The top chainset is a 53/39 standard chainset. The middle and lower ones are compact chainsets like yours.

I'll add Lewis I recommend you get a bike shop to remove your existing cups and fit the new Ultra Torque cups. Ask them to use loctite to reduce the chance of creaking.

Like you Permon I have installed SR cups on my Colnago C50 for my Record cranks - seems to fit just fine. Despite warnings on the installation manual can anyone see a problem with this setup?


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The guys quoted did explain it, but I'll try as well.

Regular cups have a seal on the inner side which would resist water that entered the BB shell from getting into the bearings. Some bikes, usually older ones have an opening between the seat tube and the BB shell, so if any water got into the frame, it would migrate to the BB shell. If the bike has a drain hole in the BB shell, it's a clue.

Most modern frames are not like this, and the BB shell is isolated from the seat tube, which makes a seal on the inside of the bearing redundant. Campy deleted this seal on the SR cups to save drag.

If the frame is one where water can get into the BB, and you ride in the wet, then I'd think having a SR crankset or cups would be a bad idea.

If the BB shell is sealed off from the rest of the frame, then the inner seals on the cups really are not doing anything useful, and SR cups will be fine.

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dangerous curves ahead

I am of the mind that it's better to use the Super record cups regardless (assuming compatibility with the crank) as I've seen the seals do more harm than good by holding the water in the bearings themselves as opposed to letting it escape. Either way, the days of old where you run a sealed cartridge bb till it died are done. The ultratorque bearings are not impervioius to water, regardless of the cups used. Here's a set of seized Chorus cups and the associated bearing that were in a Pinarello FP6 for one winter season (no drainhole in the BB and no venting)...


Nice huh...
I replaced the cups with Super Record cups. At least the water can drain into the bb shell and hopefully evaporate as opposed to just swishing around in the bearings themselves. No problems since, although I do think that a big part of the initial problem was due to how the owner "cleaned" the bike. I've taken baths with less water.

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My Colnago C59
My Special Colnago EPQ

Campy give warnings about never hosing a bike, so we don't really know how the water got there. Riding in winter can also be pretty brutal on bearings. My thought is that once water gets into a bearing - you got problems - 'specially if it's salty.

If I ride an outboard bearing bike in winter in Toronto, I'm going to expect to change out the bearings after.

ps, check the lower headset bearing too. I had one that totally disintegrated after a winter's riding.

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dangerous curves ahead

It was a harsh winter for sure, but when I asked the owner if they clean their BB area by spraying water at it the response was "well yeah, how else am I supposed to clean it?"

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My Colnago C59
My Special Colnago EPQ

Thanks Bikerjulio and Calnago - thought there was more to it than that. I am more happy with the set up now, even though it seemed to go together nicely it's good to know exactly why Campag warns against it. I'd used the record cups and bearings on my Trek and was surprised how much water had obviously got into the bearings over time. Lesson is - look after the bearings regularly - and maybe no internal plastic sleeve is a good thing.