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I'm helping a friend service his late 80s/early 90s Peugeot Europa road bike for probably the first time since new. All good except the chainrings have are slightly out of true - if you look downwards through the front mech you can see them both get slightly closer than slightly further away from the cage of the mech by about 1mm.
Bottom bracket is square taper and seems fine, no play. Crankset is the original Stronglight one - looks fine.
Is this normal? I guess not.
Next step I'm going to try is to remove the chainrings and check for flatness on a granite floor tile.
Is it possible that the cranks aren't square on the taper?
unlikely that both chainrings are out of true by the same amount in the same place.
Is it possible that the cranks aren’t square on the taper?
Yup, or the axle's bent.
Fairly common issue on cheap chainsets.
Thanks, I might get all technical and get the dial gauge out!
Is it the kind of chainset where all the steel rings are riveted together?
Very common for the spider area to not be perfectly aligned. It can look like a bent axle because all the rings wobble in coordination.
take the crank off and rotate it one flat on the axle and see what happens
@sharkatack, no it's an aluminium crank where the 2 chainrings separate but use the same bolts.
Not at all uncommon on cheaper transmissions of the day.
Also not exaxtly a massive problem.
If it really is 1mm, probably best just ignore it.
It really was just the word Retro that hooked me.
Yea , as above. Fairly normal , and not a huge problem.
Unless , you are riding along , looking down , at your wobbly old chainrings, and inadvertently ride your bike off a cliff.
Or your mates bike.
Hope this helps.