When I was racing, beginning of the 80s, I couldn't really afford an all Campy bike. So my bikes were always (and still are) a mix of parts. Anyway, at that time, I got to know the importance of the rattail file. Not only for Campy cranks though, similar designs of other brands had the same problem. Some of those I had, like Ofmega and Mavic. I think the Edco Competition cranks were the first well-designed cranks on my bike!
To this day, I have this mental picture of my LBS guy opening a drawer full of broken Campy parts, most of them cranks and of course some ti pedal and bb spindles, all of it to be returned for warranty. Apart from the ti spindles as I just learned, Campy went on producing these parts for years. An endearing quality, when you look back on it?
Freek Faro Rotterdam Netherlands
-----Oorspronkelijk bericht----- Van: classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org [mailto:classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org] Namens gpvb1@comcast.net Verzonden: maandag 18 juli 2005 15:48 Aan: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Onderwerp: Re: [CR] Viscount Forks and Campy Death Cranks
Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 20:18:15 -0700 From: Jan Heine <heine93@earthlink.net> To: john@os2.dhs.org, classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: Re: [CR] Viscount Forks and Campy Death Cranks
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In Italy, few people would even consider commuting on a Campy-equipped race bike... I believe that American cycling habits stress bikes more than what they were designed to do.
Of course, that does not mean that it would not have been better if Campy had got rid of that stress riser in the spider a little early than the 1980s... According to Daniel Rebour, Campy cranks started failing as they went from the first model with the thicker arm to the thinner arms in an effort to reduce Q factor, around 1962 (for the source, check the CR archives).
But when a true problem appeared, like with the early Ti BBs, they did redesign them rather quickly...
Just for the record, does anybody know whether Fignon went down because of a crank or a BB failure? Most failures in races in Germany that I remember were BBs, not cranks... -- Jan Heine, Seattle Editor/Publisher Vintage Bicycle Quarterly c/o Il Vecchio Bicycles 140 Lakeside Ave, Ste. C Seattle WA 98122 http://www.vintagebicyclepress.com ------------------------------
Ti BB spindle failure, definitely. Sheared off just about flush with the left-hand BB cup, IIRC. The scary bit is that it was probably the later-type solid Ti spindle..... I'd wager that incident had a lot to do with Campy's withdrawal of the SR BB from the market (if my chronology is correct...).
I don't believe Laurent broke any bones in that incident, but I'm not 100% sure about that aspect of it. He was mightily upset / dejected over it, that's for sure. The picture of him literally sitting in the road, looking down the course as the other leaders faded into the distance, with his left crank and pedal assembly laying in the gutter, is very powerful indeed.
Greg Parker
Dexter, Michigan