Bicycle Mechanics - My new chainring doesn't wanna go on

I just got a new Salsa 135 bcd chainring, and it jsut doesn't seem to wanna go on my Campy Athena crank. It's too small. the difference is less than 1mm, but it's just a wee too tight.

What do I do. IS there a trick to wedging it down, or should I sand the edges of the ring slightly where they meet the spider?

It sounds as though Salsa's idea of 135mm does not match Campag.'s. I would simply sand-to-fit and enjoy the ride, but then I have elongated mounting holes to make a 130mm ring fit onto a 128mm Nervar Star spider.

Yeah, sand or grind a bit off. As long as the holes of the chainrings line up with the holes in the crank, you'll be fine.

yeah, so here's what I did. I bolted the new chainring to the old one. The holes line up perfectly, but there is a tiny bit of overhang on the new one. I think I'll sand it down with them both still bolted together

yeah, so here's what I did. I bolted the new chainring to the old one. The holes line up perfectly, but there is a tiny bit of overhang on the new one. I think I'll sand it down with them both still bolted together
That sounds like a good plan. If you've got a friend that has a dremel tool see if you can mooch that for the job. Might make it a bit easier.

Steve W.

I wound up using a die grinder. It took a lot longer than I expected. It was such a miniscule difference, but I didn't want to go too far, so I took off a tiny bit, tried it, took off a tiny bit more. on the last round I put black marker on 3 of the 5 surfaces, ground off the ink, and then it fit perfect.

Glad it worked good for you. I'm always hyper-cautious doing things like that, since once it's off, there is no putting it back on again.

Steve W.
Who has cut this board 3 times now, and it's still too short

If you are tightening down the bolts as you put them on, stop. What I typically run into is that if you put on one bolt, get maybe one or two turns in, then put a bolt on the opposing side, leave it very loose again, and keep repeating this pattern that once the chainring bolts are all in place, the chainring slides on. Otherwise, I typically run into the problem you describe. I then tighten in a cross pattern. Worked for me on quite a few different crank/chainring combos.

Yeah, I couldn't even get the bolts on. the ring just wouldn't fit. when I was done the fit was TIGHT, I slid the ring into position, put the bolts in and tightened them in a cross pattern. I'm not terribly impressed with Salsa's tolerances.

We've seen the same thing in the shop with Salsa's chainrings on campy cranks.

We've seen the same thing in the shop with Salsa's chainrings on campy cranks.

I wonder what that's about? 135 BCD IS Campy. So few other cranks use 135 I assumed the Salsa 135 rings were made for Campy. How do you usually deal with em? File em down like I did, or send em back?

hi matt, how did things turn out? should i buy these rings? for a campy system?