Ian Grant was concerned about BB area play being cotter pin wear. That seem
s pretty remote, but why not. Otherwise, the grease dries up in the BB's of
older non-ridden bikes, and you get more actual apparant BB play than ther
e actually is a "mechanical" reason for. Sheldon Brown's totally invaluable
site has a page about playing around with screwing and unscrewing various
things that live on the bottom bracket, and I've found on quite a few occas
ions that even I can get rid of play, just as simply as getting rid of stee
ring play or wheel spindle play by fiddling around with the nuts and whatno
ts that seem to have proviso for a spanner. Actually, you might want to che
ck for pedal spindle play, because that too can be adjusted quite a lot.
Nick March, Agen, 47000, Lot et Garonne, France.