elad

Hi,

Having changed a triple stronglight crankset to a shimano double, (because of lack of tools and parts needed to maintain the stronglight crank), I need a narrower spindle.
At the moment the bike has a STRONGLIGHT 118 spindle and RFG cups.

Is it possible to use a Tange or other japanese spindle with these French cups?

Also are the Shimano (105) cranks compatible with the Stronglight spindle? The spindle ends seem narrower than standard Shimano spindle ends.

P.S The cups are in reasonable condition which is why I decided to keep them rather than search for a French sealed Bottom Bracket which is near impossible to find.

I would appreciate any feedback thanks S.B

mickey85

If it fits the hole, it should work. As far as a sealed BB, Velo Orange has two offerings that would work as a French BB

Poguemahone

French made cups usually have a thinner wall than Japanese cups, and you usually cannot mix a Japanese spindle with French cups-- the adjustable cup will screw in so far you will be unable to place the lockring on it.

I usually switch over the BB cups when making the transition from a French spindle to a Japanese one. Several Japanese makers, including but not limited to Sakae, Sugino, and Shimano, made thick walled French threaded cups which should suit your purpose.

Of course, the only way to really find out is to place bearings and grease in the cups, insert the spindle, and screw in the adjustable cup. You'll find out soon enough if the extant cups will work with your spindle.

JohnDThompson 

Yup. As long as you find the proper spindle length for the triple it works fine. And BTW, sealed French thread BB cartridges can be found at Velo-Orange.

I gotta ask, though -- do you still have the Stronglight and if so are you interested in trading for something?

Ex Pres 

The old Stronglight 118 spindles were ISO, your Shimano crankset is JIS. Might as well change out the whole BB and sell what you have.

Iowegian

Probably, but as mentioned above the ridge-to-ridge distance on the spindle may be too short. If this is the case, try an Italian spindle since they are made for wider BB shells and will have the ridges farther apart.

ISO spindles have narrower ends that JIS. ISO cranks have smaller holes than JIS cranks. You can usually interchange them but the only way to know for sure is to try it out. A JIS (Shimano) spindle will almost always work with ISO (Stronglight) cranks but going the other way can be trickier since the cranks may bottom out on the spindle before getting tight. This mis-match can affect the crank position relative to the chainstays so trial and error on the spindle length might be required.

Road Fan

I found it to work. I lately put a Shimano 600 6207 crank with its original spindle (so zero crank/spindle issues) on my UO-8, using the original French cottered crank cups and 11 1/4 inch balls, as the French setup had. The Q is off-center by about 2 mm, which is certainly tolerable. The left cup does fit a mm or two farther in the frame, but the lockring still has full threading. I'd say do a trial assembly to test fit everything (be sure to torque the crank bolts - chainwheel position wrt the chainstay will not be realistic if you don't). You can see if it's ok or not.