Decline and Fail?

When riding a bike day in, day out, it's easy to get used to parts that aren't working at their best, because degradation is generally a very gradual process. This was brought home this week when my rear Campagnolo Record brake caliper, a 1999 model, seized and left the pads rubbing on the wheel rim. The problem was caused by the caliper bearings becoming clogged up with dirt, a situation not helped by the Salmon mudguards on my Roberts, which offer little protection to the brakes. I was resigned to the internals having become a corroded, irreparable mess, which would serve me right for being vain enough to use twinkly top-of-the-line brakes on my 'hack' bike and consoled my self with the thought that they had at least given ten years of regular service.

Half-disassembled. Time to break out the hammer!

Out of academic interest, I disassembled the calipers to see how extensive the damage was. The process was pretty straightforward, only requiring three allen keys and a couple of open-ended spanners. Disassembly of the pivots was the only difficult part: I was hit painfully on the palm by the main spring pinging free of its retaining clip when unscrewing the first and had a bit of a job with the second one, which required a 3mm allen key which was only just up to the job of transmitting the forces required. A healthy application of penetrating oil and the odd 'tap' with a hammer eventually got it unstuck!

Clean as a whistle!

As expected, the bearings were completely seized, with the races being clogged by a gritty paste. The surprise, however was that once cleaned up, the internals were completely undamaged and the micro bearing races were as smooth as butter once they had been re-greased. The next challenge was to reassemble the parts and of course I had completely forgotten how the various parts went together. Happily, salvation was at hand, courtesy of the 1999 Campagnolo Parts Catalogue which helpfully displays an exploded diagram of the components in assembly order, complete with parts numbers. With the help of the diagram, reassembly was a breeze and I was delighted to find that on re-installation, the caliper action was beautifully light and smooth, so much so that the still-functioning front caliper seemed heavy in comparison. Following a disassembly, clean, lube and reassembly, the front was soon equally light and smooth.


The lesson here is that there is no substitute for routine maintenance, to prevent breakdowns and to keep parts functioning as they did when they were new. The next job is to take a look at the gear levers, which probably have similar problems and would account for the change not being as slick or reliable as I remember when they were new. I suspect there might be some parts damage in this case as the 1999 model lever had changes made to some of the internal parts. I'll order them in, see how the job goes and report the outcome in a future post.

Now that they're fully functional once more, I'm reminded of just what superb components the Campagnolo dual-pivot calipers are. Introduced in 1993, they replaced the achingly beautiful but God-awful Delta calipers (I know because I had a set) and, apart from cosmetic changes, continue in Campagnolo's road component ranges to this day. It's ironic that the Deltas go for funny money these days whenever they come up on eBay, yet the dual-pivots remain relatively affordable. I can wholeheartedly recommend them because they are powerful, easy to modulate, pretty, beautifully made and as I have now discovered, fully serviceable. A five-star piece of kit!