Eric, Chuck is right, SR bb axels BREAK! Brittle pure titanium out of Russia. I broke one (not race damaged)@ 1980-81. Pushed off w/ my right foot as always when the light went green, left foot in, press doooowwwn. It just kept goin, kinda sidways. Broke like a bar of ivory soap: real soft, not"snap". In April of this year I "snaped " an old Phil Wood axel(origin unknown, bought used ): at @28 mph on the first down stroke on the right crank of a down hill sprint. The guy behind me still dosen"t believe what he saw. If we only had the video tape. Almost managed to keep her upright too. Bret at Phil says it was most likely scratched by a droped chain = stress riser. The new Phils are made of a more "bend not snap" type of steel. But thats all another story. The moral is: stuff breaks, old stuff breaks. Really nice and rare old stuff. In all conditions. It may or may not have been previously damaged (microscopic).IMHO, Don't tempt the bike gods on this one. But the broken stuff sure does look great on the shelf. And oh those stories! ciao, John T.Pergolizzi
> Eric Elman wrote:
> >
> > I've never owned a bicycle with Campagnolo SR titanium bits on it. My
> > "normal" weight is about 180 and I fluctuate about 5 pounds either way
over
> > the course of a year. I'm a fairly fast rider that likes hills (good
thing
> > too, here in Somers, CT!); I rarely do gentle but long rides. So my
> > question, with all I've heard about pedal axles and crank spindles
bending -
> > are they true? Could I have them on a bicycle of mine and expect them
to
> > last over a period of years that would be mostly a special Sunday ride?
> > Just how easily do they bend?
>
>
> Just my experience here, Eric. I started riding when the Super Record
> ti stuff was new, and some of my bikes are equipped that way. The ti
> axles and spindles don't bend, they break. But I haven't broke any of
> the ti stuff in 25 years of pretty much riding every day (not the same
> bike everyday however).
>
> The people I know that have broken ti axles and spindles made it a habit
> of striking their pedals in corners during crit races. You can imagine
> what kind of shock loading that would put on bb spindles and pedal
> axles! (BTW the Campagnolo catalogs call 'em spindles and axles
> interchangeably depending on what catalog you look in.) Then again, the
> guys that hit their pedals routinely in turns broke everything (ever
> seen a twisted Campagnolo steel crank spindle?).
>
> Chuck Schmidt
> South Pasadena, Southern California
> http://www.velo-retro.com (reprints, T-shirts and Campagnolo Timeline)