hello everybody.
i don't see any inconsistency between what bryant said and what dirk has always heard/known. bryant did not say that campagnolo went so far as to do the pantographing on the mexico cranks. bryant only said that campagnolo did the crank modifications, meaning re-shape and milling.
i didn't know and never would have guessed that campy did it's own mexico mods, but that alone is not reason enough to refute what bryant said. why is it so hard to believe that campagnolo made blank mexico cranks? not all mexico cranks are pantographed. i've had three that were blanks, on a casati, a guerciotti and a cinelli.
another thing that bryant didn't say is that campagnolo was the only one making mexico modifications. i would have found that hard to believe. instead, i believe that campagnolo wasn't the only company making these mods. as greg softley pointed out, there are variations/differences from one mexico crank to the next. this together with the other tell-tale signs he mentioned, really do support the theory that at some point in time, just like in pantographing, there were at least a few companies and/or independent craftsmen who you could send your cranks to, to get them "mexicanized."
for all we know, when the campagnolo guy told bryant "we make them," what he really should have said is "we send them out to a couple of guys we know who do really good work."
in any event, with respect to the variations/differences themselves, there are a few. i have posted some comparative photos of two blank mexico cranks, one on a cinelli laser and the other on a guerciotti. to sumarize what you will see, while i don't dispute that campagnolo made mexico cranks, and they may very well have made the one on the guerciotti, i don't think they made the one on the cinelli. just my opinion. now for the link:
http://www.raydobbins.com/
ray dobbins miami, florida
John Jorgensen <designzero@earthlink.net> wrote: Campagnolo itself performing the modifications makes sense, it helps explain the Cinelli's that came through the bike shop in 1974 that had the "Mexico" shape but were annodized. Cool styling on them, pointing the way perhaps to the shaping of C Record... and I will stop right there.
John Jorgensen Torrance Ca
Looking forward to the arrival of a new to me California built bike from the 70's... stay tuned.