The replacement bottom bracket arrived a day earlier than expected, and given the increase in the number of items that are being shipped these days, is something of a surprise.\u00a0 A good surprise.\u00a0 Confirmed that the BB is the one I ordered and installed it, torquing the cups to the proper spec.<\/p>\n
HOWEVER, the axle in the cartridge BB, being the correct length is not the only part of the puzzle.\u00a0 The original axle is asymmetric, meaning that the drive side extends further from the centerline and the non drive side is closer to the centerline.\u00a0 The difference is enough that the chainrings don’t have enough clearance with the symmetrical axle.\u00a0 So, the search begins for a replacement BB with an asymmetrical axle.\u00a0 Luckily enough I found one and it finally arrived.\u00a0 The cup and axle races are in excellent shape, so we are back on track.\u00a0 Cleaned, greased, and installed.\u00a0 Crankarms are on and torqued, and the clearance to the chainstays is good, for both the chainrings and the crankarms themselves.\u00a0 This crankset is old enough that the crankarms are straight, not curved, so the clearance is set by the width of the bottom bracket axle.<\/p>\n
The Nuovo Record RD is lubricated at the pivots and the main bolt, and installed.\u00a0 The spiral SS housing and liner are cut to length and installed.<\/p>\n
The front derailleur attaches to the seat tube by a band that clamps around the tube.\u00a0 To position it properly, the cage that encloses the chain needs to have 2-3mm clearance between it and the largest chainring.\u00a0 There is some debate about the proper orientation of the cage to the chainrings.\u00a0 Some folks say they should be parallel – others say the rearward part of the cage should be slant towards the center of the bike by a couple of degrees.\u00a0 I’m going with parallel for now.\u00a0 Friction shifting is more forgiving than indexed shifting.<\/p>\n
Installed the chain (without going through the derailleur cages) and sized it to big-big plus 4 links.\u00a0 I think it will wind up 2 links shorter than that, but I’ll let the shifting performance tell me if that is necessary.\u00a0 Ran the shift cables, using cable liner around the BB shell for both FD and RD cables.\u00a0 The RD hanger was not straight, it was in a bit at the bottom.\u00a0 Adjusted it to straight, then reinstalled the RD.\u00a0 Fished the chain through the FD and RD, installed the quick link.\u00a0 Set the hi-lo limit screws and adjusted the shifting.\u00a0 Installed the pedals and torqued to spec.\u00a0 Adjusted the axle locating screws in the rear dropouts to center the rear wheel.<\/p>\n
A bit of headset drama – whoever assembled the bike before I bought it used 5\/32 balls in the upper and lower races, and I found out that Campagnolo used 3\/16 balls in their Nuovo Record headsets.\u00a0 I ordered a bag of 3\/16 balls so that I can replace the existing balls with the correct size.\u00a0 So until they are here, I’m pretty much at a standstill.\u00a0 A good friend used the phrase “parts pause” and it certainly applies here.\u00a0 Frustrating, but a part of the C&V build game, at least for those of us without a large parts inventory.<\/p>\n
Until next time…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The replacement bottom bracket arrived a day earlier than expected, and given the increase in the number of items that are being shipped these days, is something of a surprise.\u00a0 A good surprise.\u00a0 Confirmed that the BB is the one I ordered and installed it, torquing the cups to the proper spec. HOWEVER, the axle … <\/p>\n