jebensch

I was overhauling a rear Campy Record hub for my Ciocc build and I lost two bearings, possibly to a clan of little beings living in the floor boards of my kitchen. Then I found a pretty serious pitting on one of the cones. I took apart an unused identical hub and took the two bearings and cone from there to finish the overhaul on the wheel.

Now that I've robbed Peter to pay Paul, do I replace all the bearings on the donor hub to make sure they're the same size? How standardized is the Campy bearing vs. others I might find in other hubs I have laying about? And the pitted cone?

cyclotoine

I would have used all the bearings from the other hub and got a fresh set to replace them. The bearings from the pitted side probably should have been replaced anyway. Campy bearings are way better than anything else. You will want to ensure the replacements are grad 25, but it is my opinion that the original campy are still better than generic grad 25 BBs. I always repack campy hubs with the original bearings if all else is in good shape. Nothing smoother.

miamijim

+1

I can tell you from experience that all the bearings in a pitted hub should be replaced. I noticed a significant difference in the smoothness of a hub I serviced in the same manner as yours.

I'll politely disagree with cyclotoine on the bearings. IMO a grade 25 bearing is better than any used bearing with miles/wear on it.

Road Fan

I have the bearing-eating people in my basement, too.

dbakl

The bearings in the older Campagnolo rear hubs and bottom brackets are (I believe) 1/4"; readily available at any bike store or online. The generic ones have always worked fine for me.

norskagent

Are the bearing sizes the same for Record hubs front and rear?
I have a pair of ~73 record pista hubs I will eventually repack, also some ~80 low flange record road hubs.

miamijim

No, they are not. Rear hubs take 1/4" while front take 7/32"?

edited for clarification

norskagent

ahh, I looked it up w/ sheldon's help - front takes 7/32".

Grand Bois

You're not saving a lot of money by reusing bearing balls.

dbakl

If they're in reasonable shape no harm in reusing...

jebensch

Where to get grad25 bearings new then? Any suggestions?

Thanks for all the help guys. Nice to have some direct answers after two weeks of election debates!

Grand Bois

Are you sure you can tell if they are in "resonable shape" by looking at them?

dbakl

I think so, since they're hardened and chromed... damage seems fairly obvious usually; pits, gouges, scratches etc; but its just a bike, not the space shuttle. I guess they could get out of round, but I'm not sure how and I have no device to measure for it.

If the hub is back together and seems less than perfect it might be time to explore further, but visual inspection has always seemed to work for me.

Properly ridden and maintained there's not really much that can hurt the bearings on a road bike, except maybe Katrina...

At least 10 years ago I bought a number of bags of bicycle sized bearings from Loose Screws, still working through them.

WNG

Loosescrews.com should still have some Record hub cones. You should replace the pitted one asap.
And they have Grade 25 bearings.
If you need them in bulk, try mcmaster-carr (mcmaster.com). Cheap and high quality.
They also have the higher quality SS balls.

I think cyclotoine meant Campy bearings are higher grade than standard grade 25 bearings...and he replaces them with new Campy sourced bearings.
The lower the grade number, the better the quality of the bearing ball.

miamijim

Back in my shop days we'd get all of our bearings from a local supply company. It was much cheaper for us to do it that way.

I agree. As I mentioned earlier I had serviced a hub and re-used the old bearing. Being unhappy with the smoothness I replaced the bearings and all was good.

Keep in mind that all of those little cone fragments are going somewhere and they were created by the bearings.