47

verktyg