[CR]Is anodizing part of the Campy crank problem ?

(Example: Framebuilding)

From: <Gjvinbikes@aol.com>
Date: Sun, 1 Sep 2002 08:45:51 EDT
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: [CR]Is anodizing part of the Campy crank problem ?

In a message dated 8/31/02 3:51:57 PM Eastern Daylight Time, chuckschmidt@earthlink.net writes:


> In my experience, your statement above rings hollow. What facts do you
> have to back up this belief of yours Jerry?
>

Chuck,

When I polish Stronglight 93's the metal seems softer than when I attempt to polish Campy cranks. Of course, this is due to the Campy stuff being anodized, right ? It is anodized, isn't it ? Stronglight 93's sure aren't. If so perhaps this surface treatment is also why they seem somewhat prone to crack propagation based failures ? Anodizing encourages rims to crack-fail according to Jobst, after all, for reasons that make sense to me.

I have never broken a crank arm and the only one I have seen break in use was a solid steel one on a yellow Schwinn SuperSport. I have also never seen any crank BUT a Campy one with a crack radiating in from the razor-thin where the arm attaches to the spider, and I've seen many of those (most still being ridden).

Glenn Jordan - Raleigh, NC