[CR]70's Campy quick release cap nut

(Example: Events:Eroica)

To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
From: "Bianca Pratorius" <biankita@comcast.net>
Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2007 06:22:19 -0400
Subject: [CR]70's Campy quick release cap nut

I was in a bike store looking through boxes of old quick release levers. I was looking for the 80's version of the Campy front quick release with the curved lever and the rounded conical cap nut (non lever side). Instead I found the straight lever version of the cap nut from the 70's. This cap nut at first looks similar to the more round version that came later. They are both roughly cones with D rings but the earlier version doesn't round at the top and the words Brev Camp are written down the length of the cone and not the width.

As with anything somewhat old, this nut had a nice patina of dirt and tarnish. I immediately washed it in dishwashing liquid so I could get a better look and so I could hold it without getting my hands dirty. The chrome only looked good on the D ring and around the top. The bottom two thirds looked dull and you could see a slight gold copper color coming through in little almost microscopic lines on the dull parts. I thought that Campagnolo had chromed over brass or some other kind of base material. I had never seen this slight copper color on any chromed Campy part before. I Simchromed it and rubbed it for a few minutes with a cloth and to my surprise the entire nut seemed to have taken on a near perfect chrome look to it. The copper color had vanished and the dullness too and the overall look was now one of older chrome but in good unscratched condition.

The questions for me are .. What base material did Campy use for these nuts? What were those fine copper lines before polishing?

Garth Liberman in Miami Shores Fl. USA