A coworker has brought me a 1983 Diamond Back Ridge Runner to go through, so he can use it for a commuter. First off I wasn't expecting the bike to be so nice, from his original description. The bike is completely original, minus the saddle. The frame is constructed of Champion 5 tubing with very ornate lugs that are pin striped, Suntour chrome drop-outs and really nice cable routing. It has Suntour Superbe Tech dérailleurs and shifters, brakes are Dia-compe with monster motorcycle style levers mounted to a one piece bar and stem set up. The wheels are nice Arrayas on wide flange sealed bearing hubs, they even have stainless spokes.
The paint is really bad and I have convinced him to have it stripped and powder coated. The bottom bracket gave me a lot of resistance coming out, it was totally rusted in. I ultimately had to ruin the cups to remove it, because it was breaking all my BB tools trying to salvage it. The original bb is a Sugino sealed unit, actually still turns quite nicely, but the cups are now toast. It is a 68mm with a 129mm spindle. I have found a 127.5 Shimano UN54 sealed bb, that has the recessed cups, that I'm considering for use. Will this be a suitable replacement, mounted to a set of Sugino AX triple cranks? I'm wondering if the clearance will be ok, since the spindle is about 2mm shorter and I'm not going to have the cups stacked on the outsides of the bb. Any help will be appreciated, or if any one has a set of the cups. Thanks