Originally Posted by
Pcampeau
I agree, the bike was shipped to me from Finland a few years ago with the levers attached.You never know how roughly it may have been handled. I inspected the frame well, but never once inspected the levers for cracks, which I’m learning now is a good idea with vintage aluminum. The part broke off kind of slowly under pressure, like a bend with a crack opening up, I then easily wiggled the lever apart with my thumb and forefinger. I’m not afraid of using vintage parts but will be a more cautious inspector going forward.
I've never heard of a brake lever breaking (or is it "break lever braking"?
), so I've never inspected one for cracks either. Might be something to add to the list.
I've gotten better about taking close looks at my cranks, though. The Campagnolo Record crank is somewhat infamous for cracking at the thin web that joins the right arm to the spider, but this design feature also exists on other cranks, such as the Sugino AT that I like so much. I've filed away that thin web on my Sugino AT's, but still look closely when I pull things apart for maintenance. I did find something that looked like the start of a crack on one bike's AT crank recently....
I got the file out and took off a bit more metal, and I think I got it.
The bike has over 50k miles on it, and the crank was used before I got it, so paranoia is appropriate.
Steve in Peoria