Mechanics and Fixing Any Questions Answered

MTB shifter and road FD is a no-no, new mech?

Really? Oh balls.

Does this also apply to Campagnolo drivetrains as well?
Have 3x8 thumbies and separate flat bar style levers and was trying to see if a flatbar set up using them would work with Croce D’Aune 8spd mechs
Although having typed all this I suspect I subconsciously know the answer is going to be ‘ha ha m8!’…

There's Campy-Mano combos which work and the answer is hidden in the interwebs.

It's the pull ratio of the various brands and series which fucks things up.

TBH anything 9 speed and below are workable between Shimano road and MTB, anything above that is a mish mash.

I've seen a few BUT never have the interest or will to look into it deeper. Maybe that's why my mind blocks it out.

To illustrate, Tiagra 4600 and 105 rear mech are interchangeable, no other 10 speed mech works. BUT 9 speed MTB mechs are close enough to work with it.

Tl;dr: Doable but time consuming.

Appreciate sharing what you know
Looks like I should try and stick to the knitting and hunt for things that actually were designed to work together lol

I have a Ritchey front hub that takes this thick 8mm QR axle. I'd like to replace it with a hex key skewer rather than lever (purely for cosmetic reasons) but I can't find anything online that would work. Is there even such a thing?

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Is it 8mm? I've seen 9mm front and 10mm rear thru QRs (they're on my bike) but not 8mm. Even then I've only seen QR, mine are cheapo superstar, DT do some pricey RWS thru bolts which aren't strictly QR but have a lever that turns with a pull out release ratchet mechanism to line up the lever and get more force on the clamp, you might be able to modify it to pull the end right off possibly but it'll be a lot of money for not much and I'm not sure it'll work.

Sorry I meant 9mm yes
Good to know at least I can get an alternative in black!

EDIT: This should work, right? They say it works only with their own thru axle forks, which have a hole design like thru axle but I see no reason it wouldn't work on QR forks?
https://funtown.cz/en/hubs-spare-parts/988-thru-axle-waw-100mm-diameter-9mm.html

You need to check the length and thread pitch. If it's long enough to poke 10mm or so of threads through the other side of your fork and your nut is M9x1.25 like that axle, then it will work.

Anyone got any experience getting Mavic Starfish cranks to play nice with a 10 speed Campag groupset?

I love the look of the cranks but as far as I know they were from the 8 speed era, so I'm guessing the Mavic chain rings are going to be too wide/fat and as far as I know Mavic did not do any 9/10 speed rings for it.

Also I'm not clear on the rig sizes possible, I did want a traditional 53/39, and tho the 53 should be fine I recall reading somewhere that the Starfish crank needed at least a 40t small ring, ruling out a 39t, so its looking like I may be limited to a 53/42. I'm fine with this if that's the only option, but am not 100% on the small ring size thing so wondered if anyone else knew?

Google tells me the Starfish has 130 BCD chain rings, and a quick check on ebay shows both Stronglight and TA do 130 BCD chainrings, like this....

...But both have a big oval gap on the ring above each crankbolt, which will look shit and be half covered by each arm of the Starfish, so I've been looking at other possible 10 speed 130 BCD rings that will look better with the Starfish.

The best I can find that won't look as visually gopping as the Stronglight ones above, and kind of match the lines and shape of the Starfish, however these are by Shimano and SRAM. They are both 10 speed 5 arm 130 BCD, so will either of these rings work OK with the Starfish crank and a Campag groupset, it just feels very much like crossing the streams in Ghostbusters, which I'm hard wired to believe is a bad thing, but what thinks the hive mind? Am I playing with fire, will I get burned doing this?

Here are the 2 rings in question, first a 10 speed Dura Ace FC7800...

