Re: [CR]Campy Triple BB / Phil Wood Triple BB / Amer. Classic

(Example: Framebuilders:Alberto Masi)

Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 07:57:19 -0400
From: "Daniel Artley" <dartley@co.ba.md.us>
To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Subject: Re: [CR]Campy Triple BB / Phil Wood Triple BB / Amer. Classic
cc: internet-bob@bikelist.org

With all this talk of the Campy triple, I figured I'd post the cobbled version that I have. Its the conversion that I'd heard about it the '70's where a standard crank was drilled and tapped with a 74 mm bolt circle, standard Campy bolts were used with an Avocet chainring, in my case a 28. Rather than getting a standard Campy triple axle, I found out (forget where) that a Campy cyclocross axle and the older style BB with the thin cups was a good match. I was trying to get the crank as close as possible to the BB for the half step plus granny chainline. The cyclocross setup needed a 1 mm spacer on the fixed cup side, but ended up giving me just about the narrowest triple Q factor on earth. Unfortunately, in about a year the BB fixed cup was toast and I ended up going with a lighter, more adjustable American Classic Ti setup that's still in use to this day. I've used the Phil Wood triple setup on my PX-10 way back in the early 70's and because the bearings were so far inboard, it just seemed that the axle flexed more than I liked. I'm not sure that American Classic is time line on topic, but I've had great success with them and bearing sets are a snap to replace.

Dan Artley, still trying to find time to post Cirque shots Parkton, Maryland