[CR]Re: Campagnolo Bottom bracket question or 2

(Example: Framebuilding:Paint)

From: "Steve Birmingham" <sbirmingham@mindspring.com>
To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Date: Thu, 1 Aug 2002 23:39:11 -0400
In-Reply-To: <CATFOODOFIVWpZmTwp900002131@catfood.nt.phred.org>
Subject: [CR]Re: Campagnolo Bottom bracket question or 2

I wonder if any of this has to do with someones riding style? I replaced one of my friends cranks this spring, and they were greased. The holes were like 2 square tapers instead of one. He's about 220 lbs, and is a rougher rider than I am and I have almost no smoothness. In my old job in hydraulics, I used anti-seize on a splined drive coupling, and it failed in about a week! The distributor said the anti seize allowed the splines room to "hammer" against each other as the loads weren't consistent, and were about 12,500 impacts per minute. That's much more than the rate for a bike crank, but I thought a similar thing happened.

Steve Birmingham Lowell, Ma

-----Original Message-----

Message: 1 From: PBridge130@aol.com Date: Thu, 1 Aug 2002 14:10:59 EDT Subject: Re: [CR]Campagnolo Bottom bracket question or 2 To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org

Mark Bulgier wrote:

Peter Bridge wrote:
> Greasing the tapers can result in overtightening
> and expansion of the hole in the arm.

Yes it's the old debate, endlessly rehashed. I just want to point out that Peter's pronouncement is controversial, so newer members don't think the issue is settled.

I started greasing tapers 30 years ago and haven't seen a problem with one I assembled yet ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Amusing. I'm new enough to the vintage "chat" scene that I didn't know it was an endless debate, but it's not surprising that it is.

My memory is that the Campy instructions said not to grease, so that became a holy sacrament to me, which I now repeat, mumbling, along with a prayer to the patron saint of cyclists, whenever I go to the altar of bottom brackets.

Here's a restatement:

"I was taught that it was bad to grease the tapers, so I don't do it."

:-)

Peter Bridge
Denver CO