Re: [CR]Campagnolo TBS Pedal - another perspective

(Example: History:Ted Ernst)

Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2002 13:38:13 -0700 (Pacific Daylight Time)
From: "Marc Boral" <mbikealive@dslextreme.com>
References: <20020617193355.35795.qmail@web10908.mail.yahoo.com>
To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Subject: Re: [CR]Campagnolo TBS Pedal - another perspective


Good post Tom. I don't agree with all your observations/pitfalls, but I do with some. Also, I rode them for just a few rides only. The fact that you had more experience riding them really sheds light on their "real world" performance. Hmmm, I am going to have to rethink my opinion on these. You were correct about the "replaceable cage" evolution. My turn for a brainfart. ;-)

Anybody else in the group care to share their experiences riding the Record TBS pedals?

Oh, crap! I just realized that this subject is too recent to be discussed on the CR list. Sorry..........Nevermind.

Marc Boral Long Beach, CA

-------Original Message-------

From: Tom Dalton Date: Monday, June 17, 2002 12:36:43 To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: [CR]Campagnolo TBS Pedal - another perspective

Okay, so I'll add my personal opinion too. I used these pedals briefly, for a few months in the early '90's. I had previously used SL road pedals. I did not like these pedals. I switched back to SLs and eventually found some Ergos. For me, the Ergos were better than the TBS, but I soon got the employee deal on Times and haven't looked back. Complaints about TBS: Number one complaint was that the rear cages were too delicate. They seem to have been made from a more brittle alloy than SLs, or maybe the metal was thinner. In any case, the pieces above and below the strap were very narrow. The design also left the quill danging in the breeze rather than being a self-supporting arch, like on the SL road pedal. Given that SL cages would sometimes get scraped in a crash, the replaceability was a nice idea. The down side was that I needed to replace them both after dropping the bike one time. The cage that the bike fell on snapped off, and that's acceptable, I suppose. But the cage on the other side was cacked just from the tension of the strap.

By the way, the TBS was the third Campy pedal with a replaceable rear cage and the second Campy pedal with a quill to route the strap through AND two replaceable cages. The single cage on the platform pedal was replaceable and both cages on the Ergo were replaceable. The TBS and Ergo used the same ft cage, except the TBS was hard anodized. The rears were different because the Ergo used four fixing screws. A friend who used the Ergos for a long time had lots of trouble with the cages. They would also slowly collapse due to strap tension. Also, some late platform pedals came through with the Ergo cages, so they had quills.

The strap routing on the TBS was a problem. There was a narrow slot to route the strap through on the inside half of the body, but only the cage held the strap on the outside half. The Ergo was like the SL (and most other pedals) so the strap was held securely on both sides of the pedal body. With the TBS the hole in the quill was big and it allowed the strap to float around and slip, causing the buckle position to change. I fixed the strap to the body with a small zip tie, but that's was a bit cheesey for my taste.

The mirror-polish body, with the clear anodizing, looked really nice when new. But given that it was a pedal body, the underside was pretty gouged up by my cleat hardware after a few rides. The shape of the underside also made pulling away from a stoplight a bit dicey. Since the bottom was curved your foot could slip off more easily. The SL and Ergo had high point were each bearing was, which tended to keep your foot on center.

The TBS bearing setup was pretty suspect. Mine felt pretty rough from the start, so I pumped some grease into the port. They remained rough, so I bought the special wrench and took them apart. The innermost race, the adjustable one, was finished with a kind of powder coat, including the race itself. Kinda cheesy, not nice like virtually all other Campy bearing stuff. An overhaul to remove the debris helped the bearings, but they were still a little stiff. The overhaul itself was more difficult on the SL or Ergo (which shared internals).

I question how much added clearance there was with these pedals. The outer end sat higher off the ground, but also further outboard, for some reason. As I recall the tops of the cages are further from the center of the axle, which raises the rider and increases rocking torque. If the pedal had better clearence, it was at least in part due to these compromises, rather than the "better" bearing. I also wonder how much more that pedal weighed due to that bulky bearing. When Campy stole this design from Campy, they scaled it up so that the end product was about the size of previous Campy pedals. The Dura Ace platform pedal was really compact. I never used the DA and I suspect they would have been too compact for me, but at least they really did have better clearance.

Marc Boral <mbikealive@dslextreme.com> wrote: I'd like to add my personal opinion on these pedals. I think these Record TBS pedals came out about 1990. I feel this was Campy's best pedal ever, up to that year, except for its price......yikes!. They finally made a toe strap pedal with a removable/replaceable cage..........HALALUJEA! It's a great design - from the bearing system to the increased cornering angle, and of course the impeccable polish/finish. Campy chose to use stainless steel fixing bolts for the rear cage, but chose steel for the front......I don't understand that decision. Anyway, great pedal.

Campy's CDA is virtually the same pedal without the removable rear cage plate, and CDA's plates were anodized silver instead of Record's black. Same quality of mirror polish on the body.

Marc Boral Los Altos Ave.

-------Original Message-------

From: Marc Boral Date: Monday, June 17, 2002 10:05:02 To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: Re: [CR]Campagnolo Pedal ID

Wayne,

Those are Campy Record TBS (Triple Bearing System) pedals. They were top of the line. They were not designed specifically for track.

Marc Boral Long Beach, CA

-------Original Message-------

From: Bingham, Wayne R. Date: Monday, June 17, 2002 07:17:21 To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: [CR]Campagnolo Pedal ID

Whew. The list is back!

Can anyone positively ID the Campy pedals in this ebay auction? I have a pair, and I actually have them mounted on a track bike, but I didn't think they were really track pedals. Are they? What model? Possibly C-Rec or Croche?

http://ebay.com/<blah>

Wayne Bingham Falls Church, VA _______________________________________________

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