If someone has an English/French Stronglight 118 that they would like to measure flange to flange [width], I'll measure my Italian Stronglight 118 for comparative purposes. To cut down on back and forth, I'll be measuring mine from the "outside to the outside".
Jim Carter "the French metric manufacturing standards were right" living way above my means in Mountain Brook, suburb of Birmingham, Alabama United States of America
To: Classic Rendezvous <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org> Sent: Tue, February 16, 2010 8:42:27 AM Subject: [CR] Current Discussions of Spindles - No mention of BB shell widths ?
Ahoy ! Yes, a poorly written subject line. Let's see if I can raise it better. I'm puzzled by my lack of knowledge to fully understand the discussion.
In the recent spindle discussions, various spindle lengths were recommended based on taper standards (JIS, ISO, proprietary, etc...) and people's actual experience. There was no mention of bottom bracket shell widths (68 vs. 70) affecting spindle length.
When I recall the often Campag spindle discussions, 68 vs. 70 is a significant specification in those discussions, and, Campag spindles are marked accordingly.
Yet, in the current discussions of French focus on TA and Stronglight, the bb shell 68 vs 70 spec. did not come up. The discussion went directly to length without reference to bb shell width.
I've come away with the notion that as long as one has the correctly threaded cups, all TA and Stronglight spindles can be used in both 68 and 70 bb shells.
OK - Why? Why isn't bb shell width as important to TA & Stonglight spindles as for Campag spindles ?
Thanks.
Richard Cielec
Chicago, Illinois; U.S.A.