Another day on wheels (cont'd).
Continuing from yesterday.
Building a front wheel with a Campagnolo front hub that a customer left with me.
You might wonder why I don't call it "a C-Record hub" and that's because...
↑Looking at the right side of the image, the dust cap on the hub forms a cone that's continuous with the hub body shape — that's the C-Record hub.
This dust cap isn't just something you slip over the hub; when you remove it, the bearing balls inside are completely exposed.
As for the hub on the left, that's a Croce d'Aune.
Campagnolo's founder invented the quick-release hub, which is incorporated into the company logo itself, and these days appears prominently on the blue wheel bags that come with complete wheels. The name Croce d'Aune comes from the mountain pass of the same name where the inventor had a flash of inspiration while racing as a rider.
It was the second-tier component grade below C-Record, with Chorus below that (which still exists today).
Chorus hubs have no grease hole in the middle of the hub body or any design features for it — they're just round. Croce d'Aune hubs have a grease hole, but the dust cap shape is different from C-Record.
The confusing part is that C-Record era rear hubs look nearly identical between C-Record and Croce d'Aune. You can tell them apart by the shape of the nut on the opposite side of the quick-release lever, but a bare hub is indistinguishable. Unless it's a titanium shaft model.
For the 32H and 28H front and rear hubs I received, the 32H front hub is unused, while the 32H rear hub and 28H front and rear hubs show signs of use.
The 28H hubs appear to have similar wear front and rear, so if the front hub is Croce d'Aune, the rear is probably also Croce d'Aune.
Croce d'Aune is a grade that disappeared when Campagnolo released the Ergopower lever (first appearing in 8-speed), at which point the second-tier grade became Chorus (technically Chorus RS). But since the 28H hub has a 9-speed freebody that came out after that, I initially thought the 32H hub was a 1997 Record hub as-is, and the 28H hub was a Croce d'Aune that had been swapped. However, upon further investigation, something was off with the 32H hub.
The 1997 Record front hub has no protrusion in the middle of the hub body and features a cone-shaped dust cap, but in a design different from C-Record.
So the front hub is definitely unused C-Record.
I thought the rear hub was a C-Record 8-speed freehub that had been converted to titanium shaft and 9-speed freebody, but since it matches a 1997 Record rear hub exactly, the likelihood of it being made from parts swaps (contradicting what I wrote yesterday) is low.
Converting 8-speed freebodies to 9-speed was common back then and spare parts were available for it, but titanium hub shaft spares were barely distributed, so the possibility of swapping a steel shaft for titanium is extremely unlikely.
For the 28H front and rear hubs, the rear hub alone could be a 1997 Chorus as-is, but since the front is Croce d'Aune and the wear appears similar front and rear, I suspect it's a Croce d'Aune 8-speed freehub that was converted to 9-speed.
↑This is from my personal collection — a Record 8-speed freehub.
It's a 1996 model from the year before 9-speed conversion, and someone has handwritten "Ti" on the box, meaning titanium shaft.
↑That one
8-speed freebody and
titanium shaft.
↑These are both boxes from 1997 Record front hubs, but you can tell the gold-colored box is
the titanium shaft model.
↑This one
As I mentioned before, the hub body shape and other details differ from C-Record.
↑Titanium shaft.
The complete wheels of the era like Bora and Shamal also had titanium shafts (→here), but I think this might be the only time in Campagnolo's history that a front hub alone came in titanium shaft spec.
Update: I received a comment suggesting that old Super Record hubs might have had titanium shaft versions. That's certainly possible — titanium materials were already being used in rear derailleur fixing bolts, bottom bracket shafts, pedal shafts and such at that time. Thank you for the comment.
Getting an aftermarket titanium hub shaft and converting a Record front hub to titanium is often impossible. That's because the thread pitch on most manufacturers' 9mm front/10mm rear hub shafts worldwide is 1mm, but Campagnolo hub shafts have a pitch of 0.977mm, so parts like cone wrenches and nuts won't fit.
There's a manufacturer called O.M.A.S. (Omas) in Bologna, Italy, that made rotating parts like hubs, headsets, and bottom brackets. They also manufactured titanium parts compatible with Campagnolo components, and as far as I know, they were the only maker producing parts that could convert Campagnolo hubs to titanium shafts.
Interestingly, there's also a fountain pen maker named OMAS in Bologna, but I don't know if they're related.
Campagnolo once made NJS-compliant products for Japanese keirin racing. Their hub products used 1mm pitch hub shafts rather than the 0.977mm pitch, and the nuts even had NJS stamps (→here).
↑By the way, the chainrings look like this
...I've gotten pretty far off track here, but I figured I'd make use of this opportunity to write about something that wouldn't come up otherwise. My apologies for the tangent.
Wheel built.
C-Record hub, 32H, CX-RAY, 66 Italian lacing pattern.
