Road Fan

Campy's own design became the ISO standard. There may be small differences, but they are a lot smaller than the ones between JIS and ISO.

Besides, you are asking about Gran Sports and Record Stradas from the '70s through the mid '80s. That is the era of the Campy BBs I am recommending. If you use the appropriate Campy BB from the period, you don't have to worry about ISO or not-ISO. You WILL BE using the correct part for your crankset.

Check out this chart and website: and go to the page on bottom brackets. This company is one of the premier global suppliers of NOS Campagnolo parts for restoring museum-quality Campy-equipped vintage bikes. That chart has been as thoroughly researched as just about anything, including using Campy original and antique data sources. Try to ignore the prices, Greg sells only new-in-box, so this is full retail. But, once you know what you NEED to buy, you can be your own expert and pick good parts from Ebay, swap meets, or the For Sale areas here.

If there's a disagreement between Velobase and Bicycle Classics, one of them is wrong.

Another authoritative figure is Peter Chisholm at Vecchio's in Boulder, Colorado. Peter and his colleagues are experts at finding customers their best and lowest reasonable cost matches using Campy, and they will share their wisdom. Their website is . Email or phone, the site has contact info.

You can also check on the Usenet group rec.bicycles.tech. If you post your question there, you might even get Peter volunteering the right answer. The group is available as a Google group, and there is a very thorough FAQ. This is it: www.sheldonbrown.com/recbikes.html.

These links will get you past "most people assume ..." and other forms of opinion.

As far as "there is some debate," yes, indeed there is. You don't have to listen to just a bunch of guys on the Internet, and then worry about who is steering you right or wrong. Debates on the Internet don't end just because the right answer has been given. The wrong ones do not go away.

Sixty Fiver

Older Sugino cranks use the ISO standard and I run into them fairly often... replacing these with JIS spindles has not caused problems although you do have to adjust for the variance in chain line and use a narrower spindle when you use an ISO crank on a JIS spindle or new cartridge bb to get a proper chainline.

Conversely, with a JIS crank on an ISO spindle you need a longer spindle but with these I usually replace the bb as I do not have a huge stock of ISO spindles and JIS spindles and bb's are plentiful. This is also better for the JIS crank as using the longer spindle can cause increased wear at the interface.

And then you get those odd cranks like Gipiemme 100 which use the same standard as Ofmega and Avocet and require matching spindles... I have a beautiful model 100 here that just needs a proper spindle so I can install it or will have to pass it along to someone who is looking for one of these.

In practice this has not caused any issues over many thousands and thousands of miles and is not really something that modern mechanics have to deal with very often and it usually baffles them.

I am really pleased with my old Sugino Maxy with it's odd 171 mm arms... it has been rock solid (later model) and who doesn't like drillium ?

Dosu

Thanks for the info guys, I'll probably have to read this again once I find a strada or gran sport, or worse comes to worse a sugino mighty(still good)

Rabid Koala

Does anyone know what spindle was used on the Sugino equipped Gitane Tour de France? I have always assumed it was the same spindle used for the ones equipped with Stronglight cranks.

repechage

Good luck on that.

Charles Wahl

Sugino used a different spindle for the Mighty Competition than for its other cranks; Sutherlands characterizes it as a “Campy” taper. The offset is 6 mm rather than Campy's 3, but the length is about the same.

John E

I consistently found Mighty Compe cranks compatible with European spindles.

The danger in putting an ISO crank on a JIS spindle is cracking of the crank at the spindle eye (been there ... done that with an older Campagnolo crank on a newer Campagnolo cartridge).

Zaphod Beeblebrox 

you said it right. It all depends on the crank.

Find the crank you want first then worry about the other stuff.

Once you've got your crank, you'll know what BCD chainrings to get, and you can consult velobase.com or ask here about what BB length you need.