Hi all. I’ve got the oportunity to get my hands on a vintage (not sure of age) campag pista crank set. 165mm with a 130BCD. The only issue is the non drive side arm is a little bent (maybe 3-5mm) the drive side is fine. So I’m wondering what you guys think. He wants 180 for it. Certainly not nos condition but not totally crap either. Any chance I could bend it back easily or??? Price seems good to me. Thoughts? Alternatively I reakon for the same price I could pick up a pretty good shiney almost new strada @ 170mm 144BCD.
Fuck no!!
let it go.
Walk away not today disco lay-deee.
Old style Campy cranks have enough issues (fatigue cracks at spider and pedal eyes) without adding another to the mix.
Plus, 130BCD? Sure it’s correct/Campy? Should be 151 or 144 (135 for modern) IIRC.
This is how happy you will be when you dont buy them.
Alternatively I reakon for the same price I could pick up a pretty good shiney almost new strada @ 170mm 144BCD.
Yes.
Yes, and the fact that one of the arms are ‘bent’ makes me very, very nervous. Can a forged piece of Aluminium actually be ‘bent’ or is it more accurate to say ‘cracked’? :roll:
$180? I hope you’re joking.
thanks for the replies guys. You’ve convinced me. Their history. now if anyones got a nice shiny Strada 170mm 144bcd lying around 
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$180? I hope you’re joking.
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no… thats what he wanted. from the US, so $100 usd plus shipping
$180? I hope you’re joking.
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no… thats what he wanted. from the US, so $100 usd plus shipping
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I’m glad you declined the offer. It sounds like a complete can of worms that you don’t want.
Yes, and the fact that one of the arms are ‘bent’ makes me very, very nervous. Can a forged piece of Aluminium actually be ‘bent’ or is it more accurate to say ‘cracked’?
How do you think they made it crank-shaped in the first place?
Cast aluminium has less ductility (bendability for the non-anoraks) than forged/wrought.
Annealed (soft) aluminium has more ductility than age/strain-hardened.
I don’t know (unless I lift up its skirt and look at the microstructure or do a hardness test) if vintage Campy cranks are age hardened or not. Either way, they won’t survive repeated bending (cold work / strain hardening) without fracturing.
+1 on absolutely ridiculous price for a damaged crankset.
Buy some Sugino Super Mightys, look the same, don’t have the fatigue cracking issue.
Standard BCD for track is 144. Super Record era Strada are 144, but they’re not of great quality, neither are Pista for that matter, I have both. They’re likely to develop stress cracks where the arm meets the spider. It’s only worth paying the exorbitant amount of money they fetch nowdays if you’re putting together a groupset, or for collection purposes in my opinion. You would be better off spending that kind of money on Sugino 75, Dura-Ace you could even afford a chainring to boot.
i dont understand the obsession people have with Campy gear, seriously theres always a catch with campy stuff ie campy cancer, crap shifting, stress cracks the like.
can of worms open
BTW im not trolling, i really dont get it.
bring on the hate.
+1mil
It’s nice but I still don’t get why people loose their heads about it.
Until recently I’ve only ridden Campag road groups on my own bikes but nothing older than early 8 speed. Now I’ve also got a mostly NOS Shimano 600 group on one bike. I’ve ridden some other SHimano 9/10sp stuff occasionally too.
They ALL work really well.
They ALL work really well.
But have you ridden a 6sp Nuovo Record, non-slant parallelogram, non indexed setup? All the issues Shortsie quotes appear to apply to the old NR days.
(I haven’t, so I’ll let someone with actual knowledge & experience chime in… LWaB? The following isn’t from my own experience, only reading/heresay)
Lots of racers used Simplex retrofriction shifters because they were so much better than the Campy DT shifters. Shifting a NR rear der was usually a case of overshift-trim. The first Suntour slant parallelogram derailleurs blew Campy, Simplex, Huret & Shimano out of the water, but amongst other reasons, they didn’t go indexed fast enough (look up “Sunset for Suntour”) and Shimano put them out of business.
Even Campy Syncro appeared to be a nightmare, with all the different inserts for different setups and it still didn’t work properly.
PS, there’s a set of Super Mighty pistas on ebay finishing soon. Currently ~AU$180.
At least the douche dude told you about the damage. Ebay (I’m assuming) is full of rip-off merchants…
I agree that Campag gear looks hot, but for a practical setup, you can use just about any cranks. For instance on my street fixie I’ve got a set of ‘Sunny Krown’ cranks (don’t laugh :-P) care of damoh, with a nice cycleunderground chainring on it. Sure, the forging looks like it came from the middle ages, but it’s strong and perfectly functional. Additionally, I’ve scratched the hell out of the ends of the cranks from pedal strike- trust me it happens to the best of us. Why use a set of beautiful cranks that will ultimately be destroyed?
Other good brands to watch out for are Miche, Sugino 75’s (they are common, so you find them cheap occasionally) or Sugino Messenger.
My 2cents.
i have record ergopower shifters and record friction shifters for my roadie. not sure what to use, at this stage.
Use the ergos.
Like HJB said, I’ve got a pair of no name cranks on my bike from Andel an asian manufacturer and they’re great, keep the good stuff for the nice retro ride that lives on the wall and comes out for special occasions.
I’ve got one of those rides- except it’s living mostly on the wall these days… sigh…