I just noticed that both my 1987 Ironmen are missing the crank arm dust covers.
Are these hard to find and are they all threaded the same?

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their thread matches that of the removal threads on the arm

the "standard" is 22.0mm

however, there is also the 23.0mm employed by SPECTA (T.A.) and the 23.35mm employed by Verot (Stronglight)


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Or you can replace the bolt with a 8mm hex bolt that covers the threads.
P1030673 on Flickr

You can find some generic crank caps/ dust covers on Ebay. They might not look good on some cranksets though. The Shimano FC6400 crank for example comes with these chromed caps which have slightly sloping contours to match the crank contours, and generic caps would not look good in this instance.

Visit your local bike shop. If they've been around awhile and they're anything like the one I work for, they likely have a stash of them laying around somewhere in the back.

You'll have to specifically ask for them, cuz they're not something that will be on display on the sales floor.

eBay, lots of options.
Tim

Yup!,....They were the first thing my brother and I used to toss away after getting a new bike or crankset in the 80's, along with dork discs and the CPSC required reflectors. Now I wish I didn't just dump them, as they now cost surprisingly lot of money (Even some of the chintzy plastic ones), for what they are....

Cinellis and Raleigh Internationals should have crank dust caps. Everything else, not.

They were kind of a pain so most people left them off. That means I have a collection of pristine Campagnolo covers.

These stronglight ones are easy to get on and off, sturdy, and look great. They are staying till the cranks break

These… not so much. Had to bend a paper clip into a tool to remove and install them.

These are waiting for the next time my campy cranks come off for bottom bracket service.

I’m a fan of the caps since I think it looks cleaner. I haven’t had much luck finding them and when I do they seem ridiculously priced for what they are.

Have you checked those Campy one-key release whatzits for "handedness"? I don't know what years, but they did make them in left-hand-thread, obviously to fit cranks that were also made with LH threads there.

The one-key release is of course intended to replace the separate extractor tool, but they also made a LH threaded tool. For people who lost their one-key release whatzit maybe? Who knows. Looks just like the iconic Campy crank extractor, except with sort of "hash marks" machined into the wrench faces to indicate the LH thread. (I don't think hash marks is the correct term, what do machinists and machine designers call those?) The LH threaded nuts on my acetylene regulator, hoses etc have the same markings, so I think it might be an interntional standard.

I have one (the extractor tool, not the one-key), but I have never used it. I was not a fan of Campagnolo during those years so I never had one of those cranks on any of my bikes.

The LH thread for a one-key release is an interesting idea with some merit, but decades of experience show us that RH threads also work fine, so LH is definitely not needed there. And there are costs and risks involved with using LH threads, so they're best avoided where not needed. Just another one of Campy's questionable design decisions from back then.

Mark B

looks like I lucked out again!



although I think the Campy Mexico crank on my Olmo deserves to keep the dustcap too....



I'd say that there was an expectation that a "work" bike, whether a bike being flogged in crit races or a bike being used for commuting, etc., wouldn't bother with the dust caps. Bikes that exist to look marvelous should keep the dustcaps.
My Hetchins has the dustcaps too.

Steve in Peoria

oh, those aren’t the one key release ones, just campy made Allen key bolts.

Oops yeah I can see that now, shoulda looked more closely at the photo. Shot from the hip, hit my foot. Carry on!

-mb