Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Alan project update. Campagnolo why the weird sizes!

Nearly there with the Alan.

Most of the refurbing and fitting together is now complete. Had a short hold up when I discovered that the cable anchors for the Campag Delta brakes use a 3.5mm allen key. Why would anyone choose that as a size to use!! I then discovered that the Victory chainset uses a 7mm key for the crank bolt. The choice of wonky sizes by Campag was surely a willful swipe at the home mechanic. Luckily I've got a really decent toolshop nearby so it turned out that getting the right keys was just a short ride away.

I had a bit of a dilemma over what to do with the gear cable run on the bottom bracket. From new the cables run direct on to the shell through small guides with no protection for the delicate aluminium. Over time the cables run score marks on to the shell. I toyed with the idea of putting a new plastic guide on but the original guides fouled up with it and it would have meant cutting them off. In the end I settled for small teflon tubes. The tubes seem to hold themselves in place ok and are stopped from lateral movement by the angle of the cable and the original guides.

Not a lot more to do now than adjust and polish.


Campagnolo Delta brake showing that annoying 3.5mm
allen head anchor bolt.

Campagnolo Delta brake. Over-engineered, over-complicated,
beautifully made and a joy to behold.

Campagnolo Victory chainset with odd 7mm crank bolt.

Bottom bracket cable run showing teflon sleeves. Not the
most elegant solution I will confess but one which works
and doesn't involve modification to the frame.