Originally Posted by
Roasted
Yeah, I get it. I was just curious as to how applicable it would be for my bike (or any bike) in particular. Like I said, I just wasn't sure with size measurings how it lined up and whether or not my idea for a future crank/bb upgrade to be Hollowtech II was impossible or not.
Any obvious way to tell which size my bike may have between 68 and 73mm? Are they the two standard Hollowtech II sizes?
It's as simple to take a ruler to the width of your bottom bracket shell...Hollowtech II cranks adjust to the shell size via a different spacing stack (one 2.5mm spacer on drive side for 73mm, on 2.5 and 2x2.5 for 68mm shells). In cartridge style bbs as found for square tapers, ISIS and octalink, you buy a bottom bracket intended for that shell width; spindle length is another variable dependent on cranks used with. The spindle length is fixed on external types.
PS I'm speaking of the mountain cranks above, they setup the road cranks a bit differently in that they're intended for road bikes, i.e. 68mm shells with English threading or 70mm Italian threading and use different width bearings and no spacers.