Continuing from yesterday.
Building a front wheel with a Campagnolo front hub that a customer left with me.
You might wonder why I don't call it "a C-Record hub" and that's because...
↑Looking at the right side of the image, the dust cap on the hub forms a cone that's continuous with the hub body shape — that's the C-Record hub.
This dust cap isn't just something you slip over the hub; when you remove it, the bearing balls inside are completely exposed.
As for the hub on the left, that's a Croce d'Aune.
Campagnolo's founder invented the quick-release hub, which is incorporated into the company logo itself, and these days appears prominently on the blue wheel bags that come with complete wheels. The name Croce d'Aune comes from the mountain pass of the same name where the inventor had a flash of inspiration while racing as a rider.
It was the second-tier component grade below C-Record, with Chorus below that (which still exists today).
Chorus hubs have no grease hole in the middle of the hub body or any design features for it — they're just round. Croce d'Aune hubs have a grease hole, but the dust cap shape is different from C-Record.
The confusing part is that C-Record era rear hubs look nearly identical between C-Record and Croce d'Aune. You can tell them apart by the shape of the nut on the opposite side of the quick-release lever, but a bare hub is indistinguishable. Unless it's a titanium shaft model.
For the 32H and 28H front and rear hubs I received, the 32H front hub is unused, while the 32H rear hub and 28H front and rear hubs show signs of use.
The 28H hubs appear to have similar wear front and rear, so if the front hub is Croce d'Aune, the rear is probably also Croce d'Aune.
Croce d'Aune is a grade that disappeared when Campagnolo released the Ergopower lever (first appearing in 8-speed), at which point the second-tier grade became Chorus (technically Chorus RS). But since the 28H hub has a 9-speed freebody that came out after that, I initially thought the 32H hub was a 1997 Record hub as-is, and the 28H hub was a Croce d'Aune that had been swapped. However, upon further investigation, something was off with the 32H hub.
The 1997 Record front hub has no protrusion in the middle of the hub body and features a cone-shaped dust cap, but in a design different from C-Record.
So the front hub is definitely unused C-Record.
I thought the rear hub was a C-Record 8-speed freehub that had been converted to titanium shaft and 9-speed freebody, but since it matches a 1997 Record rear hub exactly, the likelihood of it being made from parts swaps (contradicting what I wrote yesterday) is low.
Converting 8-speed freebodies to 9-speed was common back then and spare parts were available for it, but titanium hub shaft spares were barely distributed, so the possibility of swapping a steel shaft for titanium is extremely unlikely.
For the 28H front and rear hubs, the rear hub alone could be a 1997 Chorus as-is, but since the front is Croce d'Aune and the wear appears similar front and rear, I suspect it's a Croce d'Aune 8-speed freehub that was converted to 9-speed.
↑This is from my personal collection — a Record 8-speed freehub.
It's a 1996 model from the year before 9-speed conversion, and someone has handwritten "Ti" on the box, meaning titanium shaft.
↑That one
8-speed freebody and
titanium shaft.
↑These are both boxes from 1997 Record front hubs, but you can tell the gold-colored box is
the titanium shaft model.
↑This one
As I mentioned before, the hub body shape and other details differ from C-Record.
↑Titanium shaft.
The complete wheels of the era like Bora and Shamal also had titanium shafts (→here), but I think this might be the only time in Campagnolo's history that a front hub alone came in titanium shaft spec.
Update: I received a comment suggesting that old Super Record hubs might have had titanium shaft versions. That's certainly possible — titanium materials were already being used in rear derailleur fixing bolts, bottom bracket shafts, pedal shafts and such at that time. Thank you for the comment.
Getting an aftermarket titanium hub shaft and converting a Record front hub to titanium is often impossible. That's because the thread pitch on most manufacturers' 9mm front/10mm rear hub shafts worldwide is 1mm, but Campagnolo hub shafts have a pitch of 0.977mm, so parts like cone wrenches and nuts won't fit.
There's a manufacturer called O.M.A.S. (Omas) in Bologna, Italy, that made rotating parts like hubs, headsets, and bottom brackets. They also manufactured titanium parts compatible with Campagnolo components, and as far as I know, they were the only maker producing parts that could convert Campagnolo hubs to titanium shafts.
Interestingly, there's also a fountain pen maker named OMAS in Bologna, but I don't know if they're related.
Campagnolo once made NJS-compliant products for Japanese keirin racing. Their hub products used 1mm pitch hub shafts rather than the 0.977mm pitch, and the nuts even had NJS stamps (→here).
↑By the way, the chainrings look like this
...I've gotten pretty far off track here, but I figured I'd make use of this opportunity to write about something that wouldn't come up otherwise. My apologies for the tangent.
Wheel built.
C-Record hub, 32H, CX-RAY, 66 Italian lacing pattern.