Dale Brown wrote:
> FWIW, I HAVE personally seen quite a number of Campy cranks with
> damage to their tapers & this going on too far (no myth!)
Yes, I've seen ruined cranks many times in the past, but I have no way of knowing what the guy did to ruin them!
I do know that if you use a proper Campagnolo crank bolt wrench you will never ruin a set of Campagnolo cranks by over-tightening them whether you grease the flats of the axle or not. This would be because the Campagnolo crank bolt wrench's handle is only 5 1/2 inches long (14cm) and you can't apply enough torque with your bare hand on the wrench handle to destroy the cranks.
Jobst Brandt says that cranks get destroyed by a person continually tightening the crank bolts after riding their bikes (like continually "checking" whether their crank bolts are tight or not). This has nothing to do with whether there is grease on the axle flats or not.
Chuck Schmidt
South Pasadena, CA USA
http://www.velo-retro.com (reprints, t-shirts & timelines)