In a message dated 4/26/02 2:18:57 PM Pacific Daylight Time, tom_s_dalton@yahoo.com writes:
<< Among tandem riders (who are harder on equipment in general), when all else has been destroyed or has failed, they turn to Phil equipment. The consensus among tandem riders is that the Phil hubs hold up best. But they are among the heaviest, which is not a big deal for tandem teams. >>
It was only the very first batch of hubs that had failures. The later ones
are quite reliable. My point, and this was from when they WERE failing, is
that he should have recalled them and he didn't. Same with the bottom bracket
axles. I don't care how good the stuff is now, I won't touch it because I
can't trust Phil with my life. I've broken two Campy bb axles. They were slow
radial failures, that were inconvenient, but they didn't just snap off. The
second one was about 5 miles into the start of the Marin Century. I pedaled
back to my car with only the right crank attached to the bike, drove to
Sausalito, bought and installed my first Nadax cartridge bottom bracket, and
finished the century with a shot right leg. I haven't had a Campy bb on my
serious bike since. The Phil bb axles that I have seen fail, sheared off
where they exited the bearing. They didn't look like progressive (benign)
failures to me. It would be interesting to ask Phil how many have failed.
Incidentally, a friend of mine snapped a Shimano Dura Ace DynaDrive bb axle
in a hammer down sprint and broke his pelvis in the crash. Riding style
probably is a contributing factor. In the old days, I did a lot of climbing
in the big ring, and that is harder on bb axles than spinning. I'm older and
I'm not such a masher any more.
Stevan Thomas
Alameda, CA