...and a SRAM Powerglide

OK that's the first bit, the second bit is the BB. From what I've read the Starfish cranks were designed to fit with the Mavic BB, which is highly rated and seems bomb proof, but from what I can gather it needs the BB shell facing at an angle of 45 degrees or something to fit the Mavic BB, which is some Mavic tool that no bike shop near to me in South London seems to have. And I've not called around extensively but any idea of anyone in London that may have such a tool? I thought I could try Condor but still think their range is too modern so I don't fancy my chances. And even beyond London, anyone else in the UK might have one? Or alternatively any metal tool experts that could do this weird angle BB facing? I don't mind sending frame away in post to places beyond London if needed.

The Mavic BB's are pretty spendy so I'm reluctant to splash out on one if I can't even get it fitted, so the other thing I'm wondering is are they are other square taper BB's I can use with the Starfish, but no idea what BB if any I can use other than Mavic, so any suggestions welcome, thanks.

I know the common sense answer is probably forget it and just get a silver Chorus/Record crank, but I really like the Starfish and really want to make it work if I can.

I thought Mavic BBs were JIS.

i would just try the existing chainrings with a 10spd chain, might be fine

OK, is that good news or bad news? :) Sorry I know nothing of Shimano and JIS

Its surely not going to be as easy as letting me use a Shimano BBUN55 is it, that would be great but seems too easy and simple. If yes from what I can see they come in axle lengths of 107mm, 110, 113, 115, 118 so maybe one of those?.

Edit, hmm all the Shimano BB's I see are BSA threaded but the frame I want to fit this Starfish to is a late 80's Italian bike with Italian threaded BB and a 68 shell width, so I seem like I'm trying to cross streams again, is there any Italian threaded square taper JIS BB's with a 68 shell width?

@MCamb I did wonder about that, maybe a new one will be too fat but a more used chainring will be worn to fit :)....thanks, to be honest I can fiddle with chains, its the BB I'm more worried about at this point.

Use a 70mm Italian BB and put a 1mm spacer under the fixed cup’s lip. You may want to use a low strength loctite for the fixed cup at least.

I'm trying to source a replacement washer for my Beto-branded track pump as it's run out of puff (pictures attached of the current washer). Not having much luck working out how to search for a replacement online. Can I simply replace it with a 'normal' O-ring instead of this 'dome-shaped' washer? The inner diameter of the current washer is 12.5mm and the inner diameter of the pump barrel is 28mm.

Found it - looks like I can use SKS part number SKX3234.

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OK this is great and helps as I was completely stumped there, thanks a lot.

any Italian threaded square taper JIS BB's with a 68 shell width?

Sounds like someone has been overzealous with the facer.

As @LWaB suggests, full size Italian bb with a spacer. Shimano unXX should be available in Italian threading.

As for the chainrings, I can't see why there would be a limit on the tooth count of the smaller ring. It looks like they use a threaded insert and a spacer between the inner and outer rings, but you should have all that present on your current set up.

I had a bb shell chamfered for a Mavic bb by a local engineer for £10’s worth of beers. Am near Didcot but a good small machine shop should be easily able to do it - the tool to DIY it are like hens teeth and the best I could do was someone would hire it to me for a £100 deposit
I saw a Mavic double bb for sale for about £30 a while ago, will try and track down where if that’s any help?

Great thank you, this all sounds very positive and seems the Shimano BB route is the cheaper and easier way to go rather than trying to source the Mavic one and then trying to figure out its weird facing.

Its obviously going to be cheaper too so I can get a few different inner ring sizes to try and may get away with the 39 after all, cheers.

The other option to end up with a narrow Italian BB shell (other than overfacing) is that the original English threads got munched and somebody recut the shell to Italian threads.

I have an Italian UN 72 107mm if you wanna give it a go.

It is brand new before it fitted for a test on a frame.

Did not clear a double OLMO from the 80s with Shimano 600 which was run single speed.

113mm made it work with the ring on the outer so I guess you'll need a 115.

Stronglight makes JIS Italian BB still so shop around for it, would have offered one but I'm leaving mech life at the end of the week.

I'm leaving mech life at the end of the week.

What you doing Beags?

Back to banking, needs must.

Hope it goes well, the world always needs more bankers.

I tried eh, cirsumstances changed...