i recently decided to upgrade the junk parts that came stock on my 2005 bianchi axis. i scored some new campy veloce/centaur stuff, including some Ultra Torque compact cranks. well, today i installed them only to find they don't work. with the 50t chainring theres not enough clearance to put a chain on. the whole set up is really tight, the crankarms clear the stays by a few mm at most.
did i blow it? should i have considered the chainline? for some reason i just assumed the UT cranks would be fine, but obviously they're not. any advice?

If memory serves me, at 48 that becomes difficult, the Axis is designed for MTB cranks. Usually, anthing bigger than a 48 will have problems, as you are finding out. Campy does make that crank with a 48 tooth chainring. Try returning it or swapping chainrings for a 48. That should solve your problem. Good luck and don't give on it.

Tim

for the record, i took things by a local shop owner (previously head mechanic of another shop) who actually owns an axis. anyway, the crankarms are pretty close to the stays, but he assured me it was perfectly fine and wouldn't cause any problems. so in case an axis owner looks this up at some point- a campy ultratorque compact (172.5) WILL work with the frame, butjust barely, which is good enough for me.

The other thing I was going to suggest is swapping out the BB for one with a longer spindle.

you can't swap out spindles on the new campy cranks, they are integral to the crankset, but that would be the ticket for a square taper job.