A 110 BCD triplizer from Interloc Racing Designs. The design is a little swoopy for my taste, but it does the job. The Red Clover Components site has been on its feet for just over a year now, and has had enough visitors that it pops up at the top of the results page when you go to Google and type in the word “triplizer.”
On the other hand, the variant spellings “triple-izer” or “tripleizer” don’t take you there so directly. I might be able to help the search engine along by including those spellings on the site from time to time, but I've resisted doing that because I don’t like either one.
The first is awkward, and the second—if you adhere to the sturdy old i-before-e-except-after-c rule—would be pronounced “triple-azer.” (Or—if you follow the example of the word “seize”—“triple-ezer”.) After 30 years as a writer and editor, it’s hard for me to deliberately misspell a word, even if it works to my benefit.
My top-of-the-search-results position means that I also hear from quite a few riders who want to know if I’d consider making 46-tooth 151 BCD triplizer for pre-1967 Campagnolo cranks, a 38-tooth 128 BCD triplizer for an old Nervar crank, or maybe a 35-tooth standard ring for a 116 BCD 3-bolt Campagnolo crank.
The answer, I regret to say, is “no.” It evidently is possible to run a successful small business machining one-of-a kind rings on a custom basis--Highpath Engineering in Wales once offered this service—but that’s not a business I know how to make work.
So although I may expand my product line a bit someday, for now I’m only making three specific rings—two triplizers and one low-tooth-count inner ring for a double—that have fairly broad appeal for old-bike nerds, which allows me to make them in batches of a couple of dozen or so at a time.
Oh, what the hell! Make that “two tripleizers or triple-izers and one low-tooth-count inner ring for a double.”
Google, please take note.
Other Triplizers
In my capacity as Triplizer Czar, I also get fairly frequent inquiries from people looking for triplizer rings for current-production 110, 130, and 135 BCD cranksets. Here I can offer some good news: I don’t make triplizers in those sizes, but only because several other manufacturers already do. If you’re looking for a triplizer in one of those three sizes, here’s where to find it.
Interloc Racing Designs/IRD (http://www.interlocracing.com/) makes a 110 BCD chainring that comes in 36- and 34-tooth versions. The IRD triplizer is compatible with any five-arm 110 BCD cranks except modern Campagnolo “hidden bolt” models, which have four mounting bolts on a 110 mm circle and the fifth at 112. It accepts any 74 BCD inner ring.
The French component manufacturer Specialities TA (http://www.specialites-ta.com/gb/produits-rte.html) makes a 110 BCD triplizer ring called the Zephyr K, which is available in 36-, 38-, and 40-tooth versions. TA also makes the 130 BCD Alize K triplizer ring—available in 38, 39, 40, and 42 teeth—and the 135 BCD Vento K in 39, 40,and 42 teeth.
All of the TA triplizers have permanently swaged-in-place chainring nuts for the 74 BCD inner ring. That makes assembly a bit easier compared to the IRD and Red Clover Components triplizers, which use separate inner nuts, but if you manage to strip one of them you're out of luck.
None of the TA triplizer rings seem to be readily available in the U.S., although several online retailers in France and the U.K. will apparently ship them internationally. If you’re sufficiently determined and not in a big hurry for delivery, you should be able to find a source with the help of our old friend Google.
Finally, Stronglight (http://www.stronglight.com) makes what it calls an “intermediare porteur triple” (a phrase unhelpfully translated by Babelfish as “triple bearing intermediate”) for 130 BCD cranksets. It comes in an unusually wide range of sizes: 38, 39, 40, 42, 44, and 46 teeth, making it a promising candidate for some half-step-and-granny setups. It’s carried by XXcycle (http://www.xxcycle.com), a French online retailer that I’ve had good experiences with when ordering some other hard-to-find components.
Cognitive Dissonance
Unfortunately, pictures of the Stronglight triplizer leave me baffled. It seems to me that the inner arms on the chainring—which contain the mounting holes for the inner granny ring, and are aligned with the outer 130 BCD mounting holes—would unavoidably interfere with the “ledges” found on the inner face of most crankset spiders. (The Red Clover Components 144 triplizer—like the now-discontinued TA triplizer of the same size--uses a similar in-line design, but incorporates a rectangular “window” to accommodate the crankarm ledges.)
I can imagine that the Stronglight triplizer would work if those crankarm ledges were removed with a grinding wheel. But I can’t imagine that a manufacturer of Stronglight’s stature would sell a chainring that requires structural modifications to any crankset meant to accept it.
Is there anyone out there who has actually used Stronglight’s intermediare porteur triple? If there is, please get in touch and explain to me how it works. My curiosity is strong on this point--although not quite strong enough that I’m ready to buy one of the rings and puzzle it out for myself.
