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Converting Raleigh cottered bottom bracket to cotterless

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Converting Raleigh cottered bottom bracket to cotterless

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Old 11-06-05 | 12:17 PM
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Converting Raleigh cottered bottom bracket to cotterless

I have an early 70s Raleigh Super Course that I want to convert from cottered to cotterless. The cranks I would like to install are Sugino "Super Mighty" pulled from a late 70s bike. What type of bottom bracket do I need to accomplish that? On ebay I found a NOS bottom bracket listed as "Shimano Deore XT Bottom Bracket 36X24T 70X122" for $20. Would that work? Thanks.
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Old 11-06-05 | 12:40 PM
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Do you have the spindle from the bike you pulled the Super Mighty off of? If it came off a bike with a 68mm bb, just exchange that spindle with the cottered spindle.

Last edited by Noah Scape; 11-06-05 at 12:58 PM.
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Old 11-06-05 | 01:02 PM
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Originally Posted by Noah Scape
Do you have the spindle from the bike you pulled the Super Mighty off of? If it came off a bike with a 68mm bb, just exchange that spindle with the cottered spindle.
not necessarily that easy:
https://www.sheldonbrown.com/raleigh26.html#bottom . i haven't done one specifically on a super course, but most of the early ones i've seen have the same bb setup as other cottered models.
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Old 11-06-05 | 01:05 PM
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What kind of crank is on the bike know! 1st) You will need to determine the threading of your current bottom bracket. Is it english, french or italian threaded? I tryed searching a chainline chart that showed the Super Mighty but wasn't able to come up with one. Sheldon Brown could probably answer that for you.
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Old 11-06-05 | 03:11 PM
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I have done this. By some great coincidence, the whole BB assembly and cranks from a made-in-Taiwan Schwinn World Sport (1980/90?) fits exactly into a Raleigh frame.
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Old 11-06-05 | 10:12 PM
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Years ago (probably fifteen) I did the exact same thing to my early seventies Super Course. I removed the Stronglight cottered steel crank and BB and replaced it with a Sugino Idol cotterless crank from a totaled Azuki. Should be pretty standard stuff with english threading. Just don't do like I did and get rid of the original parts.
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Old 11-06-05 | 11:22 PM
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Originally Posted by CalTex
I have an early 70s Raleigh Super Course that I want to convert from cottered to cotterless. The cranks I would like to install are Sugino "Super Mighty" pulled from a late 70s bike. What type of bottom bracket do I need to accomplish that? On ebay I found a NOS bottom bracket listed as "Shimano Deore XT Bottom Bracket 36X24T 70X122" for $20. Would that work? Thanks.
FWIW, I fixed a Super Course Mk II (1974) which came with Stronglight 93 cotterless cranks. Mine was built in the Carlton factory and has a 68mm English BB.

I also picked up a 165mm Sugino Super Mighty crankset, which has a 144mm bolt circle.

I assumed that being Japanese it would have JIS taper, but when I tried them on a JIS spindle (checked the spindle on some shimano cranks to be sure) they barely went on halfway.

I ended up getting a Campagnolo AC-S BB with 111mm symmetrical spindle and ISO taper. They're cheap (AUD$25), alloy cups, solid steel spindle. AC-H has a hollow spindle. It requires a special tool to install (eg Park BBT-4), your LBS may have one.

The BB you listed is 70mm shell, which is too big, and 122mm spindle, which is most likely too long.

Fixed gear specific:
Unfortunately the 111mm symmetrical spindle puts a 42mm chainline exactly centred between the two rings for the Super Mighty crankset, so I would say that the 111mm for triple crankset would be right for the inner mounting position, or a shorter spindle if you can get them in the US. That said, mine's been fine on both inner and outer positions for 800km with nary a hint of derailment.
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Old 11-08-05 | 04:50 PM
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68mm is english

70mm is italian.

im doing the same for a Styer, im just having the damnest time getting the cottered cranks off.

here is sheldons way of doing it:

https://sheldonbrown.com/cotters.html

and here is his page for sizes:

https://sheldonbrown.com/gloss_bo-z.html#bottom
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