Weird Bottom Bracket

I have an old folding bike I am working on "hot-rodding", and I am in a
quandary about the cranks. The bike is a "Unis" brand folding bike,
similar to the Bianchi Aquiletta pictured he

http://www.yellowjersey.org/aq.html

(thank you Andrew Muzi...)

The cottered cranks on the bike are very clownish - about 145mm crank
length. I would like to put on something of a more normal crank length
- say 170mm. When I pulled the cranks off, I found a very peculiar
bottom bracket - the inside cups are press fit in, the right side outer
(ie fixed) cup is fixed to the spindle, and the adjusting cup adjusts
via threads on the spindle. The bottom bracket shell is a a hair shy
of 70mm wide, about 40mm inside diameter, and smooth - no threads.
What options do I have for changing the cranks? Are there any options
other than to find some old cottered cranks and put them on the
original spindle? Is there some way to use a more common square taper
spindle? Anyone have any experences to share?

Thanks in advance,
Mark Muller

On Wed, 03 Aug 2005 21:26:27 -0700, wrote:

Anyone have any
experences to share?

Sure, I think...

My venerable Viscount has a similarly smooth bb shell. I overhauled it
last fall--you need to get some cartridge bearings (I got mine at an
industrial supply house, but you might be able to get fancy Phil ones) and
a bb spindle that'll lock in place with two circlips. Then you can use
whatever square taper crank you want.

You can install the bearings with wood block and a mallet, or better yet,
have a shop with a proper press do it.

This is what my bb looked like befo


http://home.earthlink.net/~maxotterl...webbike/bb.jpg


Here's a web page documenting a similar Viscount story:

http://bikecult.com/works/parts/bbViscount.html

The bearings are cheap. Hard part is finding the right size. I don't know
about the spindle. Mine's a nice Campagnolo that came with the bike, but
there's gotta be something cheaper.

All in all, pretty straight forward.

maxo wrote:

My venerable Viscount has a similarly smooth bb shell. I overhauled it
last fall--you need to get some cartridge bearings (I got mine at an
industrial supply house, but you might be able to get fancy Phil ones) and
a bb spindle that'll lock in place with two circlips. Then you can use
whatever square taper crank you want.

You can install the bearings with wood block and a mallet, or better yet,
have a shop with a proper press do it.

This is what my bb looked like befo


http://home.earthlink.net/~maxotterl...webbike/bb.jpg


Here's a web page documenting a similar Viscount story:

http://bikecult.com/works/parts/bbViscount.html

The bearings are cheap. Hard part is finding the right size. I don't know
about the spindle. Mine's a nice Campagnolo that came with the bike, but
there's gotta be something cheaper.

All in all, pretty straight forward.





Thanks for that trip down memory lane, Maxo. As a teenager, I lusted
after Viscount bikes. That was silly in retrospect, but they were
interesting anyway. What do you use yours for now?

And yours has a Conrad's sticker on it. I remember Conrad and his wife
Sara. I think Conrad died. Is Sara still around?


--
Tom Reingold
Noo Joizy
This email address works, but only for a short time.

On Thu, 04 Aug 2005 17:19:38 -0400, Tom Reingold wrote:

Thanks for that trip down memory lane, Maxo. As a teenager, I lusted after
Viscount bikes. That was silly in retrospect, but they were interesting
anyway. What do you use yours for now?


It's a solid state single speed. Here's a picture of it (it has a vintage
Selle Royal black leather racing saddle now, the Brooks was too bouncy):

http://photos1.flickr.com/2634911_5897979186_o.jpg

in color:

http://photos17.flickr.com/20772845_1ede4a8bf2_o.jpg

I use it for exercise, urban rides, beer runs, and general mayhem. It has
a Basta dynamo up front now for night rides because of the heat. Rides
great, if a little whippy--those tubes are thin!! The weight with a sturdy
Ma3 wheelset, fenders, and other not-so-light doodads comes to around 24
lbs.

Before as a Shimano 600 beast:

http://tinyurl.com/b4qwp


And
yours has a Conrad's sticker on it. I remember Conrad and his wife
Sara. I think Conrad died. Is Sara still around?

Oops, the second link was from another guys Viscount in NYC. The picture
of the BB was from mine. If you pay attention you'll see mine has
different cranks (Suntour) and fancy Campy dustcaps (fell off long ago,
LOL) So I can't tell ya anything about Sara, you'll have to call her
yourself.

It's beautiful, maxo. You're a good mechanic.

Tom

maxo wrote:
On Wed, 03 Aug 2005 21:26:27 -0700, wrote:

Anyone have any
experences to share?

Sure, I think...

My venerable Viscount has a similarly smooth bb shell. I overhauled it
last fall--you need to get some cartridge bearings (I got mine at an
industrial supply house, but you might be able to get fancy Phil ones) and
a bb spindle that'll lock in place with two circlips. Then you can use
whatever square taper crank you want.

You can install the bearings with wood block and a mallet, or better yet,
have a shop with a proper press do it.

This is what my bb looked like befo


http://home.earthlink.net/~maxotterl...webbike/bb.jpg


Here's a web page documenting a similar Viscount story:

http://bikecult.com/works/parts/bbViscount.html

The bearings are cheap. Hard part is finding the right size. I don't know
about the spindle. Mine's a nice Campagnolo that came with the bike, but
there's gotta be something cheaper.


Did you machine the inside of the BB shell - so that it was perfectly
round, and able to accept the cartridge bearing?

Any ideas where to look for such a spindle?

Later,
Mark

On Fri, 05 Aug 2005 11:17:49 -0700, wrote:

Did you machine the inside of the BB shell - so that it was perfectly
round, and able to accept the cartridge bearing?
]

It was intended for a press fit cartridge bearing to begin with, so no
problem.

You might have to have it machined. No biggie.


Any ideas where to look for such a spindle?

You'll want to carefully measure the inside diameter and width of the
shell before you do anything. Then contact some place that knows their
stuff like Harris or Yellow Jersey. They're not the rarest thing on earth.