What exactly does a label of prototype mean for a Campy part... I now have Olympus cranks and Veloce FD...



See label on back of cage...

I can't give you an answer regarding the prototype markings.

But I do believe that the crank is a Centaur MTB rather than Olympus. Compare the area around the mounting bolt hole and there is a difference: Centaur has a small angled area in one section and Olympus has no angled section.

https://velobase.com/ViewComponent.a...=115&AbsPos=16

https://velobase.com/ViewComponent.a...66c4d&Enum=115

They are probably not safe. I don't think you should use them. If you send the to me, I can properly dispose of them for you.

Seriously, that is pretty cool. I would assume early production runs before final release. It's interesting that their are both marked and "out in the field".

Some oddities for sure. A chamfered lip/edge on one (I think that is what it’s called) flush and smooth on the other...

iNterestingly, when the clink together, the DS arm sings in a pure C note. Really fascinating.



The angle edge as referred to above...

That's interesting, I have never noticed that before. I have 2 of those cranks so I just took a look and mine are the same way.

FWIW, I am using one as a double with a Campy 102mm BB. The DS crankarm is very close to the BB - like maybe the thickness of 2 credit cards - but it has not been a problem. Phil Wood makes a Campy taper 105mm and I have thought buying one as that would likely be a better fit. The other one is set up as a triple and I'm using a Centaur (black cartridge) 115.5mm BB. I tried the Centaur 111mm BB first and while everything did clear the inner ring was closer to the chainstay than I liked.

Strange how these "prototypes" ends up in public hands.
One would think that Campagnolo had strict control on where they end up.
I would have suspected that the company would have destroyed these items once they were done studying/testing them in the field to avoid them ending up in other company's hands or causing liability risks.

Trade show display samples perhaps?
Brent

Thats what my first guess was. The odd thing is the different numbers in the boxes. 51 and 71.Prototype #?

A friend of mine worked for Sachs, the car parts division (clutches, dampeners etc.) and had friends in the bike component division, which already was a separate company at that time and was sold to SRAM later. As he was riding a lot and did some pretty extreme stuff, he always was given prototypes to test. No one ever wanted those back and he still had a lot of those parts in his garage, prototype suspension forks, disk brakes etc. I imagine something similar happened at Campagnolo, the interesting bit was the information how the parts performed, the test riders just kept the stuff and it eventually switched hands. I once met a dude who purchased a 1930ish bike at an italian fleamarket which turned out to have a cambio corsa prototype/test version on it.

I am wondering if they are a matched set...maybe one is not a prototype and can be used, because the other one says not usable, and I would never break that admonition...

In seriousness, why would they not be usable?

saw a few so marked on trade show bikes of selected builders.

no warranty claims accepted.

I think these very light (similar to Assos pedals), NOS, Stronglight PR300 pedals I found some years ago were prototypes too:


They came in an original unmarked, plain white box with specific cutouts to support the pedals that just had a few cryptic numbers stamped on them and the pedals themselves have no branding anywhere on them.
The very few pics I ever found of any other PR300's out there had Stronglight branding molded on to the resin bodies. These do not have them. I also noticed that the cage mounting screws on my PR300s are aluminum, while others I have seen in pics out there had chrome steel screws. The seller did not seem to know what these pedals were all about. I did not either, till I did my research on them, after I bought them.

I suspect that Stronglight might have meant to include these pedals in their Delta model line in the second half of the 80's, but prematurely pulled the plug on them because clipless pedals were starting to really dominate the pedal market already.

Now the real question becomes...can I use them without dying...?

Obviously not worried about the front derailleur, but the cranks are another story. Obviously no warranty, but were prototypes ridden or just models to see what they COULD do.

Also sort of cool is that they seem to be very CNC (I think that is the term). Most Campy is finely rounded (even when squared). This has sharp (no cut you sharp, angluar) edges in places.

That was also my thought, before seeing your post. If these were true R&D prototypes used only ther factory, I doubt they would have borne the commercial looking tampo/sikscreen lettering.

The 51, and 71 in boxes are date codes 51 = 1989, and 71 = 1991. Info from the Velo-retro timeline

They might bring a premium on the market for collectors based on rarity. That would fund whatever you use to replace them.

Too late. I already paid a bit of a premium for them... $85 shipped. Oops.

I have old Record era prototype seat post..

As far as how they leak out into the public...

Trade show, pre-release?
Samples to builders?
Perhaps pro teams?
"Review"

I'd expect the pros to get mainly record/super record, but it wouldn't be surprising if they were given different parts for training.

Have you used it? Has it caused any SIGNIFICANT injuries?

No....therefore no. Its only the top a swagged post

That's probably for the best.