Phil Wood BB or Campy BB

[ericspin]

I am gathering parts while I wait patiently (yeah right) for JB to work his

magic on my new Kirk. I really took advantage of cbike.com 24% off sale last

week and finally bought one of my dream pieces, a Campy Record carbon

crankset. Now, I have been wondering about the BB. Is the PW titanium BB

noticeably smoother of better feeling/operating than the Campy BB?


On another note I did order a new wheelset from Lyle at Spin Lite Cycling and

am also patiently (yeah right) awaiting their delivery also.


Anyway, what about the BB?

[Serotta PETE]

I would recommend the Chorus BB for price and quality. Phil Wood is outstanding BUT it spins about the same. (PHIL will last a lifetime though)

Happy New Year. PETE

[PBWrench]

Eric -- Enjoy your new Kirk! You won't feel any difference in the ride with PW over Campy. Phil Wood is known to be indestructable, but the same is true for Campy. Unless you're counting grams, go for the Chorus rather than the Record, the difference being a carbon sleeve. Best, PBW

[Kevin]

Phil Wood is simply indestructable.

Kevin

[saab2000]

Campagnolo Chorus

[Matt Barkley]

IMHO the Phil Wood is superior to the Campys, Record/Chorus. The PW is as indestructable as a BB can be feels smoother in your hand (and seems to spin better on the bike - chain off cranks, spinning cranks as example) than the Campy BBs. Seems to resist water damage better too.

Downsides to the PW: You need a good mechanic (or be a descent wrench yourself with the tools) to install it as they require 2 Phil Wood BB tools for installation, and with Italian bb cups especially, proper Phil Wood loctite on driveside (though you should put proper PW supplied loctite on each cup as they tend to walk during install, and besides PW recommends it.) The "Campy" tapered spindle on the PH seems to be a tad wider (read: makes the q facter wider) when cranks are mounted when compared to the Campy BBs. But keep in mind this is basically 1 to 1.5mm difference, so not so bad.

(Other) Upsides to PW: You can choose spindle material (ti or steel), cup material (alloy or steel) and can adjuct the bb off center if desires. Also there is no need to face the drive-side of the BB as you -definitely- need to with a Campy BB.

If a Campy BB is installed correctly, and the frame is properly drilled to drain water - you should have no troubles and the Campy is just fine. The Phil Wood offers more options, yet requires some special considerations.

Happy New Year! :beer: - matt

[znfdl]

It depends upon how much you ride. The campy BB will last about 3,000 miles. The PW a lifetime. Is the PW worth the extra money, you betcha.

[ols]

... and I too have a Kirk (running Campy on mine). I first used a Record BB and the carbon shell just did not work for me for very long. From the beginning, I could not torque to Campy's recommended spec because the spindle would bind. Eventually, I backed off the torque until the spindle would turn freely (it says to do this in the Campy manual) and then used loctite. (I think that using a carbon shell for an element in compression is just not the ideal use for carbon, but what do I know...) In any event, after a thousand miles, I did a long rain ride and then pulled the BB (since my S&S couplers turned out to let in a ton of water and I wanted to drain all properly.) Surprisingly to me, the spindle felt like it was crunchy inside (but only when it was in compression), so I switched to a Phil Wood BB (the middle priced one, not the SS version, and not the uber expensive one.)
I have had no issues since. Who wants to think about their BB anyway? :) Hope this helps.

[PBWrench]

Only 3K for a Campy BB? Maybe in the Amazon rain forest . . .

[znfdl]

Just ask Too Tall how many bottom brackets I can go through.

[zap]

Phil Wood.

[The Spider]

I've got 12,000 miles and counting on my chorus and it's going great.

I don't think you can go wrong with the Campy....however....you seem to be building a dream bike and have some time to wait (I'm in the same situation waiting for a Pegoretti Marcelo), so...

get the Phil, dream frame deserves the dream BB and by the time the frame arroves you will have forgotten the expense!

of course ericspin, we are both in the same situation where we could build up the bikes just to witness Campy introduce their new BB interface late this year ('06)!

have a great ride!

[chrisroph]

Campys are way cheaper, easier to install, have a nicer Q BUT fail in the rain. As my campys fail, they are being replaced with Phil.