My guess is that these pista cranks came from the mid to late 70's. My '73 Eisentraut track bike came with the 151 bolt circle cranks - but Campy may have been producing the 144 BCD Track cranks by then.
I purchased the 175mm SR road cranks new in '85, which was close to the last year of production. (They are marked 4 in a circle) Unfortunately the hairline crack at the spider has progressed about 1/4" so I think it's too late to do anything with a file. These cranks had about 33,000 miles of use.
Ben Sanford Falls Church, VA
-----Original Message----- From: Mark Bulgier [mailto:mark@bulgier.net] Sent: Saturday, September 21, 2002 11:26 PM To: 'Ben Sanford'; Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: RE: [CR]Predicting Campy Crank failure
Ben Sanford wrote:
> Mine that broke was an undated track crank just marked
> "165 PISTA" with the 144mm bolt circle.
That would be a late model, right? I don't remember when they went to 144
for track but it was quite a few years after road went to 144. the Campy
Timeline on Velo-Retro is silent on the matter unless I read it too quickly.
> The crank broke at the eye where the pedal mounted.
That's the most common location for a break, as opposed to a crack. The
spider cracks are quite common but rarely result in a rider down.
> I had previously retired a 175mm SR road crank due
> to a crack at the spider.
Are you sure that right with the spider crack is too bad to be filed? Do you know what I mean, filing with a chainsaw file or needle file to the full depth of the crack or a little beyond? This has saved many a cracked Campy crank, and I've never heard of one breaking there after having been filed.
Mark Bulgier
Seattle, Wa
USA