[CR]Unbelievably horrible bottom bracket

(Example: History:Norris Lockley)

To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
From: "Bianca Pratorius" <biankita@earthlink.net>
Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 17:53:03 -0500
Subject: [CR]Unbelievably horrible bottom bracket

I am restoring the mid 80's Bianchi in lovely Celeste. The ITM microadjust seatpost was a delight as soon as it went through a 13 step process (wash, file, 180,220,320,400,600,800,1000,1500,compound,simichrome, carnuba wax). It brought out the designers original intent. The ITM stem similarly was made lovely. The Ofmega headset was beautiful without any work, and the Modolo dark anodized brakes only need disassembly and reassembly with new hoods and cabling. The crank was the most wonderful surprise as the Ofmega crank has the most lovely lines and only needed some loving care. The Campy hubs are of course always a delight but the bottom bracket was one of the worst horrors I have ever seen. The Chrome took on no rust but the original casting had sharp edges and no holes to hold the adjusting cup while the lock ring was brought to bear. It needed a open ended wrench to hold it. New balls without retainers did improve the feel only a bit but considering no pitting and generous grease the feel should have been better. Any idea what kind of low quality bottom brackets could have been substituted for a Campy or Ofmega on a Campione D'Italia? No stamping that I could understand could be found.

Garth Libre in Miami Fl. (Ivory green from an early 70's AMC Javelin is a fairly good match for faded Celeste BTW)