Exposure to religion in my youth was by way of a brief dose of sunday school at the local Unitarian church. The point there, evidently, was to learn about other religions and turtles. If a point was being made, I missed it. When Catholic friends of mine came over for the weekend I would accompany them to the closest Catholic church and we would endure the mass together, the experience leaving us just as clueless as the moment before we walked in.
A girlfriend of @Rob briefly worked for the English bike company Raleigh in Boston, Massachusetts. These were the Jan Raas, Didi Thurau, Ti-Raleigh years, where Raleigh made beautiful bikes and their team was one of the dreadnaughts of professional cycling. I was visiting this friend at the Raleigh offices, which to my eyes seemed like any other office: fluorescent lighting, linoleum tiled floors, men in coats and ties. It was uncontaminated by bicycles or red and yellow kits. This place was not cool. My friend ushered me into a nondescript room, pulled out an enormous sliding drawer and showed me something she knew was cool.
In this sliding drawer was a complete set of Campagnolo bike tools, all set in blue foam cut outs, each tool nestled in its perfectly shaped place. I didn’t fall to my knees but I must have gasped. Each tool was a work of art: form and function in unison. Each tool designed for a specific task in the wedding of components to frame. The tools had a uniform silver finish. There were facing and chasing tools with beautifully milled cutting teeth of high speed steel. I’m serious about reverence here. I had never seen anything like this. The seeds to my Italophile religion were sown. I was already a devout fan of the components but did the tools have to look this fantastic? What did this say about a company? To me it said-these tools are designed and made to make sure Campagnolo components work perfectly on any frame. What goes into the tools goes into everything else. The passion, the design, the tools and the components are one. Perhaps the intention was never there to make cool looking tools, maybe it was just a by-product of making cool looking components. What else could they do?
I had found my religion. I never needed the complete tool set, I was never a professional bike mechanic. I do own a few civilian Campa tools: some cone wrenches, the peanut butter wrench, a T-handle wrench, a 10-speed chain tool. These are beautiful tools. Park makes functional tools, no one would say they are beautiful. Why make a functional tool beautiful? Is a beautiful tool a better tool? It is when one is making a living wielding them. Pride in your tools reflects pride in your work.
I was going to write that those days are over, adding beauty adds cost and the bottom line is everything now. Then I remembered my Lezyne pedal wrench. It is functional as it removes pedals without impaling knuckles onto greasy chainrings (and opens beer bottles) but it is beautiful because it has a wide smooth machined aluminum handle bolted onto the body of the wrench. It lacks the refined industrial design of a Campagnolo tool but it is beautiful in its own way.
[dmalbum path=”/velominati.com/content/Photo Galleries/j.andrews3@comcast.net/campy tools/”/]
I know as well as any of you that I've been checked out lately, kind…
Peter Sagan has undergone quite the transformation over the years; starting as a brash and…
The Women's road race has to be my favorite one-day road race after Paris-Roubaix and…
Holy fuckballs. I've never been this late ever on a VSP. I mean, I've missed…
This week we are currently in is the most boring week of the year. After…
I have memories of my life before Cycling, but as the years wear slowly on…
View Comments
Nice article and pics. As a devoted Ducatisti and Campophile, I appreciate this.
As a younger man, I had a more utilitarian nature, but discovering the possibility of beauty existing in the same breath was a revelation that I have never since ignored.
Great article...but after this weekend I am seriously falling out of love with Campag! The gear is awesome, the idea that some nutfuck in gorgeous clothes is making my stuff with Sophia Loren blessing every piece of metal that passes over the production line is what keeps me going on cold windy rides.
However I pulled apart my crankset....or rather I didn't.....this weekend to change my Centuar back on to the rain bike to prepare my beautiful N1 for the arrival of some Centaur Red and Black in a few short weeks time. Only to find out that the cranks no longer just unscrew and fall apart with consumate ease the way they used to.....(the older stuff)
BASTARDS!
