Hubs

There are hundreds of high end hubs that are sold each year, but the trend is to moving to buying a complete wheelsets. This is more than a trend, there are solid technical arguments in favor of this. Even Shimano and Campagnolo have their own wheelsets available. Dura-Ace’s and Record’s wheelsets are two of your best options available today.

Dura-Ace’s hubs are built using the same materials as the"exotic" brands. The front axle is made of aluminum and has a diameter of 11 mm. The freewheel body’s shell is made from titanium. This allows it to achieve a weight of 376 gr. for rear and 178 gr. for front. Both have Borozon treated bearing races that provide a very smooth roll. The sound that comes from the rear freewheel is very difference from the rest of the Shimano line. It is not that there are dramatic changes on the insides, but Shimano has always built their Dura ace rear hubs to sound more like other quality hubs like Campagnolo, Mavic, etc. The only noticeable changes are two slightly different pawls with a beefier spring and better seals.

Of course, they do roll really fine after a short breaking-in. This hubs use open bearings, and although much people think cartridge bearings are smoother and more durable, it only depends in quality. There are cheap cartridge bearings that roll like hell, and there are open bearings like Dura Ace’s that are extremely smooth, accurate and reliable.

These hubs are very stiff. It is possible to mount bombproof wheels around them. Some others lightweight hubs have weaker flanges. With Dura ace you can build a wheel strongly tensioned 2 mm spokes a good set of wheels that will not feel to rigid, even when cornering. I prefer stiff hubs. This way if I want a beefy wheel it is possible to have it and if I want something lighter and more flexible it is also possible to mount such a wheel. In my opinion, a wheel must be as stiff laterally as possible. Quality spokes are also essential.

Shimano does not guarantee their hubs with radial spoke mountings. I agree with them: conventional flanged hubs that need bent spokes should never used that way. Soon we will prepare an article about mounting wheels from a technical  point of view.

Campagnolo Record hubs have always been one of the best thing in Campagnolo groupos. 2001 Records are not an exception. Maybe you know someone that has a pair that are over twenty years old and have never serviced them and they still work better than they did first day. It is quite common in Europe. Records are build to withstand the test of time. These hubs are so light that make very difficult for the specialized manufacturers to improve their marks: 120 gr. for front and 246 gr. for rear. This is a good, but if you add that they form one of the stiffest pairs of hubs available. Then you will understand that there must be something special in the way they are built. Both shells are made of oversized Ergal Aluminum (Al 7075). This material is also used for both axles, when former Record rear hub axles were made of titanium. Why did this change? Axles are also oversized because the new bearings used allow this, and this way is easier to reach a higher stiffness-to-weight ratio. In order to built such a thick axle without increasing weight, the chosen material has been aluminum.

Bearings still are open: why? Industrial cartridge bearings have to fit conventional measures, the way they can be replaced no matter which brand they are. The standard they follow is set thinking in an average machine, where a high precision is needed. But bicycle manufacturers such as Campagnolo and Shimano consider "high precision" not enough. Cartridge bearings are normally quite flat, I mean if you mind their external diameter  and their width, the first dimension is much bigger than the second one. To create such a flat bearing it is needed to design races and balls in a way that they can fit in a reduced space. This results in the fact that it is not possible to use balls that are too big and you are limited to how many you can fit. If you create your own custom bearings you can put user more bigger balls. This way the forces that are applied to the bearing are distributed between a larger number of contact points between balls and races. The bigger balls help prevent grooves from being formed on the bearing race. They have much less pressure than smaller ones.

Campagnolo’s bearings are very special since their diameter is larger than ever and their cups and races are extremely easy to remove. They are also easier to adjust. You can say good-bye to your old hub tools. You can replace them even when they are on the bike. When I first saw this, I thought team mechanics should be glad, and then I asked one of them. He just told me: “I don’t care about it, Campy hubs never get loose.”

Aluminum is too the chosen material for the freewheel body shell. It allows them to save several grams, but this design requires its own clutching mechanism.  The ratchet is independent from the shell and it is made of chromoly steel. The pawls are are mounted in a carrier made of titanium. They are different from the ones that were used until 1999 by Campagnolo, and now a retainer is not needed to reassemble the freewheel.

The rear hub uses 4 bearings. Two of them are placed in the hub body as far apart as possible and the smaller ones are in each extremes of the freewheel body. The front hub has its flanges farther amore distant than before to allow a wider wheel dish that results in a laterally stiffer, but more comfortable wheel.

The noise that comes from the three pawl mechanism in the freewheel is really loud during the first days of use. Later it becomes more silent, but it always it is easy to recognize as a genuine Campy wheel.

