Precision Tooling is a family owned machine business that has machined parts from metal for different companies over time. For a period they were the sub-contracting firm making CQP cranks. The relationship with CQP faded and John Trenerry and his father Phil worked out an exciting and stylish design for a crank arm set. Phil's knowledge of metals helped make the arms strong though they appeared delicate. There was initial un-certainty about whether the family should be bold enough to enter the bicycle parts market on their own, under their own name. As it turns out Phil Trenerry had known John Grafton for many years and Grafton's first cantilever brake had been successful. Grafton had been prevailed by others make an entrance in the crank market and the Trenerry's crank held promise though they again were reluctant. The Trenerrys agreed to make the crank they had designed and let Grafton market them. The crankset's popularity and the Grafton name identification lead to immediate market interest. After about a years time we started to be sold the cranks directly from Topline, (which is also known as Precision Tooling), because their verbal contract with Grafton had crumbled. The design remained rightly in the Trenerry hands and they have become very successful using their own name in marketing their own cranks. We've found that generally when splits like this occur, there is usually a problem related to sub- contractors being paid for their work. Have you noticed how similar the Sims cranks are to the last version of Grafton cranks? It's not a well kept secret that Sims was the sub-contractor used to make Grafton cranks after Precision Tooling (Topline)/Grafton relationship ended.
Top Line also produces a road bike version of their crank arm set. They are made nearly the same as their famous mountain bike cranks. Each of the arms is turned on a lathe making the smooth and rounded shape. The backside of the arms, like the Mountain arms, is milled away slightly. This is so the right arm doesn't interfere with the front derailleur. The top and bottom of each arm is milled with a groove that gradually widens as it moves from the pedal toward the bottom bracket. These grooves reduce the weight of the crankset. The spider is machined from 6.32mm thick aluminum plate. The primary difference in these cranks, naturally, is the spider. On the road version, because there is no inner chainring, each of the spider arms has the center milled away from the top. The road cranks have same pedal fitting, where the pedal ball is drilled and threaded without piercing through the backside of the arm. These are elegantly fashioned while loosing none of their utility, and will give any bike a functional, one-off appearance. Topline Road cranks use the 130mm chainring bolt pattern and do not come with chainrings, chainring fixing bolts or crank arm dust caps (Sims or Cooks are recommended). These you will need separately. The Road arms are made only in Black or High Polished Silver and come in 170mm, 172.5mm, 175mm, 177.5mm, or 180mm lengths. We found the Road arms to have a Bike-Pro Q measurement of 150mm. The 170mm arm set, with spider in Silver weighs just 363 grams, the 172.5 set weighs 369 grams. Please be certain to specify length.
Size-170-172-175-177-180 / $ Price in Catalog
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