On the other hand, the variant spellings “triple-izer” or “tripleizer” don’t take you there so directly. I might be able to help the search engine along by including those spellings on the site from time to time, but I've resisted doing that because I don’t like either one.
The first is awkward, and the second—if you adhere to the sturdy old i-before-e-except-after-c rule—would be pronounced “triple-azer.” (Or—if you follow the example of the word “seize”—“triple-ezer”.) After 30 years as a writer and editor, it’s hard for me to deliberately misspell a word, even if it works to my benefit.
My top-of-the-search-results position means that I also hear from quite a few riders who want to know if I’d consider making 46-tooth 151 BCD triplizer for pre-1967 Campagnolo cranks, a 38-tooth 128 BCD triplizer for an old Nervar crank, or maybe a 35-tooth standard ring for a 116 BCD 3-bolt Campagnolo crank.
The answer, I regret to say, is “no.” It evidently is possible to run a successful small business machining one-of-a kind rings on a custom basis--Highpath Engineering in Wales once offered this service—but that’s not a business I know how to make work.
So although I may expand my product line a bit someday, for now I’m only making three specific rings—two triplizers and one low-tooth-count inner ring for a double—that have fairly broad appeal for old-bike nerds, which allows me to make them in batches of a couple of dozen or so at a time.
Oh, what the hell! Make that “two tripleizers or triple-izers and one low-tooth-count inner ring for a double.”
Google, please take note.
Other Triplizers
In my capacity as Triplizer Czar, I also get fairly frequent inquiries from people looking for triplizer rings for current-production 110, 130, and 135 BCD cranksets. Here I can offer some good news: I don’t make triplizers in those sizes, but only because several other manufacturers already do. If you’re looking for a triplizer in one of those three sizes, here’s where to find it.
Interloc Racing Designs/IRD (http://www.interlocracing.com/) makes a 110 BCD chainring that comes in 36- and 34-tooth versions. The IRD triplizer is compatible with any five-arm 110 BCD cranks except modern Campagnolo “hidden bolt” models, which have four mounting bolts on a 110 mm circle and the fifth at 112. It accepts any 74 BCD inner ring.
The French component manufacturer Specialities TA (http://www.specialites-ta.com/gb/produits-rte.html) makes a 110 BCD triplizer ring called the Zephyr K, which is available in 36-, 38-, and 40-tooth versions. TA also makes the 130 BCD Alize K triplizer ring—available in 38, 39, 40, and 42 teeth—and the 135 BCD Vento K in 39, 40,and 42 teeth.
All of the TA triplizers have permanently swaged-in-place chainring nuts for the 74 BCD inner ring. That makes assembly a bit easier compared to the IRD and Red Clover Components triplizers, which use separate inner nuts, but if you manage to strip one of them you're out of luck.
None of the TA triplizer rings seem to be readily available in the U.S., although several online retailers in France and the U.K. will apparently ship them internationally. If you’re sufficiently determined and not in a big hurry for delivery, you should be able to find a source with the help of our old friend Google.
Finally, Stronglight (http://www.stronglight.com) makes what it calls an “intermediare porteur triple” (a phrase unhelpfully translated by Babelfish as “triple bearing intermediate”) for 130 BCD cranksets. It comes in an unusually wide range of sizes: 38, 39, 40, 42, 44, and 46 teeth, making it a promising candidate for some half-step-and-granny setups. It’s carried by XXcycle (http://www.xxcycle.com), a French online retailer that I’ve had good experiences with when ordering some other hard-to-find components.
Cognitive Dissonance
Unfortunately, pictures of the Stronglight triplizer leave me baffled. It seems to me that the inner arms on the chainring—which contain the mounting holes for the inner granny ring, and are aligned with the outer 130 BCD mounting holes—would unavoidably interfere with the “ledges” found on the inner face of most crankset spiders. (The Red Clover Components 144 triplizer—like the now-discontinued TA triplizer of the same size--uses a similar in-line design, but incorporates a rectangular “window” to accommodate the crankarm ledges.)
I can imagine that the Stronglight triplizer would work if those crankarm ledges were removed with a grinding wheel. But I can’t imagine that a manufacturer of Stronglight’s stature would sell a chainring that requires structural modifications to any crankset meant to accept it.
Is there anyone out there who has actually used Stronglight’s intermediare porteur triple? If there is, please get in touch and explain to me how it works. My curiosity is strong on this point--although not quite strong enough that I’m ready to buy one of the rings and puzzle it out for myself.
What am I not understanding here? How can this possibly fit on a standard crankarm spider?
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