Hella Rare Campy Pista Cranks

Thought I scored some pretty rare shit when I copped these 151bcd Nuovo Record Pista cranks awhile back. I was under the impression that besides Campy skip tooth cranksets and rare early parts, 151 NR Pista were among the rarest.


Then I spotted these the other day, Campagnolo track cranks that are drilled to accept both 144 & 151bcd chainrings.

I'm guessing these were made when Campagnolo was switching over to 144bcd from 151 and were unsure of which standard would stick?
I thought those were pretty rare, and then I saw something I'd never even heard of in Prolly's Flickr.

Non-fluted Super Record Pista cranks with the Campy Shield on them. I guess these were sitting in some dark dungeon in the back Ben's Cycle and Prolly snapped a pic when he went to visit. Hot Damn.

More Campy NJS

In addition to having their C-record track group approved by NJS, it seems that Campagnolos frame parts, too can be found on some older NJS frames.

This Ohtaki, for instance, has Campagnolo fork and rear ends.


After further looking, I spotted this Uno on NJS export.


I'm not quite sure why the ends look different, maybe the builders shaped them differently. Either way, either of these frames would look super pimp with Campy/Cinelli NJS parts.

Colnago Mountain Bike?

Spotted this unusual/rare bike on eBay a few weeks back, a Colnago Master "Ibex."

You don't see the Italians messing with Mountain bikes, it was sort of an experimental market that they clearly lost to the Americans & Japanese. Kind of like Cinelli's experiment with BMX.

This bike is pretty amazing, you see elegant touches like this custom stem

Campagnolo 1060 dropouts

Colnago's own Arabesque style lugged seatpost collar.

Columbus-Gilco crimped tubing

Custom matching Selle-Colnago Saddle

Colnago Handlebars with Ernesto's Signature by the stem clamp

Only thing that seems off about this bike is the groupset, its Shimano. First thing I'd think of a Colnago mountain bike is that it'd be built with one of Campy's ultra-rare Mountain Bike gruppos, like Euclid, rather than Shimano XT.

Ernesto Colnago has been quoted as saying "I remember one time I was invited to a conference on production quality and quantity. There was a bunch of Japanese, and I told them they were only good at copying. One of them answered, 'Yes, that is true, but we copy to make better.' He introduced himself and it was Shimano himself! ... Today I use Shimano and Campagnolo on my bikes, 50 percent, according to the suitability. The average bike I have made in Taiwan, but I have that written on it, unlike a lot of others, and I use Shimano because it costs less."
Apparently no one thought it was worth the $2,200 that the seller was asking, it ended without a bid.

Italian NJS Parts

I like Italian parts, especially old Campy ones. I also find it really interesting that at one point Campagnolo, the top manufacturer of high end racing equipment in the 80's, thought it would be lucrative to market their parts to Keirin racers in Japan, which was a pretty niche market compared to European road racing. I guess at some point they tried and their gruppo was rejected, partially because of a pro-japanese bias and partially because of incorrect design, so they changed some things and were accepted in 1987*.
Heres the 1991 Campagnolo Record Pista Gruppo with a smaller image of the Keirin group. Theres a couple noticeable differences. NJS hubs can only be high flange and 36 hole, so 36h Sheriff Stars were the natural choice. The other main difference is the seatpost, Campagnolo swapped the 1-bolt bladed post for an NJS style 2-bolt.

Another subtle difference would be in the threading. Campy NJS bottom brackets are English threaded, as the NJS only approved English threaded bottom brackets.

The headset is English threaded as well, but with the weird NJS 27.0mm crown race diameter. These NJS Campy headsets look more like the super record ones than the later chunky C-record ones, probably due to ball bearing diameter restrictions?
I also find it fascinating that Cinelli made stems and bars that were approved by NJS, given that the old Cinelli handlebars have been known to de-sleeve. The NJS Cinelli stem looks like a 2A track stem and the bars look just like regular 67-59 Pista bars. Maybe there was some design change to please the NJS.

But finally, the holy grail of Italian NJS rarity has surfaced. I was browsing velospace when I spotted this NJS stamped Cinelli Unicanitor saddle.


This has got the be one of the rarest track bike parts available, an ass raging unpadded Unicanitor saddle with Keirin-width rails. Don't know why you would ever want to ride this, but its collectors value is certainly through the roof.

Note: I took a few photos from this flickr set, which is worth a look if you want to see more photos of NJS stamped Campagnolo track parts.

Stripping Anodization

Peter stripped and polished some Campy cranks today. There was a post about it previously but here are a few photos of the process.

Mixing up a bowl of lye.

After soaking they are covered in black aluminum oxide.

But they polish up pretty nice.

Campy White Grease is Back!

Campagnolo professional lubricant grease, the famous "white grease" used at the industrial level for assembling Campagnolo components and wheels, is now available on the market.

Campagnolo decided to make this grease available based on the requests of many bike enthusiasts to be able to use a top level professional grease for servicing their bikes that is formulated and produced specially for bicycle maintenance, but which up to now was only available on the market in industrial sized packaging and therefore not accessible to individual customers.

Campagnolo professional lubricant grease is recommended for specific parts such as the steel or ceramic bearings and balls of wheels, cranksets, and derailleurs. Thanks to its special composition, it eliminates friction, maximises smoothness, protects from wear and tear, and prolongs the life of the mechanical parts of your bicycle.

Developed in collaboration with Klüber Lubrication, a leading producer of industrial lubricants, Campagnolo grease is available in 100 ml bottles.
via italiancyclingjournal

Toe Strap Lacing

I saw this picture on an ebay auction I was watching the other day and started wondering what the "right way," if there was one, to thread toe straps through a cage pedal was.
There is of course the traditional/intuitive method of threading the straps through all 4 slots.

Then theres the "twist" method people often use with single straps to keep them from slipping.

Heres how the great Mikashima (MKS) Pedal Manufacturing Corporation says to thread their α Keirin straps, which looks like the opposite of the threading in the first picture.

Theres many other ways of doing this. Heres how Mork threads his Kashimax dual sprint straps on his MKS Royal Nuevo Pedals.

And heres how I thread my Toshi double straps on my C-Record track pedals. This is mostly out of necessity, Toshi straps are way thicker than the slot in the pedals, I actually had to file down some of the suede to fit the strap in the slot. Luckily C-Record pedals have removable rear cages like MKS Royal and Custom Nuevos. If you've had trouble putting double straps on Sylvan pedals, the reason is most Keirin double straps are meant for pedals with removable cages.

Looking at old catalogs is a fun time waster

check them out at campyonly

Mario Confente Track Bike on eBay right now

Mario Confente is considered by most to be the greatest framebuilder of all time. He only built 135 frames under his own name (built many more for Faliero Masi), only 11 of which were track. One has popped up on eBay and the current bid is around $3,000. I watched a Confente road end for about $8,000 a few months ago. If you ride a 63cm frame, drain your savings account and buy this bike! 12 more hours... eBay

Cicli Berlinetta

Is a German bike shop with lots of NOS goodies



They have an impressive selection of vintage road and track frames from a grip of European builders, as well as their own shop brand.


cicli b

Campy Hi-Low Flange Front Track Hub

Designed to be stiffer on the side that faces the outside of the velodrome and save a few grams on the other side.. back when quick releases were okay on the track?
Classic Rendezvous

SRP Fail

Bolt broke off in my bottom bracket. Guess we know why my cranks were being noisy.