I've now got to buy a pulling tool for £150 or so....just to do basic work on my own bottom bracket!!
I am so pissed off. The ridiculous 11 speed chain breaking saga, which has led me to believe that 10spd is the way to stay has now been breeding another complete clusterfuck of a decision by Campag...take something that works, fuck around with it (when there was nothing wrong with it) and charge everyone a shit load of money for a specialist tool that should never have been needed in the first place!
Are they trying deliberately to lose customers?
I grew up working in a shop with a fantastic oak case clad 50th anniversary Campy Tool Kit. Cool as hell. As time presses on though, most of these tools are obsolete in the face of press fit everything and frames that break before they bend.
@prowrench
Absolutely, I was thinking how few of that whole tool kit would be used these days. Between a carbon frame, press fit BB and headset, there is not much left to mess with. Though guys who still build with steel or ti might used a fair amount of them.
@Deakus
Say it ain't true! I have 10 speed and 11 speed Campagnolo chorus and it's all beautiful. The Ultra-torque BB come apart very easily with a $10 allen wrench fitting on a torque wrench. I use my 10 speed chain tool on 11 speed chains with a backer when peening. No worries. It would be dumb to make people buy an expensive puller for their Centaur stuff. Sorry to hear that.
@Deakus
Is that a Power Torque crank you are having trouble with?
@Gianni
It is indeed. I converted to Campag 18 months ago and I love it! But when I did I ordered my N2 rain bike (cheap Ribble Winter Trainer) I specced it with Centaur. I had not realised it has all changed to Powertorque. In fact I only found out the name for it all yesterday.
Was chatting to the guy in the LBS and he was explaining it. I said "why"...his answer was "Because they are Italian!". This reaffirms my faith in this knowledge of road cycling....I have seen the guff on the website about stiffness and lack of play but to be honest I am not sold on the marketing bullshit. I am wondering if there was anything wrong with Ultratorque?
Anyway it seems now to replace bearings, swap cranks, or BB I now need to buy 2 tools. A puller and a puller spacer kit. Campag sell the tool for about £150 and Park Tools do the kit and spacer kit for about £40 each but I cannot see where the benefit is?
So I am now left taking my bike to the LBS for stuff I should be able to do myself or shelling out for the tools.....
Apparently it is now on all Campag stuff i.e. it will be on Athena, Chorus and Record too....
And for some wierd reason I can't quite figure out....Ultratorque cups wont fit Powertorque.....I could not get the left side on the frame yet I cannot figure out why...the English threads should be exactly the same on both!??
@Deakus I've heard nothing but crap about the serviceability of the power torque cranks due to the need for special tools. I hadn't heard that Chorus, Record and SR were going there. Hope it's not true. Are you sure you didn't end up with Italian (36X24) cups?
Deakus - I have 2009 Centaur on a bike & wanted to replace the BB bearings. (I had a click every pedal stroke...turns out it is the bearings in my LOOK Keo pedals, not the BB bearings. Shite!)
Yup the tool for the BB bearings is not cheap. None of my LBSs had the proper tool. Had to take it to a big box store, which I normally avoid (REI in the U.S.) since they were the only ones to have the tool. The mechanic was actually really pumped to use it, since he rarely gets to. It lived in this imposing looking case & sat stored away on a bottom shelf. I think the charge was about $20 USD.
And yes, as Gianni said, I think the UT cranks come off with just a 10mm allen, right? Not sure if this helps you out or not, but hope it might.
Nate - Alright, I take back what I said about square taper BBs...
Oh wait, maybe I'm confused. Are power torque and ultra torque cranks different? Looks as if they might be. Sorry for being dim.
@Deakus is that puller tool you speak of look like a wine opener? removes what seems to be a seal of some sort and nothing else? i saw a man use that in a video on youtube and my head started spinning if i'd really need to buy that and loathed how much it could possibly cost