Eric Elman wrote:
>
> I've never owned a bicycle with Campagnolo SR titanium bits on it. My
> "normal" weight is about 180 and I fluctuate about 5 pounds either way over
> the course of a year. I'm a fairly fast rider that likes hills (good thing
> too, here in Somers, CT!); I rarely do gentle but long rides. So my
> question, with all I've heard about pedal axles and crank spindles bending -
> are they true? Could I have them on a bicycle of mine and expect them to
> last over a period of years that would be mostly a special Sunday ride?
> Just how easily do they bend?
Just my experience here, Eric. I started riding when the Super Record ti stuff was new, and some of my bikes are equipped that way. The ti axles and spindles don't bend, they break. But I haven't broke any of the ti stuff in 25 years of pretty much riding every day (not the same bike everyday however).
The people I know that have broken ti axles and spindles made it a habit of striking their pedals in corners during crit races. You can imagine what kind of shock loading that would put on bb spindles and pedal axles! (BTW the Campagnolo catalogs call 'em spindles and axles interchangeably depending on what catalog you look in.) Then again, the guys that hit their pedals routinely in turns broke everything (ever seen a twisted Campagnolo steel crank spindle?).
Chuck Schmidt
South Pasadena, Southern California
http://www.velo-retro.com (reprints, T-shirts and Campagnolo Timeline)