Originally Posted by HillRider
The geometry has nothing to do with it. The problem, as Sheldon said, is that older Raleighs used non-standard bottom bracket threading. The cup diameter is the same as "English" but Raleigh used 26 threads/inch instead of the standard 24tpi. If you can find properly threaded cups, you can use any cup and cone bb spindle of the right length.
In fact, if the cottered crank cups are in good shape, you might be able to fit a cup and cone square taper spindle using the stock cups. I did this successfully on an early '70's Raleigh road bike that we coudn't find replacement cups for.
Yeah, I know that the geometry had nothing to do with it; but the asinine quality of the response told me that the LBS wasn't necessarily going to have my interests in mind when answering my question. Sheldon's page described finding a specific spindle that will fit 'just about right'; unfortunately, I think that he edited that part out; maybe he felt that the whole article was too complicated. I do have the cottered crank cups from an old Raleigh Grand Prix ('72.) So I think that, either way, it should work. Should I just go ask an LBS to scrounge around for a square-tapered spindle that I can get to fit? Once I'm done with that, I assume that the rest will be smooth sailing, no?
Thanks for the info, Hillrider. I at least know that it can be done.