What BB

[mon-goose]

I've got a raleigh rc team carbon frame which I'm getting built up this week. Will pst pictures next week.

 

I wanted to know though what BB do they take. Is it english, italian etc. Anyone know the frame and have some advice.

[AndreZA]

If a bike is not Italian, it takes an English BB. So I would guess it is safe to assume the Raleigh would be English.

 

 

[Johan Bornman]

Mampara guessed right. If the bike isn't overtly Italian nowadays you can safely assume it it'll use an English BB. Vintage bikes are another issue, here you will find Swiss, French, English or Italian BBs, just like in the United Nations.

 

And if you're still worried, don't be, the Italian BB is 1mm bigger and is threaded right-handedly on both sides. Only a big hammer can make it fit.

 

 

[Zaskar]

Thanks JB, I was looking at the BB sizes the other day, when i was building up my Colnago, and wondering what they meant?

 

Italian - 36 x 24tpi

English - 1.370 x 24tpi

 

What do the sizes mean, and is there any advantage that one would have over the other?

[Johan Bornman]

Thanks JB' date=' I was looking at the BB sizes the other day, when i was building up my Colnago, and wondering what they meant?

 

Italian - 36 x 24tpi

English - 1.370 x 24tpi

 

What do the sizes mean, and is there any advantage that one would have over the other?

[/quote']

 

It means a fruit salad of units. The Italian BB has a diameter of 36 mm and a thread pitch of 24 threads per inch (TPI).

 

The British BB has a stiff upper lip and sticks to Imperial units. It has a diameter of 1.37 inches (34.4 mm) and also has 24 treads per inch (TPI).

 

There is no advantage from the one to the other. It had to do with fuedal pride and a refusal to agree on a standard. I am a standards junkie and I'm celebrating the imminent death of the Italian and the recent death of the French BB.

 

One difference other than diameter is that the Italian BB has a right hand thread on both sides. This means it scews on and off intuitively, whereas the British BB has a lefth hand thread on one side. You have to really think when taking one of these off. The reason for the left hand thread is to counteract something called precession. Precession is the tendency of a screw-in housing of a spinning axle (like a BB) to turn the opposite way that the spindle turns and therefore unscrews itself.

 

I'll leave you with the puzzle of therefore finding out which side of the English BB is left hand threaded. I find figuring it out for yourself is the only way to remember it. Make an O with your left hand forefinger and thumb and use your right hand index finger as the spindle. Visualise what happens.

 

The Italians approached the problem with a lockring but nowadays depend on a prayer and Loctite.

 

There should be another measurement on your BB as well that reads something like 110 or 114, which is the length of the spindle. If you fiddle with the spindle length you mess up your chainline.

 

The new BB standard (its name escapes me now) calls for a huge BB diameter of 60-something mm. This gives engineers the space they need to design a long-lasting BB with oversized balls and strong races. My fear is that the weight weenies will interfere with their good intensions and stuff it up.

 

 

 

[AndreZA]

I remember the different threads are "right it right, left is wrong" Am I tight or am I left wrong?

[TNT1]

Hey, there's a lot to be said for prayer and loctite...

[Zaskar]

Thanks JB' date=' I was looking at the BB sizes the other day, when i was building up my Colnago, and wondering what they meant?

 

Italian - 36 x 24tpi

English - 1.370 x 24tpi

 

What do the sizes mean, and is there any advantage that one would have over the other?

[/quote']

 

.....

 

The new BB standard (its name escapes me now) calls for a huge BB diameter of 60-something mm. This gives engineers the space they need to design a long-lasting BB with oversized balls and strong races. My fear is that the weight weenies will interfere with their good intensions and stuff it up.

 

 

 

 

What about the BB30 standard that a lot of the manufacturers are moving towards? (Wasnt this based on the Cannondale SI 30mm cranks?) In your opinion is it still too small to offer a long life and any increase in stiffness?

[NotSoBigBen]

I remember someone once telling me 'righty tighty' but I guess that isn't true for all .........

[Johan Bornman]

 

What about the BB30 standard that a lot of the manufacturers are moving towards? (Wasnt this based on the Cannondale SI 30mm cranks?) In your opinion is it still too small to offer a long life and any increase in stiffness?

 

 

BB30 (as I slap my forehead with the palm of my hand), that's the name that escaped me.

 

I think it is a good move but as I said, the weight weenies might mess it up. I honestly don't think we need more stiffness. Stiffer is just a marketing word that gets automaticaly thrown in by bicycle parts copywriters just after the word "new." Their word processors do this automatically.

 

We have enough stiffness in our existing products. What we need are larger balls and better, beefier seals. Today's ouboard bearing, hollow-spindle cranks don't have enough space for decent seals.

 

As for everyone's attempt at a mnemonic for remembering which side has the queer thread - sorry but I can't help you there. The only mnemonic I ever remember is one to line up the planets in the right order and that is a rude one.

 

I figure these things out from scratch each time I remove a BB, which isn't often. Mechanics who do this every day are better at remembering than me.

 

Right now I'm making O's with my left index finger and thumb and spindles with the opposite hand's finger.  Try it. I find shows the precession nicely.

 

It predicts which side the thread will be. RHS is left-handed and LHS is right handed. Then past four I would have forgotten.

 

 

[Johan Bornman]

I remember someone once telling me 'righty tighty' but I guess that isn't true for all .........

 

BigBen, I can't even begin to figure that one out. It is too obscure for me.

 

I've just remembered how I remember. To loosen an (english) BB you always rotate the spanner forward towards the fork.

 

 

[Minion]

 

If a bike is not Italian' date=' it takes an English BB. So I would guess it is safe to assume the Raleigh would be English. [/quote']

Even if it's Italian, it'll probably take an English BB. When I bough my Bianchi, I was told that most modern frames now come with English BBs (ignoring the BB30 ones).

 

[Johan Bornman]

If a bike is not Italian' date=' it takes an English BB. So I would guess it is safe to assume the Raleigh would be English. [/quote']
Even if it's Italian, it'll probably take an English BB. When I bough my Bianchi, I was told that most modern frames now come with English BBs (ignoring the BB30 ones).

 

But, but....that's like Ferrari admitting to using Lucas electrics...

 

Yeah, I like it and about bloody time. I knew we'd eventually convert these Catholics and make them see their evil ways.

[GoLefty!!]

BB30 is a good solution.

[Yang]

If a bike is not Italian' date=' it takes an English BB. So I would guess it is safe to assume the Raleigh would be English. [/quote']
Even if it's Italian, it'll probably take an English BB. When I bough my Bianchi, I was told that most modern frames now come with English BBs (ignoring the BB30 ones).

 

But, but....that's like Ferrari admitting to using Lucas electrics...

 

Yeah, I like it and about bloody time. I knew we'd eventually convert these Catholics and make them see their evil ways.

 

These Catholics may have converted their BB's, as long as they don't convert from the best groupsets in the universe by copying those others that are less blessed than theirs.