Road bike bottom bracket sizing

thejackal

Retro Guru
Good afternoon all

I have recently acquired a mid 80's Raleigh road bike, and am looking to replace the original bottom bracket with something a little more exotic (Campagnolo, perhaps?) - the question is, before I commit to buy one on flea bay or on here, how can I find out what size I will need??

Many thanks
 
***not an expert, not giving an expert opinion***

Hi :-)

I'm in the same boat - rebuilding a 1980s Raleigh/Triumph 3-speed.

Far as I can tell your first port of call should be to check the bottom-bracket width: if it's 68mm the threading is likely (not 100% so perhaps) to be BSC-compliant at 24 threads per inch. Some older Raleigh's used a nonstandard threading of 26TPI, which would limit you to:

- finding a 26TPI b/bracket, IE a NOS Raleigh part
- using a threadless bottom bracket that comes in two halves and screws into itself
- retapping to 24TPI

If its a BSC compliant bike then shop away... its the standard interface.

priority would (I suppose) be finding the right spindle length and making sure the spindle ends have the same fittings as the crankset (cotter& pin, JIS Taper, Euro Taper....)

More-informed people will probably give more comprehensive data: I'm no expert. I might be misguided.
 
Thanks for that - very helpful.

How do I know what the correct bb fitting is? Ie, cotter& pin, JIS Taper, Euro Taper

It's deffo not a cotter and pin. The crank I have bought is a period correct (80's) Campagnolo Gran Sport - and where they fit on to the bb they appear to be square, with no discernible taper............
 
I don't know - but I read something about that recently on the Wikipedia page about Bottom Brackets, from which I shall quote.

"Not all square taper crank and bottom bracket combinations are compatible. Although nearly all spindles use a 2 degree taper, there are two competing standards, defined by the measurement across the flat at the end of the spindle. The JIS size is used by Shimano and most other Asian manufacturers. The ISO size is primarily used by Campagnolo and other European manufacturers, in addition to cranks that adhere to the NJS standards (Sugino 75). Some manufacturers make cranks and bottom brackets to both specifications. The overall length of the spindle has no bearing on crank compatibility but does affect frame clearance, chainline, and Q factor."

- Wikipedia

I'd say that makes it highly likely that they use ISO (which is what I was referring to when I said 'Euro taper' - meaning the taper used by european manufacturers)

So in short - and remembering I'm no expert - you need to check your threading and make sure it's BSC compliant, then pick a bottom bracket that has the right spindle length and the right taper style for your crankset

I've just this morning put a shimano UN54 sealed BB in my Triumph 3-spd, but that was a JIS taper type to suit my chainwheel of choice.

Much research lies ahead for you! Its taken me nearly 3 weeks of reading bike tech sites and asking questions to be ready to do this - I recommend the experience.
 
Back
Top