Original thread about the Bianchi's cold-set:
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...saving+bianchi
One would have hoped that the cold setting of the rear triangle on this machine was going to be sufficient. Hardly. What was to come would make the cold-set seem like a piece of cake.
A Campagnolo Veloce cartridge BB had been installed in this machine - presumably stock, for the rest is Veloce as well. One section between the six removal grooves had snapped off long ago (visible on the RH in the below pic), while the rest had a reasonable amount of aluminum oxide on it:
One would have thought that the proper Park tool was going to make the job easy. Not so. The moment force was applied to the teeth, the edge of the cup snapped off as neat as you please off the rest of the cup - looked like a non-threaded lockring. Tried the other side - same thing.
Ultimately had to resort to extreme measures (in retrospect, I'm glad the BB was flaking and rusty in the first place) - drilling and chiseling the drive-side cup until the edge that secured the cartridge broke open:
The cups ended up coming out without half of their threads. A wirebrush removed the remaining threads quickly, but it was quickly apparent that nobody ever bothered to grease the darn thing (and mind you, even though it claims to be an Italian Bianchi, it has English threading - guess they finally saw sense by '97).
The drive side did take a beating from the chiseling, but other then looking pretty disgusting, a replacement cup threaded in without issue. Same for the non-drive side.
Installed a spare Shimano BB in it for the meantime. Have yet to pull out a spindle yet - don't know what cranks I intend to install (I'm saving the Veloce for something that looks a bit better then this mess - I don't care if it IS a Bianchi). It got quite grimy in the process - that's for sure.
That BB looks as if it is a definite candidate for some oxalic acid and touchup paint...
-Kurt