Athena Hubs Identification. m I wrong?

kbmpi

Retro Guru
Campagnolo Athena hubz laced with Mexico '68 rims, with fairly good shape 8 speed cassette.

Am I correct? The seller states the hubs are Athena, though I don't know whether campagnolo had the tradition of shimanos engraving short codes into the hub body, side of the hubs.

https://picasaweb.google.com/1081670021 ... 0puwifbJYQ

From the pictures what would you say? Would this wheelset be a reasonable choice for an 8 spd campagnolo drivetrain?
 
The Mexico was offered from 1996 to 1998 and Athena went nine speed in 1998; in '96 and '97 Athena had an engraved band around the rear hub (a feature only Athena ever had).

It's reasonable to assume the hubs are a matched pair that were built up into these rims from new: so the rear is definitely Athena and the front almost certainly is.

The Mexico rims are interesting, being a halfway house between fully aero and box section rims: whether they offer the best of both worlds or are an unhappy compromise is open to debate.

The short answer is that they are a nice wheelset. To give you an idea of price, I just paid £120 (plus postage) for a pair of Omega rims on eight speed Chorus; although Chorus is above Athena, my wheelset is older so I would look to pay a similar amount for these.

It looks as if they are in Greece and if you do buy them, speaking from experience, I can tell you that a tracking number and insurance are essential.
 
They do look like Athena hubs, polished with decent quality axle fittings. Chorus hubs are the same except for hub-body oil ports/clips. The only downer with these hubs is the current poor cassette availability (compared with say Shimano) and the rear hub is acknowledged to be an inferior design to the Shimano free-hub (freewheel pawl springs, bearings placement, sealing). That said they do look lovely when polished up :D
 
I've inspected-brought the wheelset yesterday. The bike-wheels are @ home now, I still have to wait until friday night to get there, but I promise I'll report some riding experience as soon as I can.

The wheels were true, bearings were silky, the freewheel sound was great, and the rims looked like in good condition, expect some scratches on the rear rim, probably due to storage problems (the seller's flat was full with cycling parts, eg.: bottom bracket with chorus crankset beside the coffee machine on the kitchentable, cca. 9wheelsets in the living room, boxes of full groupsets, several frames hanging on the wall.. )

I guess there won't be any problem with the wheels. Only concern now is the slightly higher gear ratio. My old HG shimano cassette started with 12t cog, this campy starts with 13t, so with the 52-42 crank it'd be a bit "easier to pedal". (cranks: old ultegra)

Probably if I can sell my good condition cranks I'd buy something like UT centaur set. It'd be cheaper from the UK from a shop than to buy a scond-hand veloce @home.. shipping included ofc
 
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