These hubs allow to build bombproof, yet light wheels. I would recommend not to mount spokes in a radial way, but with at least two cross lacing. There is no problem with the hub flange endurance either, but the resultant wheel will have a poor cornering response, especially in large, very fast curves.

In summary a pair of really reliable and light hubs. There are some out there that are more expensive and do not worth the half than these.

Chains

If  you are interested in bikes enough as to read this article, you will surely know this component can ruin all the efforts put in getting a good working drivetrain. I know several recreational riders who only remember their bicycles have a chain when it breaks. Shimano was the first company that found that if they wanted to develop a truly reliable indexed shifting system, they needed to carefully design their chains.

Today Dura-Ace is a really smooth chain. Absolutely noiseless (helped by the rear derailleur pulley profile), and providing a very responsive and plush shifting action. It weights 300 g with 114 links. The new 9 speed chain range also helped in the improvement noticed from the 8 speed systems. Now these chains have a higher flexibility-to-width ratio.

The flaw of this component is its reliability. As you can read in the "XTR, a year later" article sometimes in hard conditions they can break. This is not something that has happened to me, but there are very recent examples of failures in professional races. Let’s only mention that in 2001 Giro de Italia, in the fourth stage, Mexican rider Julio Pérez Cuapio had a solo break of about about 15 seconds over the leading group, when his chain broke on his Battaglin Bicycle.  All he could do was to throw the bike in anger, and watch how his pursuers went onto the finish.  On stage 6, Rik Verbrugge's GT bike had two chain breaks.

These are only two recent examples, but it is easy to hear dozens more from the pros. This has lead some teams to use other chains, and some of them even mount a Campagnolo C9’s on their Shimano equipped bikes. It is clear that Shimano must change something at this point. They have already developed a chain that is totally flat at the sides as the C10 is, and some rumors say that it is the first attempt to develop a 10 speed system.

All this makes clear that there is a before and an after the Record C 10 in the bicycle chain world. It was Valentino Campagnolo who told us more than a year ago in a race that the hardest part when designing their 10 speed system was the chain. For the other components it is a matter of manufacturing tolerances, but the chain needed new materials, technologies and procedures to allow a width reduction without losing performance and reliability.

Maybe you think that the 10 speed project started when the 9 cog systems was quite popular. Then, maybe it will be surprising for you to know that the 9 speed was, right from the beginning, just an intermediary stage in the development of  the 10's. This is why Campagnolo took the decision (very hardly criticized then) of  building a wider freewheel body instead of putting  a cog more where there were 8 of them before as Shimano did (mind that the Campagnolo 8 cog freewheel was wider than Shimano, and so, it would had been very easy).

Campagnolo also built their own chain, when before they had been used Rohloff, and later a "customized" Sachs-Sedis. This way they developed one of the most important features needed for the 10 s system: the Floating Link Action, that provides the highest flexibility-to-width ratio reached today.

Thousands and thousands of miles were made with disguised 10 s prototypes, and lots of them in races. It was funny how Cipollini’s Cannondale was one of the most photographed bike because of its standard Record brake calipers with carbon look stickers, while nobody noticed he had 10 cogs.

Valentino Campagnolo insured that the new chain has the same breaking endurance as the C9. The result is a chain that is absolutely flat on the sides, very flexible, and a bit tricky to service. You will need a pin called “Permalink” each time you disassemble or break the chain, and no more than three of them can be used at the same time. A special tool is also needed that will insure the pin enters perfectly parallel and at the correct speed in its place. This tool is a kind of pliers made in Italy by USAG. The problem is that it is REALLY expensive. Prices are different both sides of the ocean, and it is cheaper in Europe than in the States.

Luckily, Campagnolo has reacted to complaints and now they offer a new link that is removable by hand called Super Link III. The chain works flawlessly. Smooth, silent (much more when shifting since the introduction of UD, when chain plates were slightly redesigned too) and really reliable. It lasts a bit less than the C9, around 5000 miles if correctly lubed. I have never had one break even though I like to shift under torque.

I have also tested the new super Link III, and it works fine (I mean it does not break), but I have never liked these kind of links since I dropped one in a climb years ago when a Taya broke in Peña Cabarga pass while I struggled to keep on the bike in a 18% steep ramp (OUCH!).

Again, I recommend those that feel they can need sometimes the 13-29 T cassette option, to get the medium cage rear derailleur from the beginning. This way they will have a long enough chain, and they will not need to disassemble it in order to add links.

For 2001 Campagnolo has improved  their Permalinks, and they should be even stronger. I suppose it must be true, there is no reason to doubt, but there is no way I can notice it. It is also remarkable that it weights 279 g in a 114 link measure.

Cranksets

This is one of the pieces that I like the most from a bicycle. The nicest cranks in the market look like sculptures. They are too a place where you can save a bunch of grams. The Dura-Ace crankset is one of the most high-tech cranks available. With hollow arms and Octalink bottom bracket interface all made from 7075 cold forged aluminum, you can’t say at Shimano has not spent hours and hours thinking how to build the best cranks in the world.

Both the hollow arms and the Octalink system are intended to improve the overall stiffness, but honestly I am not strong enough to notice any difference. This time, I have mounted these cranks on different bicycles: I tried them on a ultra-rigid BH Coronas Réplica frame, and in a more flexi old Look KG 171. The result: I can not feel a difference from any other high-end crankset. 

I am not saying that Shimano lies when they announce a stiffness improvement. It is true for sure that these cranks are stiffer than former Dura Ace, but I think sometimes the people that write reviews feel what they can feel the increased stiffness. Either way most average riders could not notice an improvement. If you mind that some of the strongest sprinters in the world use these cranks, you can understand that Shimano has not worked in vain.

The mounting bolts take the cranks off the spindle when unscrewed which makes servicing them much faster. The chainrings are the typical Shimano SuperGlide-X with a very nice nickel plated finish (except for the 54-42, 55-42 and 56-44 T versions). They have great front shifting performance, even under torque.

The overall weight is really good (595 g for the 175 mm, 52-39 T version). It is difficult to save here without having to buy a very expensive carbon fiber set.

Something that I like very much is the wide availability of sizes, from 165 mm to 180 mm in 2.5 mm increments. If you are building the "ultimate" bike, one of the things you have to care the most is your position and your interface with the machine, and the crankset length is an important thing to play with to achieve improvements.

The Record crankset is very nice too. Perfectly polished and anodized, and combining classicism with the look of a XXI century component. The only change made to adapt this well known set to the 10 s function is a slightly narrower large chainring (0.3 mm less than the 9 s version).

In theory, the fact that one of the chainring bolts screws on the crank arm improves the overall rigidity. Then, why the Record is the only Campagnolo set that is built this way? Both chainrings are designed under Exa-Drive specifications to improve shifting, and, of course shifts are very good. The inner chainring is always identical in quality and shape for Record, Chorus and Athena/Daytona/Centaur. The Record outer chainring has the chain roll off pin in a different position to match the different position of the spider and the arm in the Record crank.

This crankset is only compatible with 102mm wide axles. It is very important to make clear that Campagnolo cranks are not compatible with Shimano square-end axles, because of the different tapering of the square. They are good looking and lightweight (630 g in 175, 52-39 T version), but it is clear that Shimano wins here.

If you add the complexity of manufacturing a hollow arm, and the fact that splined axles have substituted in almost every machine in the world to square primative ended axles, it is clear that Record cranks are some steps behind Dura-Ace’s.

Bottom Brackets

This was one of the parts that those who wanted an ultralight and "different"bike used to replace in the early 90’s. For some people it was not good enough to have the best Shimano or Campy axle, and it became common to see titanium spindles in high-end bicycles.

The largest component manufacturers in the world reacted, and they offer now BB’s that are far from a simple steel axle with alloy cups. Although none even today are made of titanium. A year before Shimano introduced Dura-Ace the splined M-950 was released. They were trying to get some attention, from a component that most people have little thought of.

Why do bicycles still use that old system to join cranks and axle, when almost every machine in the world use splined axles when they need to transmit large amounts of forces between two concentric parts? The strongest riders in the world hardly develope a 600 watts output (but this is more than some electric drilling machines, for instance), and they do this at a cadence of around 90 r.p.m. A drill turns at least at 1000 r.p.m, which is more than 10 times faster than a cyclists (from a physical point of view, power is torque multiplied per turning speed ).

So, if drill transmisions use splined axles, why should not proffesional bicycles? Once Shimano decided to make this change, they chose a larger diameter for the axle to add stiffness and save weight by following the "oversize theory". They also added four bearings, two in each side. Needle and a ball bearing are used to achieve a wide contact area between axle and cups, but virtually frictionless.

And here is the only flaw of this BB the system needs to be tuned the old way each time it is assembled (adjustable cups and lock rings). Although there are seals here and there, if you live in a rainy zone, you will need to disassemble, clean and grease it periodically.

So, the concept was excellent, but it would be preferable to have cartridge type bearings or better sealed and easier to adjust ones (ala Campy hubs). A good solution is available is available with Ultegra. It is cheaper, only adds a few grams and it uses cartridge bearings!

The Record has a bunch of technology built in. The central cover is made from a carbon fiber pipe (again with an astounding finish). There are two cartridge bearings on the drive side and another one on the non-drive and the spindle is hollow and oversized at its central part, just between the bearings. As you can see in the picture, that shape cannot be done just by machining a block. It is Hydroshaped. By pumping hot oil into the tube at extremely high pressures, it gets "inflated", so the inside diameter can be made larger at the central part, while it is kept thin at both extremes. Specialized tried to build some parts of their FSR frames this way a couple of years ago, but it was too complicated.

This technology comes directly from the aircraft industry and it had not even been used in the automotive industry before Campagnolo started to develope it for this axle. Now Alfa Romeo and VW build some of their suspension components this way. It took a lot of time for the Italian firm to tune the production (maybe you remember this BB was delayed more than six months since the date it was introduced).

Surely you are thinking that a titanium spìndle would be easier to build and at least as light as this one. True, but is unlikely that Campy will ever manufacture another titanium axle for BB’s. The reason is that they were testing a proto during the 1989. duing the Milan-San Remo classic, Laurent Fignon sufferend a fall because of a broken Titanium spindle. Some sharpened tongues say that it was hard to clean all the blood spilled at Via Della Chimica, Vicenza.

The result is a bomb-proof, yet light bottom bracket that can not compete the lightest ones in the world because three bearings are used where others have only two. Its axle is also stiffer by far than a conventional, hollow Ti one, although, I confess again, i am not able to notice so riding.

This component is so good, but it became dated when Shimano released its last Dura-Ace with the splined axle. What is the ideal BB? One with the Campy’s shell, bearings and axle technology, but with the Shimano’s splined ends !

Pedals

Neither Shimano nor Campagnolo have ever excelled because of their road clipless pedals. Other specialist brands like Look and Time had the larger part of the cake until a couple of years ago, but lately both bicycle giants have struggled to offer some of the best pedals avalaible.

Shimano conquered the MtB world with their SPD’s, but road racers were used to larger cleats that provide less play and better force transmission. So Shimano developed a new system called SPD-R with a larger cleat. The Dura-Ace SPD-R features a Cr-Mo spindle and a anodized aluminum body, and rolls on ball and a needle bearings. One of the ball bearings is very close to the crank arm to improve the overall stiffness.

The platform has a very low profile a rubber stabilizer pad. The result is noticeablely better than the former SPD: The joint between pedals and cleats is now more stable due to the larger cleat. The rubber pad is also helpful because it pushes the cleat against the engaging sheets.

Because the cleats are still not as large as those from Look, you should choose a shoe with a very rigid sole. The small size allows a very good weight of just 300 g / pair without cleats.

There is still more play between cleat and pedals than in a pair of Time, Look or Pro-Fit pedals. As the cleat is smaller, the play gets larger when referred to the shoe. Imagine that we are talking about a gap of a tenth of a milimeter in one side of the cleat If the cleat is half the size of the shoe, the shoe will displace freely two tenths at its extreme point. But, if the cleat is four times smaller than the shoe it will move 4/10ths.

Another little inconvenience happens under wet conditions: The rubber pad starts to make noise every time you push. Nothing that important, but a little disconcerning after paying what these pedals cost.

The Pro-Fit pedal from Campagnolo could adjust almost to almost everything you could imagine, but they were bulky and heavy. As they didn’t sell too much, Campy decided to to "disguise"some Looks to put the Italian brand on them. But lately Campagnolo is trying not only to be the most prestigious manufacturer, but trying to be the standard in the field. So they went back to their lab and what they brought back has caused many nightmares in other companies.

In my opinion, the Record Pro-Fit are the best pedals avalaible today. Why do I like them? I find they lock the cleat more or less as a pair of Time does so there is almost no vertical or diagonal play. If you choose the cleats that allow lateral play, you will have it.

The new Plus version even improves all this and is a bit lighter due to the new composite axle fixing nut. Only 5 grams less and you will have to pay more attention when you tighten the nut, but I only have dissasembled the Pro-Fit to see what was inside. In 20,000 miles I have had not a single problem.

What is there inside? Three ball bearings and a perfectly machined titanium spindle with a recess on the left to fit the cadence magnet of the Ergo Brain. And all this in only 261 g/pair without cleats. I think other manufacturers have to work very hard to only catch up to Campagnolo pedals.