Campagnolo Bottom Brackets

This is the more traditional of the two Record B/Bs using cup and cone construction with ball bearings. As you already know, Campagnolo has quite a reputation for doing things well. Some riders like to know the parts of their bike, specifically their bearing parts, intimately. A part of the reasoning is that points of high wear might indicate other problems with adjoining parts. Sealed cartridge bearings in trade for low maintenance, don't permit an examination of the internal ball bearings.

High quality ball bearings of this sort, rather than sealed cartridge bearings, have demonstrably less drag, (just spin each spindle), absorbing less energy. This is considered the best user service-able bottom bracket available. The spindle is made of steel. Its two degree tapered spindle ends are machined not merely cast or forged. The bearing contact surfaces (cones) are precisely ground then polished, smoother may not exist. The spindle is hollow to reduce weight with threaded inner ends for crank bolts.

Crank bolts aren't included because a few years ago Campy introduced a variation on Shimano's one key release designed crank arm caps/bolts. The bolts that come with the cranks incorporate an arm cap, arm bolt, and crank arm puller. The cups are machined from aluminum and has such a high polish, many people think they are made from steel then given a thick chrome finish. A separate steel cup race, ground and polished is pressed into each aluminum cup. This is not a floating B/B and uses a fixed cup on the drive side of the shell. The sides of the fixed cup are spaced for a 36mm fixed cup tool.

The adjustable (left) is also superbly machined from aluminum, then highly polished, and has the same style steel race pressed into the cup. The adjusting cup has 6 holes in its face for peg/pin spanner installation. The chromed steel lockring is tightened with a hook spanner. The Record uses twelve 7/32" ball bearings in a steel retainer for each cup. Included is a clear plastic water sleeve.

The standard Record B/B comes of in either Italian or English thread, its only spindle length is 111mm. The weight of the standard Record B/B is 224 grams.

Thread-E-I $Price in Catalog