Italian Irritation

   While looking for component groups with which to build the Pinarello Veneto bicycle, I came across a couple other very inexpensive sets and decided to purchase them for future use. One is a Campagnolo Record 10-speed group which I’ll call “vintage modern”, with carbon shifters and derailleurs, but an alloy square-taper crankset. The other was a modern “Campy” Centaur 10-speed group that was only a couple of years old.

  I also picked up a couple of reasonably priced frames, so I can officially postpone my eBay/craigslist searching for the rest of the summer, as I may now have plenty to work on (and sell) for the rest of the calendar year. I really liked the Ridley “Flandrien” bicycle I recently built and had one of the company’s cool angular Boreas framesets (brand new condition) in my sights for a couple of months. When the price dropped within a budget-comfortable range, I snapped it up.

I love the subtle "Tested on pavè" decal!

   The other frame is much more of a project, but has more of an upside towards collectors – a 1980 Ciocc (pronounced “CHEE-oach”) ’80 Mockba (Cyrillic for Moscow). The limited edition bicycles were built to commemorate the success of the Polish team, who rode Ciocc machines during that year’s Olympic Games in the Russian capital. This bike will require a bit more work, as it’s not exactly pristine, so I’ll save that for future blog talk.

   Well, I had collected (I thought) all the parts for two of my projects, the Vitus Sean Kelly tribute and the Ridley Boreas, and had recently set about to complete those bicycles. However, thanks to my old friend and nemesis Campagnolo, I was again left searching for solutions. I am a huge fan of Campagnolo parts for various reasons, but regular readers will have heard stories of issues with the Italian manufacturer, particularly compatibility among their own products, that have been a major annoyance. Maybe it’s time for me to take the advice of a fellow cycling blogger and “stop drinking the [Campy] Kool Aid!”

   Since Brendan had supplied the majority of the Campagnolo Super Record gruppo necessary for the Vitus build, I was left to acquire just a handful of parts. The stem was simple enough, just requiring a bit of patience for a reasonably priced Cinelli 1R to come available, so we would have something to match up with a nice set of the company’s handlebars that he had already provided.

   We were considering Everest vs. Regina for the freewheel/chain, in order to keep the build Italian. I pointed out that both product lines were a bit overpriced and the chains were actually a bit clunky, as they had large bushings on the chain pins (photo below). I suggested that since Sean Kelly would have had all Mavic (French) parts on his bike, we weren’t really being totally accurate with our build anyway.

   I proposed going with a Sachs/Malliard freewheel, along with a Sachs/Sedis chain. This brand has a similar look to other versions of the era, but theirs is bushingless like modern chains and has a narrower profile to work more smoothly with 7-speed freewheels, instead of just 6.

   The photo above was taken without the drive train fully assembled because bottom bracket issues have popped up. Before I even tightened the crankset onto the spindle, I noticed there was very little clearance between the smaller chainring and the frame. I thought at first I had purchased the wrong length of spindle, but it seems that the crankset may actually be worn. Each time a crankset is squeezed onto a tapered spindle, it stretches the square hole a bit, and it appears this Campy crankset may have seen a lot of "action". 

   Usually with a worn crank there is a threat of the bolt "bottoming out" on the end of the spindle, so that tightening further is impossible. However, in this case there is a lack of room left on the taper. I want to try a longer Campagnolo spindle, but there is no guarantee that it will work. A possible solution is using a Shimano spindle, which has a more gradual taper, not abruptly squared-off like Campagnolo’s (see second photo below for comparison).

   In comparison with gathering the required components for my vintage projects, putting together modern bicycles is relatively easy, as most parts are readily available at decent prices, often in new condition! I had everything ready to go a few days before the Boreas frame arrived at my door. As I did with the “Flandrian”, I was using mostly 4ZA (Forza) parts, which is Ridley’s in-house brand, with the modern Campagnolo group I had purchased. This set is the Centaur “Red” 10-speed version that has anodized touches of the color on rivets, chainring bolts, etc. to jazz things up.

   Although wrestling new hoods onto the brake/shift levers was an adventure, pretty much all was going smoothly until, again, I went to assemble the crankset/bottom bracket. I wasn’t sure if this 2008 new-old stock frame required British or Italian threading, as I couldn’t find the detail anywhere online. I also hadn’t bothered to check which part was included with the groupset, but it didn’t really matter until the frame arrived to check what was needed. And if you guessed that I'd end up with an Italian part with a British bottom bracket shell, you’d be correct. However, the real issue wasn’t the mismatched threading, it was that the seller provided parts from different product lines – a Centaur Power Torque crankset with an Ultra Torque bottom bracket that was marked “For Super Record Only”.

   Now, I know well from experience that this is a bad sign, but I noticed that the whole configuration came assembled in the box and seemed to fit perfectly. Things became more confusing when I researched the situation online and found Campagnolo’s website explaining that the two product lines were not compatible. Argh!

   To keep a long story short(er), I am going to have to experiment with this a bit. I ordered a British threaded set of cups, hoping the bearings will fit, as I found no specific information telling me they wouldn’t. There seems to be some type of retaining clip missing, but I think this has to do with the Ultra Torque spindle being in two pieces that join in the middle, while the Centaur Power Torque spindle is one piece locked at the non-drive crank. I’ll leave you to look up details on these, if you are that interested.

We’ll have to wait to find out how this bottom bracket dealio (Italian, right?) works out, but here’s a quick look at my build progress in the meantime: