RogueMechanic

Blocked by Campagnolo?!?

I found out about this when I tried to view a photo that they posted and subsequently tried to follow on Twitter... After a long day, I have to admit that it kinda made me smile...just a little.  -John

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I hope Power Torque is better than Their Translators

Case in point...

This is from Campagnolo's June 10th press release that I found on their website:

This time, the axle is in a single piece firmly fixed to the right pedal crank of the crankset. The perfect coupling between central pin and pedal crank is ensured thanks to the particular geometry of the two components; this solution also makes it possible to eliminate the potential play between the different materials...

I mean... Come on.  Seriously.  Can't they run the ad copy by someone in their North America office to do a little "touching up"?!?  It almost seems as if they employed the services of the same folks who write the ads for the Taiwanese component manufactures that are found towards the back of the BDS publication...  I guess that I expect more in this day and age from a international company of Campagnolo's caliber.

You can find the official press release here.

Coming up... What's up with Power Torque?

RogueMechanic is now a Spammer...

Wow.... Seriously?!?!  You gotta check this out...

I started this thread on the weightweenies forum a couple days ago:

Hello again,

Well, I'm excited to be back here. It's been a while... For those of you that have experienced or are still experiencing noise and other issues related to their Campy Ultra-Torque bottom bracket/crankset (by the sheer volume of emails and comments that I have received over the past 12+ months, there's quite a few folks that are dealing with this...), I finally had the chance to publish a permanent fix/solution on my site. Additionally, I have a parts kit now available. Here's the link:

"Wavewasherectomy: The Ultra-Torque Fix"

Check it out if you are inclined and let me know if you have any questions....

 I returned to the forum yesterday to see if there were any comments that I needed to reply to.  For the life of me, I couldn't find my post.  I sent one of the moderators a PM for help.  This is the response I received this morning from "Powerful Pete", one of the mods:

Hello there RogueMechanic. As you may have noticed, we have pulled the thread that you started on the UT fix. It came across, in the opinion of the mods, as a bit too much like spam - in others, that you were trying to sell a product without coming clean that you were involved in some manner.

I realise that this may have been an honest mistake on your part, or that we mods may have misinterpreted your post. 

We of course welcome your participation in the forum, and it sounds like you could add a lot of value here, but please do read the forum rules before posting and try to avoid posts that could be interpreted as being spam.

Please let me know if you would like to discuss further, Thanks.

Powerful Pete

_________________
Cervelo R3, Campagnolo Chorus/Record mix...
pastatrails.blogspot.com 

Spam?!?!  Really?

Oh, here are the three comments in their entirety (one of them mine) that were posted as replies to my initial post (I actually saved them for my records...) 

<<<<<<<<<< coloclimber >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

$35 + $5 shipping for 8 washers to solve a problem that shouldnt exist in the fist place......

::::::::::::::::::::::: RogueMechanic ::::::::::::::::::::::::::

I completely agree. The problem shouldn't exist on with a product of such high quality... I know that if I dropped the big $'s on Campy UT, I'd be hacked off myself.

<<<<<<<<<<<ritcheykestrel >>>>>>>>>>>>

Hey Rogue!

I mentioned your fix on here when someone was talking about their crankset. Glad to see the fix is available.

As for other who have posted here or on RBR, I have to say, I have more than one UT crankset. None have issues. But, that isn't to say there are not people out there without issues. 

Things happen. Plain and simple. If John has experienced issues with his clients, I would believe him. He is VERY skilled and a great tech.

So, for those who have had issues and they keep popping back up, I would go his route. And no, John has never worked on one of my bikes. But we have raced many times against each other in the past and know each other through the grapevine.

********* End***********

I have yet to respond to Powerful Pete, and half of me doesn't want to.  Unless I'm way off base, I didn't think that I came across as aggressively pushing my solution and/or my "Wavewasherectomy" Shim Kit...  

In closing, I'm wondering what these forums are for anyway, or if my thread just got wacked from this forum because it butted heads with the sacred component gods in Vicenza and their followers (See link above to Powerful Petes blog) ...

Update:  I have corresponded with Pete and after having a polite discussion, I realized that I was in violation of the forum rules by offering a product for sale.  I was wrong and for that I apologize.  FWIW, the weight weenies forum is probably the most civil cycling forum out there.  -John

How did this happen?!?!

2009 Colnago CX-1

Just in case you were wondering... This is what a $7800 bike looks like... Oh, and if you want it with Campy 11 instead of SRAM Red, then it's more like $8300.... holy cow...

Campy 11 Speed Chain Tool

You know, one of the many things that I LOVE about everything Campagnolo is having to spend $169USD on the new chain tool that is required to install their new 11 speed chains.... God, I love that... really.

Lebron buys into Cannondale

Here's a link to the story... I guess that he has plenty of money to lose.

Easton follow-up

I finally got to the bottom of this mess a few hours ago by calling Easton Sports directly (all calls are usually routed to Veltec Sports).  After speaking with one person who was very kind but read verbatum from the installation sheet, I was forwarded to Michael M., an engineer who had his hands in the design of the bars.  He let me know the max torque spec.  This is the info that I've been looking for.  We also had a good conversation about the issues that I have been experiencing in my quest for a solution.  Needless to say, he wasn't too happy about what I was told by Veltec Sports.  I also made a suggestion that they add a PDF file to their website that lists all of the torque specs of all of their products.  He ended the conversation by letting me know that if I have any more questions/concerns I should call him directly.  That was cool.  Now I have a go-to guy at Easton.  Problem solved.... Thanks Mike.

"Just set aside the torque wrench, dude..."

I just got off the horn with Troy at Veltec Sports, the US distributor of Easton cycling products.  I called to get a final and definitive max torque spec for Easton's AeroForce Carbon Aero bars because the torque that is specified in the instructions and on the bars still allow the extensions to move.  I need to know the max that I can tighten the bolts without causing and damage... I guess that I'm funny like that.  Anyway, this is what I was told...

"Just torque it 'til it's tight... You'll know when you've gone too far...".  "I've been a mechanic since the mid 80's and I've never used a torque wrench".  "Dude, you just need to set the torque wrench aside and just grab a plain old 5mm and start crankin'...just make sure that you tighten the bolts evenly..." 

I $hit you not.  This was exactly what he said!  I didn't even know what to say!  I was able to get out a few questions while I was picking myself up off of the floor.  I asked him if the bars would be replaced if they get crushed or if the threaded inserts pull out.  He said that they'd take care of it (I HIGHLY doubt that they would).  I also stated that this has to be a common problem because both of the sets that I installed had the same issue.  He denied that there's a problem.  I don't believe it.  I bet that the folks at Easton would be thrilled to hear about this. 

So if anyone out there has problems installing these aero bars onto the Easton DeltaForce bars and possibly damages the bars, just call Troy and Veltec Sports.  He'll take care of it...  Unbelievable.