Re: [CR]Phil Wood Hub Timeline?Quality?

(Example: Events)

From: <NortonMarg@aol.com>
Date: Sat, 27 Apr 2002 00:32:46 EDT
Subject: Re: [CR]Phil Wood Hub Timeline?Quality?
To: tom_s_dalton@yahoo.com, classicrendezvous@bikelist.org


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