do i have a chainline problem?
 

on my double crank when i am in the small chain ring the chain rubs on the inside of the large ring when i shift to the smallest three cogs on the back. Is my spindle to short on the bottom bracket? everything else feels fine and it shifts fine?

Not necessarily a problem. If you've got short chainstays (most road racing bikes do) and crank/chainrings designed for 10-speed system (chainrings are closer together) you'll often get this sort of thing. Though most people only get it in the smallest cog, and slightly in the second-to-smallest. Not in the bottom three.
What you want is for the centerline of your chainrings to be lined up with the centerline of the cassette. And you have some leeway in either direction. Typically, for a road double crankset, you want the centerline of the chainrings (so, the imaginary line that's halfway between the large and small chainrings) to be 43.5mm from the bike's centerline. Measure this and see if you're off by much.

You can move the crankset out by adding a bottom bracket spacer between the BB and the frame. These are available in 1, 1.5, and 2 mm thicknesses. This will relieve at least some of the rubbing, but will also increase the chain angle from the big ring to the larger cogs. If it was me I'd want to be able to use the second and third smallest cogs without the rub.
What size are the chainrings? Your problem is common with 50/34 compacts.

Al

I measured my chainline per the park tool website and I am at 43.5 so I guess thats about right. My front crank is a 53/39 rear is a 12-26. The spacer might be the way to go, I double checked the rub and it is only slight on the 3rd mostly on the first cog.
Any idea where I could get those spacers lbs?

Mike

I wouldn't worry about a spacer. "crossing the chain" (using the innermost cogs with outermost chainring, or vice versa) is generally not a good thing - the sharper angle at which chain comes off the teeth, the more it wears the chain and the teeth. By the time you get into that gear, you could instead just shift into your large chainring. So, I wouldn't mess with spacers - it sounds as if your chainline is where it's supposed to be.

I picked up a couple at my LBS for my wife's Ultegra, I've also seen them for sale on-line, somewhere. They work well and you have to look really close to even see one of these. I've seen many posts from people with the same problem as yours and for some reason this seems to occur most often on 9-speed Ultegra cranks. The spacer is the normal fix for this. Try the 1.5 or the 2.
With no spacers my 9-speed D-A has a slight drag on the big ring if cross-chained 39 to 13 (smallest). No drag on the 39-14 or 15. No reason Ultegra shouldn't be as good.

Al

thanks for the help, how did you know it was an ultegra crank?

mike

+1, unless you "live" in the small ring I wouldn't mess with spacers, just shift to the big ring instead of cross chaining. If you installed spacers and you get stronger and started using the big ring more, then you won't have the range to shift into the bigger cogs.

I hang around various forums and read the drive train stuff. There was a real rash of chain to big ring rub, like yours, right after Shimano made some "upgrades" to their 9-speed Ultegra cranks a few years ago. I think they may have a slight design flaw or quality control problem because it seems to be common with many (not all) Ultegra doubles while the rest of the 9-speed cranks don't have this particular problem. The BB spacer (usually 2mm) is the normal cure, and it works well.
I would not fully cross chain to small-small, but I think you should be able to occasionally use the second and third smallest cogs with your inside chainring.

Al