Very disappointed with Campy Centaur
 

That's putting it kindly. I like the smooth shifting and great looks of the Centaur gruppo. However, after only about 7,000 miles, the bottom bracket is sounding its death rattle. I'll change it when the noise becomes unbearable. Back in early October, I had to overhaul the right ergolever and change the "g-springs" (a mere $9 each). This stuff is too delicate for what it costs.

Shoulda bought Record...

Eh?

Record costs twice what Centaur costs though. That's a lot of bottom brackets and shifter rebuilds.

Shoulda bought Shimano...

Eh?

Yeah, but... It's Record.

Remember, I'm OCP.

Eh?

Dura-Ace.

Eh? (That's the spirit!)

Only 7000 miles?

Oh man. Bummer.

:lol:

7000 miles on one square taper bottom bracket? That's more than double the average lifespan of a Shimano square taper BB... ask any LBS mechanic.

phil wood, 30,000 miles before it needs *any* maintenance :beer:

That's nonsense too.... The Centaur and lower campy BB aren't noted for long life, but they are cheap.

Yeah, but you can buy al ot of Centaurs for the price of a Phil.

No one should be disappointed with 7000 mile service life. Regardless of manufacturer or component level group.

For theoretical arguement, assume you do 20mph at 90rpms cadence, that's close 350 hours or 21000 minutes to accomplish 7000 miles. If my calculations are right, that's close to 2 million revolutions on that bottom bracket before replacement.

Go buy a replacement and consider yourself fortunate to be able to ride that much.

So are Shimano square taper... the BB-UN25 and similar are intended for cheap mountain bikes. I believe the last one I saw was $25 Canadian.

The lower end shimano stuff like that isn't even worth putting in a bike. The centaur is better.

Shoulda bought Suntour

(someone had to say it)

105 --> Buy it, use it, trash it --> Buy new

The life of 105 group.

Huh? I think there must be a wager there but, at my age, I might not have enough time left to wait for a Shimano cartridge bottom bracket to wear out so that I could collect.

Just bought 2 shimano BB's

UN73 - $14
UN53 - $12

Figure at 1500-2000 miles a season across both bikes, if I get 5000 miles out of them they'll last me till I've long forgotten how much I spent on either one.

Loser

My experiences with Campagnolo brackets (both my own and working of friends bikes) are negative. They are crap. I've owned or worked on perhaps 5 or six different ones, inc Record. The only positive thing I could say about them is that they look nice. Campagnolo make some nice equipment but you can't include their BB's in that category. I also have two mates who own bike shops - ones a big Campagnolo fan and the other isn't, but both of them despise Campagnolo BB's.

Apparently Centaur was upgraded this year - hopefully better than the old model.

My experiences with Shimano square taper BBs are mostly positive.

My experiences: Shimano UN-53 bottom bracket, I've put 7500 miles on it with 180mm cranks in a stiff aluminum frame, so the spindle is bearing lots of load, and it turns perfectly smoothly when I overhauled the thing this summer.

My brother rode his Campy Mirage drivetrain into the ground - around 10,000 miles without changing the chain. You've never seen such worn cogs and chainrings! (Really, it's incredible). However, his bottom bracket - a square-taper Mirage, at that - was perfectly smooth after 15,000 miles when I removed it from his bike and replaced with a Shimano (b/c I replaced his whole crank, which was lots cheaper than buying three new Campy chainrings).

Just two data points, but it's something.

Bingo...and a lot of Veloces for the price of a Centaur BB and they last as long. Parts wear out...depends how you ride OP. Campy stuff is as robust as any good gruppo out there and ergo levers are rebuildable and Shimano aren't...or at least not easily.
Bang for buck, Campy mid grade is impossible to beat.
7K miles on a hard ridden and inexpensive BB is OK...I might get less on my Veloce BB...still perfect at 4K...but if I get 7K...good enough..new Veloce BB is 20 bones on e-bay.
George

Even though all the guts are the same in Centaur and Record? I have Campy shifters that are THE ORIGINALS. I have a set of Mirage that are at least 8 years old.

Bottom Brackets don't fail for no reason. The new sealed BB's are very difficult to misuse and if his is making noise I'd firstly suspect that it was loose from insufficient installation torque. I remember that Cannondale used to have a lot of problems with noisey BB's because they would loosen up in the aluminum shell.

Either the poster had really bad luck or he's pretty hard on equipment.

I just replaced the 'G' springs in my right hand Veloce ERGO lever this morning. Took about an hour including getting the lever off the bike. $13 in parts. Shifts like new!

I usa a Record crank (180mm) with Chorus BB with over 2 years (14-16,000 miles) of service. It is as smoth as the day I put it in. Now I do snap one chain ring bolt (the reversed one that screws into the spider) every year or so.

7000 miles on that BB aint to shabby.

My Veloce BB started making noise after 800 KM. took it out cleaned it, torqued it and it's been fine ever since. Things wear out allot quicker when there not maintained and especially when you ignore noises.