Friday, July 15, 2011

Bottom Brackets and the Wonders of the Internet......

So, the only part missing from my group on my Super Record group was the bottom bracket. I've been watching Ebay to see what pops up, but the prices for a Super Record BB are pretty high.

I remembered that I grew up working with the local Campag dealer when I was a shop mechanic. He had closed his shop by then, but during the 80's and the Lemond era, he was the go to guy in my town for anything Italian. I called him to see if he had a BB, and after looking in his parts bin, he found one. He provided 3/16 bearings in the original Campag grease for the set as well. Perfect!

Well, not quite perfect. I installed the BB and there was absolutely no way it was going to be adjusted correctly. When the BB was tightened appropriately, it looked like it would fit a 64mm BB shell instead of the 70 that any Italian threaded bike would.

Enter http://www.velobase.com/ What do I find there, but the different BB's Campag sold over time, plus the bearing size used by each. Turns out many of them used 1/4" bearings instead of 3/16. That made for quite an easy fix. Now I just have to go find some 1/4 bearings.....

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