The black speckles are pitting and are typical of un-anodized aluminum bike parts. On SR/NR stuff these parts include the shifters, ft der, clamps, pedal bodies, hub shells, and seat posts. Rear hubs and 'posts are particularly troublsome since they tend to see the most sweat from the rider. I'm certain that unanodized cranks would be a real nightmare to keep looking good. My experience is that pits are very difficult to remove. They are much deeper than you might expect. I've had posts that I sanded down, starting with coarse (!) emery cloth and moving to finer grits, then Scotchbrite pads and 0000 steel wool, finally finishing with Flitz polish. After all that, many of the pits remained. I'd say learn to live with the pits, and keep them in check by wiping down the cranks after each ride. A mild ammonia solution (Windex) is helpful, I think because of some ion exchange process. Tom Dalton Bethlehem, PA Eric Elman <tr4play@cox.net> wrote: I know that the Campy NR/SR cranks with the "Mexico" treatment had been discussed a long time ago but I admit I was not paying much attention back then. Couple of questions. 1. What company did the machining and polishing? 2. Where they all done exactly the same or are there differences? 3. Were they available only on certain bikes (like my OLMO) or available individually? 4. Were they regular cranks that were de-anodized then machined? 5. Were they always polished aluminium and not anodized? On this last question, up till now I have only seen polished ones but I just recieved some jpegs of a very nice OLMO for sale on the Campy Only site. This OLMO has the Mexico'd cranks but while the arms are polished and shiny, the spider part is anodized just like normal. How could this affect be achieved and how common was this effect on them? 6. Lastly, my set is all polished aluminium but despite how much I polish and buff them they have darker "stains/speckles" about the size of crushed pepper in them that will not come out. The stains are only noticable when you look closely but are there none the less - any ideas on the cause and any possible way to eliminate these dark marks?
Eric "full'a questions tonight" Elman Somers, CT
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