Deltas upgraded

[Dean]

Thanks Campyfan,

I would appreciate if you can post me the photos. Though I am running after Chorus monoplaner sets nowadays, who knows if I will fell in love with Deltas someday or not!

Thanks again,

batur

[kdo999]

These calipers have on an SRP bolt kit and was only offered for the last Delta versions since the pivot arm bolts have a larger shaft and threading.
The kit consisted of the four caliper arm bolts and special flat/round nuts, the fixing bolts to the frame and their barrel bolts, the spacers for between the caliper and frame and the four barrel bolts for the brake holders/blocks.
The price back in 1990 for the SRP kit was around 150.00 US dollars and it was expensive, but if you already had the calipers, around 150.00 to 200.00 US dollars for the pair, most persons bought them to significantly lighten the calipers.
The titanium parts conversion brought the overall weight down to about half of what it was with all the steel pieces fitted.

Very interesting photos, I didn't realise the last gen was different.

I am customising my pair of Record Deltas right now. Firstly I have polished them to a stunning mirror finish. I dismantled the calipers and polished the back plate, front plate and arms. Unfortunately the embossed Campag logo was removed in the process, but that was a small price to pay as they now look so cool and trick.

I will post pictures as soon as I can get some taken.

Whilst they were dismantled I thought about lightening them. IMO you don't need a special titanium kit, you should be able to use off the shelf titanium fasteners... for

1) the arm pivot bolts
2) the arm pivot bolt lock nuts (will obviously look different - but that could be kind of cool too)
3) the main mounting bolt (a hex head fastener could be ground down to become a 'square head' fastener)

I have plenty of experience with tuning motorcycles, and you can get the titanium bolts for about 4UK pounds each - so much cheaper in total than the official campag titanium kit.

I have discovered that ShimaNO 105/Duraace modern brake blocks can be made to fit (I can't get the koolstops in the UK for reasonable money) with an appropriate collar - although you lose the orbital adjustment. This is not a problem really, as the pads wear to compensate for any initial misalignment.

Will post pics soon ...

Paul

[kdo999]

If you have polished the bodies of the Deltas you will have to clearcoat the alloy parts if not they will discolour quite easily and look rather spotty.
As for the logo thats now missing you can also have one made at most signage shops. They can scan the shield logo, scale it to size and print it black, or another colour of your choice onto clear adhesive vinyl.
Yes you can get Ti nuts and bolts fairly cheap nowadays but back in the late eighties to early nineties they were almost impossible to buy from general sources, and as such i ended up with the SRP kits purely out of 'no other choice'
You will know you have the last version Deltas when the bolt holding the caliper to the frame fits into the calipers arm pivot hole with room to spare, if it fits in perfectly, the version you have is the earlier version Delta.
You can also use the present Campy Record holders and pads which are very close in looks to the ShimaNO ones you mentioned, but with any of these you choose you will need some wider spacers to get proper leverage ratios.
So what types of motorcycles are you into tuning,,,,,,,

Well I'll have to wait and see how badly they discolour. I am very experienced at polishing aluminum alloys, and have polished just about everything on a japanese Kawasaki ZXR750 road bike (see photo)



In my experience, many better quality alloys (like 7075) keep their mirror like shine for months, even years, but it depends totally on their exposure to a damp atmosphere (or not). My ZXR motorbike frame is polished to a mirror finish (in the above pic) - and it took me AGES as I had to remove an enamel first, then go through 3 stages of polishing. As the frame was so large, I couldn't use a high speed bench drill which is what I normally use on small parts, so I had to use a hand drill. In 10 years, I have only had to buff it up once - and it still looks awesome. To do a quick rebuff I just use a fine cutting compound - takes about 1 hour on a motorbike frame.

The Delta calipers look to me like they are a high grade alloy, although of course I can't be sure. You can usually guess by the level of shine you can achieve. They shine like chrome when polished properly (which is what I've done) - and most high grade alloys do, in my experience - and I believe they will remain like this if I keep the bike dry.

I can't be bothered to clear coat them .. I'll just wait and see how they fair. If needs be, in a year or so, I'll give them a quick rebuff. The only problem with that is that I'd probably have to dismantle them again. They're going on my summer bike which never sees rain (if I can help it) anyway ....

They look so awesome I can't wait to show them off to my club mates - they are going to be so envious!!

Also - I have polished my Campag CDA cranks .. and they too look awesome. Same arguments written above apply to them too.

As for the logo - yes, sure I was going to buy some cool coloured campag 'wheel and wing' decals. There's a guy in Australia who sells excellent stickers on eBay which I've bought before. I just meant that it won't be the official embossing type logo that I've removed in the polishing process.

I tune my race motorbike - or should say 'did', as I sold it recently. It was a yamaha R1. Had high lift cams and a skimmed head. The ZXR has a big bore kit, gas flowed head and a full exhaust system. I stripped the engine, had some of the specialist jobs done by experts, and rebuilt it. The carbs had a stage 2 dynojet needle valve kit fitted, but the Dyno guys set the needle on the 'top ring' making the engine run lean and hot .. fried two exhaust valves and ruined the head. Much aggro rebuilding the engine and getting to the bottom of the cause of the engine failure.



I will post pics of all this polishing soon .. I think you're gonna like the results ..