I could have kept the Stronglight headset as it was a perfect fit, and actually the later variant which uses the replaceable cartridge bearings. It’s light, and would polish up well enough, but the C Record headset is such a distinctive design, that I think it would be too noticeable that it was missing from the group. Typically for Campagnolo’s headsets of this era it’s a tall stack height which doesn’t quite suit the length of the fork. I measured everything twice, and decided to just give it a go. That C Record headset locking is literally on by two threads - but it’s on, and that’s what matters!
The seat post was really rough to start with, and took a good deal of polishing to bring it around to anything suitable. It’s ok, but there’s a small amount of damage to the engraved logos, which isn’t that visible unless you’re up close. I might actually give the post another session of hand polishing as I think it’ll come up a bit better at the top just below the clamp. Evidence of the previous owner had using mole-grips to remove it can be seen before polishing.
The bottom bracket was never going to be a C Record one, and there’s a few reasons why. Firstly, they’re really difficult to obtain in a condition where they’ll run smooth. Secondly, if you can find one smooth enough, then you’ll almost certainly pay for the privilege. Thirdly, they wear out! Simply by their design of using ball bearings against the axle, they will eventually wear out.
The answer was always a Royce Titanium one, and I think it’s really fitting for this bike. The hardship is finding one in decent condition that’s the correct size. Half of the people selling Titanium BB’s don’t know whether they’re ISO or JIS taper, and some don’t even list the axle width. 111mm is the standard Campagnolo axle width, and I found a very rough 110mm ISO set up. Everything other than the axle was knackered, which is actually the most important bit. You can use various manufacturers cups on Ti axles as they almost always use the same cartridge bearing. Luckily though I had spare set of Royce cups to use on this one.
I tried to thread the cups in as a test fit, but I could barely get them started, so a trip to my cousin’s bike shop to re-tap the threads (in exchange for beer) was on the cards. The taps were struggling for a quite a while, especially in the non drive side, so 10 mins of back and forth until I thought I’d give the cups a try. The difference is night and day as the cups go in by fingers alone. I never force BB cups as it can be catastrophic, especially when using two pin Campagnolo tools to install, as one slip of that spanner…!!!
The reason why the taps might have found it difficult to cut a tgra
Was is because the alloy lugs use a steel insert for the BB. I cleaned it all out with a wire brush and once cleaned I coated it with a liberal amount of grease.
Brand new Endura bearings went in, and the whole lot was tightened in place. The beauty of this set up is that it’s infinitely serviceable with new bearings every few years.
And how the bike looks currently…
