Bike Forums - Headset heresy

Quote:

Originally Posted by 63rickert (Post 20470207)

A better example. My wife has a 1975 RRB she has owned since new. It has its original Campy headset. The bike has been in continuous service. For most of those years it was her only bike and some of those years it was her only transportation. Figure it was used 200 days a year most years and 300 days a year some years. The bike has been repainted twice. Five or six years ago Ron built a new fork. Until a year ago the RRB did not have fenders. Only times the headset has ever been serviced was at repaint or re-fork. Still works perfectly. Consider that through the winter she has always ridden in snow and Chicago salt slush. That is hard service. Campy was not in the business of selling beautiful fetish objects. They were in the business of selling tough bike parts that worked.

I grew up on the North Side of Chicago and learned to ride going up and down what is now the Lakefront Trail maybe 5 times a week, sometimes 10 months a year. It's a challenge fersure!

I totally agree about Campy making tough parts, but they still fell down on not sealing the bearings. In the mid'70s when I fell out of riding daily due to intensive time at university, Phil Woods hubs were taking over in the hearts and minds (if not the general market) of serious commuters over Campy.

Ron Boi has so much experience, perhaps he set up your wife's headset in some special way, though it is beyond my imagination.

I get aggravated when people see classic Campy as bling, that needs to have "properly" mirror-finished surfaces. I believe in over-good maintenance for it, but that's because it's a non-renewable resource.