[CR]Campagnolo Bearings

(Example: Bike Shops)

Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2002 20:10:16 -0500
From: "The Maaslands" <TheMaaslands@comcast.net>
To: Classic Rendezvous <Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Subject: [CR]Campagnolo Bearings

Greg,

SKF has long had a factory in Italy, just outside of Turin, that mainly produces bearings for the auto trade, but on good authority (a friend who does Swedish/English/Italian translations), they also produce for the bicycle trade. I take that means Campagnolo. SKF also has other factories throughout the world and I seriously doubt that Campagnolo received supply from the Swedish factory.
> I've said this before, but Campy's bearings were so good because they came
> from Sweden!! (Also, they spec'ed 'em tight, tight, tight...).
>
> I think Tullio spec'ed SKF bearings very early on in his career . I have an
> early Pista headset which has a navy blue box with an SKF logo on it - that's
> how proud he was of his choice of bearing supplier. They were undoubtably the
> most expensive available at the time, but guess what? They were the best!
> Back then, they were probably without peer in terms of surface hardness,
> roundness, general uniformity, and surface finish.
>

The last time that I was in Campagnolo (about 5 years ago), Valentino had very little true power in the company. It would seem that he was in fact in a bit of a power struggle with the adminstrators in charge of his mother's share of the company. Hopefully, this has since cleared up as he seemed to have a good head on his shoulders.
> Today, there are manufacturers that are roughly equal to SKF in quality (FAG,
> NTN, NSK, to name a few). I would guess that Valentino has changed where he
> buys bearings to reduce cost. Anyone know for sure?

Steven Maasland Moorestown, NJ

---