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My new bottom bracket axle has just been delivered a fortnight after being ordered. The carrier lost the first one at the nearest delivery office. Subsequent [polite] emails to the online dealer failed to trigger a suitable response.
Only when I threatened to give them a bad score on Trust Pilot did they finally react with a replacement. I have years of orders with this company. From way back when I was still riding thousands of miles every year on my trike.
It is lucky I had a spare unit albeit one which was too long. At 112mm it would not allow the Campag Athena front changer to reach the outer ring. I was using a 103mm sealed axle unit until it warned of impending destruction through rusted bearings. So much for being sealed!
I was unable to find a 103mm BB axle this time and had to settle for a Shimano 107mm. With a prayer to the cycling gods that it would work. For those who haven't been following every nuance over the years I use a Stronglight/TA chainset from Spa Cycles.
For years I clung to triple chainrings. Starting as a teenager back in the early 60s. When, believe it or not, ratios were measured in [penny farthing/Ordinary] inches and you had to do the sums on paper. Biros had already been invented by then but calculators were not commonplace. I used common bolts to hold the three rings together. Drilled through the middle and with the heads and nuts ground and filed thin for lightness. Of course they rusted.
Meanwhile, back at the tricycle shed: The chainset seems to be a very long way from the seat tube with the 112mm axle. Well beyond the maximum reach of the Athena. I was too busy to change to the new bottom bracket today. Though it will only take a couple of minutes tomorrow. I use self-extracting crank bolts which save a lot of time. A far cry from the distant past when dedicated extractors were required for each make of crankset. With crummy covering caps to keep the extractor threads clean.
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