garth libre wrote:
Now I am not a real bicycle mechanic, but I have never experienced any = rear axle breakage. This week I am reading about guys on this list = breaking classic Campy narrow and semi narrow hubs.
<snip> Is it really true that guys just a little heavier than I am can break a = classic Campy narrow axle? What about Suntour and Shimano?
Garth, In my experience broken axles do happen, but not as often as bent ones. I rode quite a while (I think) with a broken axle on a Suntour Cyclone rear. It was all held together by the skewer, and didn't notice till I took the wheel off. I've heard, and this is just anecdotal, that the 126 mm Campy (6-speed) setups were more likely to bend axles than the 120 mm 5 - speed. I did not bed a 120 mm in tandem use. The ones that really struck me as peculiar were the old Brit hubs, both S/A and freewheel, with flatted axles to fit the old-style narrow British dropouts. The drops were narrow to help the torque reaction washers on the Sturmey hubs, and just got carried over to the FW hubs. Thinnest in the vertical direction, which receives the greatest impact loads. I had buddies in college who made Chrome Moly axles for replacements, in the student shop.
Oh, well.
harvey sachs
mclean va