[CR]Problem with Rigi, & my fix, it may help you one day.

(Example: Framebuilders:Mario Confente)

Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2008 08:49:47 +1300
From: "Wayne Davidson" <wayne.collect@xtra.co.nz>
To: CR <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Subject: [CR]Problem with Rigi, & my fix, it may help you one day.

Hi all, I thought I better put pen to paper, well keyboard really, about how I am fixing my chain rubbing on the outer chainring while its on the small ring & small cog. Thats the problem you have with having such short chainstays I guess, esp when using a 6 speed at the rear, when it was intended to have a 5 speed, I really want to fit the Ti 6 speed fw from my Klien to the Rigi.

Well I had to remove & measure to see what I had, worked out what I needed, checked the parts boxes & came up with a solution. I had a Galli taper roller bearing BB fitted which was already 114.5mm long, no real room to move it across, as both cups are adjustable. I had thought about having the BB shell faced to give me another mm,but decided to keep it standard, plus the face that a mm would not be enough. Another option was to shift the hub sheel on the axle, problem is that its a OMAS Ti BIG SLIDING hub, am unsure wether its an option to be honest, with a bit of work it could happen I think, but then I hate to reduce the dish on the drive side also.

So after a bit of thinking etc I came up with the following. Some of these tips may help you one day in a similar vein. I had considered altering a OMAS Big Sliding BB, a triple axle from ebay, trade my ENG cups for IT & bearings from my box. That should have worked one would think, the only thing was that I might have had to make some shrink collars on the axle for the bearings to butt up against, or maching some circlip grooves as per GALLI. Well while things were slow I considered another setup.

I grabbed a Klien BB from my parts box, I've got 2, one is 117mm and the other is 119. yes the bearing diameter is the same on Galli & Klien, 17mm, I'm also sure that OMAS is also 17mm.

Now the actual work, press the bearings off the GALLI BB axle, then one can remove the circlips, don't attempt to remove the circlips before the bearings have been moved like I did, now I need to replace a bent circlip, I'm hoping 17mm is doable. Also press the bearings off the Klien BB. Now the fun part begins, all of this will happen when I get the chance to do it all next week, but this is what will happen, mock up the Klien axle with the Galli SC chainset to get the measurement, then take to work & machine circlip grooves where they need to be. Then it will only be a matter of reassembly & a test ride, but I'm not expecting any real problems, sure the chainline will not be ideal, but thats life in the fast lane I guess.

Another couple of things to consider is the fact that the tapers on the Klien axle are longer than the Galli ones, so its going to need more regular servicing as the sealing affect from round with round is better than square with round. That the Galli axle is hardened and the Klien is not, so I might end up reducing the weight on the Klien & then have it hardened, would not cost that much down the road, I'll just give it to them for a couple of weeks to do when they do some hardening, normally once a week.

The good thing is that it will look factory & should work well. For me obtaining a triple BB & altering to suit might have worked, but what would the cost & timeframe work out at, not that cost is a big issue for me, I'd rather have it right at the end of the day. I've never heard of a Galli triple BB, OMAS made them but how often do they turn up, esp in ITALIAN thread, at least with my setup it will all be going 2/3 weeks after conception.

Costs?, well for me not a lot, It will cost me another circlip, the BB axle came to me cheap, I have no idea what they cost normally. A liitle piece of tool steel to use to make the circlip groove, the hardening of the axle at the end. I'm thinking US$20 would pull in the conversion. If I took labour into acc it would be way more, probally 3 hours of actual work in the end, but I'm lucky being able to do it all myself, with all the machinery we have at work & in my toolbox.

I hope this will be of some use to somebody one day, hope this finds youe eyes still open...........wayne davidson Invers NZ...........