Originally Posted by
pastorbobnlnh
Phil Wood BBs are built the same way, with two removable cups. Most lower cost cartridge BBs have one fixed cup on the drive side and the removable one on the non drive side.
The cool thing about Phil Wood BBs is that if you want to move the BB cartridge from an English threaded to an Italian threaded BB shell, just buy new cups.
that is cool. i didn't know that about phil wood BBs. i've never worked with anything by phil wood. then again, phil wood parts are too rich for my blood!
honestly, how much would it cost to make the fixed cup adjustable on lower end units? i can see how that would be especially useful when upgrading older bikes from asymmetric spindle and cup setups and needing to maintain the chainline.
one question though: how much torque should be applied to the cups? since they don't work on the same principle as true cups and don't actually tension the bearings (it appears that they just keep the cartridges pressed tight against the aluminum cartridge shell), i have no idea how tight to make them. for what it's worth, both lockrings loosened very easily, and the cups unthreaded entirely by hand.