1998 ZIPP CA 420 Carbon Road Crank Arms: World's 2nd Production Carbon Crank! 175mm - 130mm - Near Mint +

 These crank arms are an integral part of bicycling history, as they are the world's 2nd ever carbon crankset (1st was the ZIPP CA 380) available to the public!  They were released for public sale in 1998, and were made through 1999 at a retail price of $400.  They're absurdly rare, I've only seen one other in my career.

These are some very unique, otherworldly cranks!  Nothing quite like it was around at the time.  It features uni-directional carbon fiber arms, an aluminum spider and pedal insets. It's arms are ovaloid shaped and hollow,providing maximal aerodynamics and torsional stiffness.  In fact, it was 40% stiffer than the next closest crank from the era, and 63% stiffer than Dura Ace!. These would be awesome on a vintage road show bike, in a bicycle museum, or on your uber high end rider!  

Here is a technical description, straight from ZIPP's patent application:

We replaced the cranks with a new, better fitting, even stronger type, the aluminum spider ZIPP CA 420 model. Again we had hollow arms and an inset pedal lug and a keyed inset for the crank arm to attach to the bottom bracket. It weighed about 520g. Yes, it was a bit heavier in the crank, but in combination with the bottom bracket, now the Shimano spline model, it was 30-40g lighter. It was 40% stiffer in torsion than ANY crank we were able to test and 63% stiffer than the top cranks from Shimano and 58% stiffer than anything from Campagnolo. The crank was available in 170, 172.5, 175, 177.5 and 180mm. For 2 years it was the only crank aside from the Shimano that you could use with the Shimano bottom bracket. We made the crank through the end of 1999 and had them available through the first months of 2000. They retailed for $399.

It was pretty lonely building the only carbon crank set, so we discontinued the crank for a few years until 2005…then, boy,oh, boy, we decided to come back into the market! In late 2005 we introduced the model ZIPP 300 Crankset, the most beautiful, stylish and fully integrated model ever from the ZIPP enclave of cranks. In early 2006 we began shipping the Model ZIPP 300. The ZIPP 300 crankset is further improved upon for 2006 with the addition of the ZIPP 185 Titanium Bottom Bracket. The combination of the two components with ZIPP’s proprietary 6AI/4V hardware result in a Crank/BB system that is more than 100g lighter then the competing crank/BB systems.

Condition

Near mint VERY lightly used or maybe NOS take off!  The spider shows no signs a chainring has been installed.  The only wear anywhere is light clear coat wear on the face of the non-drive arm (near the middle).

Details

• Octalink V1 bottom bracket 
• Arm length: 175mm
• BCD: 130mm standard road double
• Black