I'm a beginner bike mechanic. I commute around on an old Raleigh Super Record. I noticed the crank bearings didn't feel good, and I have never opened them. (For all I know they've never been opened.) So today I opened up the bottom bracket to re-grease the bearings. Of course I had to use the Sheldon method to get the fixed cup off, but it looks like a loose bearing got caught up in it, and now there's a divot in my fixed cup.

What should I do? Can I buy a new fixed cup? Replace the whole assembly with a sealed bearing?

Thanks,
Jim

Spindles and cups are getting hard to find. By and large, there are sealed square taper bottom brackets that work very well with most square taper cranks and are a lot easier to install and remove.

Welcome to BF ! What yr is your Raleigh ?

I'm not sure if your Raleigh Super Record would have used a proprietary (Raleigh 26 tpi) threading on your bottom bracket. Someone who is more expert than I should come along shortly.

Do you happen to know the threading on this bottom bracket? Standard vs Raleigh?

Take you old bottom bracket to a local bicycle shop and ask for a cartridge replacement. They should (hopefully, will) ensure that you get the right thread size and spindle length. You might need a special tool to install the bottom bracket, if it is the modern cartridge one. If that is the case, buy the tool, ask to borrow the tool, or get the shop to install the bottom bracket. They should not charge much, since the old one is already removed.

1. I have no idea what year my Railegh is. I've always kind of wondered. I'm guessing early 80s. The Serial number is N1E0215 if that tells you anything. I got it at a garage sale for $25 almost 10 years ago, so I've probably put at least 10K miles on it.

2. I don't know if the threading is standard or not. I also took apart my Bianchi Mixte from a similar era. The Bianchi had a slightly smaller bottom bracket with 3 notches from the lock nut, which seemed more standard as my Park Tool spanner was able to fit the 3 notches side. The Railegh lock nut was slightly larger, and had 4 notches, so I had to use the single notch side of the spanner.

A picture or two of three of the parts and the bike are worth a 1000 words or so they say.

Sure, what would you like pictures of? The bottom bracket? The serial number? The threading and lock nut?

Pics of the whole bike will help date it to determine what type of threading the bottom bracket uses. If it uses Raleigh's proprietary threading, replacement will be more difficult.

I normally don't remove the fixed cup when servicing a conventional type bottom bracket. But I guess it's good that you did in this case. If I were you, and you're interested in the bike as a rider, and not a collector, I'd probably go ahead and install a sealed cartridge bottom bracket, since the existing bottom bracket appears to be toast (if it turns out that the frame is threaded standard and not Raleigh).

OK, Here's every picture I thought anyone would care about: Raleigh - Album on Imgur

A Super Record would make it an early 1980s intro-level 10 speed with standard British threading. Any fixed cup will do. I'd just pop back in a fixed cup and reassemble the bottom bracket with new grease. Change the ball bearings, too, given that you just smashed one.

Double check your serial number. The codes are here: Raleigh Serial Numbers & Charts

Edit: Should be a 1981 model 'The Headbadge' - Vintage bicycle information

FWIW, I can send you a bottom bracket sans spindle for shipping, if that's the way you want to go. You'll need to clean it up.

Thanks that's great info, and your offer is very kind. (I assume "bottom bracket sans spindle" just means the fixed, adjustable cup, and bearing cages?) Let me get back to you as I have to take my kids somewhere now.

The telling photo is the one that says "made in Japan" so it has a standard 1.37 x 24T bottom bracket, not a proprietary one like on the much older Raleighs.

They are common as dirt and can be found in numbers on the big auction site, your local co-op (cheapest way to go), and even many bike shops that still wrench on old bikes. Or you can get a cartridge type bottom bracket that fits the same, but you'll need the special tool (about $10) to get it in.

Edit: or just take up TimmyT's offer He's got what you need.

Unless I'm misinterpreting what I'm seeing with my own eyes, I don't even see an issue here. If that's an indentation, it appears to be outside the actual bearing race surface. Is that a loose bearing or a small divot in the pic? Isn't the bearing race on the outside of whatever the anomaly is?

DD

By george DD, I believe you are right...it sure does look like it would be outside the bearing surface...probably won't hurt to replace it...but...you could always put some BB's in there and see if you feel the indentation when turning it...

By 1981 I'd suspect your Raleigh would have standard English thread bottom bracket cups, but this particular cup style did also come in Raleigh's proprietary 1-3/8" x 26tpi thread as well:



Any chance you could try threading a known, English thread cup into the shell? If it works, great, you have an English thread bottom bracket, and all is well in the universe. If it doesn't, then you need to explore other options, i.e. sourcing 1-3/8" x 26tpi cups or using a threadless cartridge.

TimmyT: Apparently I can't send private messages yet, so if you're willing to send me that bracket, please send me your email I guess.
I double checked the serial number, it really is N1E0215. No site seems to be able to interpret it. I guess that "1" could suggest the bike was made in '81, but the other online information says Raleigh didn't make bikes in Japan until '83...

I'm not the only one with that kind of serial number: https://answers.yahoo.com/question/i...erial%20number

DD: I was happy to find you are correct, the divot does not appear to effect the bearings at all. Unfortunately there are some cracks at the damaged area, so I think I should still replace it. The situation isn't quite so desperate though, I can get rolling for now. Thanks!

JohnDThompson: The only other bracket I have around is on a Bianchi Mixte from the early 80s. I'm pretty sure it was also Japanese made. If it fits in I suppose that would verify it's all in English measurements? All the parts on both bikes are SunTour.

+1. Take a picture of the other side of your fixed cup. It will likely tell us everything we need to know. Many people will probably have something which will work in their parts stashes.

Good deal. Too bad the cracks will still cause you to replace, but good that you can keep it on the road while you search for the correct replacement part(s)

DD

Thanks to TimmyT, I was able to get everything fixed up. Here I am doing the initial test ride.

Looks good with the million dollar smile.
I'm glad it worked out.