It's great that Velo-ORANGE is marketing sealed bearing bottom brackets with metric threads.
One criticism, as far as I can tell, all of these bottom brackets have symmetric spindles, that is they stick out of the bottom bracket shell an equal distance on each side.
I picked up a 116mm Velo-ORANGE BB before the 118mm BBs became available. It looks wrong in that the right "fixed cub" side has a shorter spindle extension the left adjustable cup side. It appears that the discrepancy is because of the symmetrical spindle.
Them were millions of TA cranks (116.5mm) and Stronglight cranks(118mm) that used asymmetrical spindles.
Very few classic French threaded BBs were fitted with symmetrical spindles. The fixed cub side always had a longer extension.
To me it looks like whoever designed these BBs didn't do their homework!
Chris from Velo-ORANGE suggests a trial and error method to find the correct size BB width and to eBay any that you purchase that don't fit!
Back in the day, TA and Stronglight BB spindles were generally interchangeable - 116.5mm/118mm width. They were asymmetrical! There was very little guess work!!!
http://support.velo-orange.com/
Chas. Colerich Oakland, CA USA
Thomas Adams wrote:
> Dear List:
>
> Looking for a user BB for my french Follis and a Stronglight 93 cranks. Velo Orange is an obvious source for a French thread sealed BB unit. However does anyone know for sure what size spindle to use? Classic Stronglights used a 118mm spindle for a double, but I recall it had a 4-5mm offset to the right. So would a VO 118 be too close on the right side? I'm guessing I need to buy a 121mm and maybe use a spacer, but I'm hoping someone knows for sure. Rear spacing is 120mm, chainstays are very straight without flare. Chainrings 52x40. Couldn't find anything in the archives. Thanks in advance.
>
> Tom Adams (measure twice, buy once)
> Manhattan, KS USA