Clif

I've built up an around town/touring bike with a Viscount Aerospace frame. I've been riding it around with the the old spindle and new bearings and it has been fine. While it is fine for short distances I don't wanna go out on any real touring for fear of the spindle breaking at the C-clip grooves.
And because of this I want to replace it with this-
https://store.velo-orange.com/index.p...-brackets.html

Now the question is what length spindle should i get. I will probably end using it with a set of mountain bike triples. The stock length is 122 but I'm unsure of what i should get now with different cranks.

rhenning

That bottom bracket will not fit a Viscount frame it is to big in diameter without cutting away the frame tubes that go into the BB. You would not want to do that as there is then a much greater chance of breaking the frame. The only thing that fits Viscounts is the original BBs and bearings. Those are easy to buy new bearings for and reuse the spindle. Unless you are Lance the chances of you braking the spindle are very small. The spindles are hardened after the clip grooves are machined into them. If you are worried about the bearings just take two more with you when you tour. Roger

Bianchigirll 

I do not have any hands on experience but from what I have learned here about Viscounts, and experience with other similar BBs I agree. search the forum and Utube for sealed bearing replacing.

a good bike shop in your area, one with decent mechanic anyway, should be able to replace the bearings and inspect the spindle.

SteveSGP

I think this will help, https://bikecult.com/works/parts/bbViscount.html

Clif

I replaced the bearings myself without issue. Just the fact the spindle could take a dive a very inopportune is what worries me. I have seen the phil spindle but have never actually seen them for sale.

dnomel

I broke the spindle on a flat smooth road after years of casual and occasionally much harder rides. I'm not that heavy or strong, and it still kind of amazes me that it broke like that. I still wonder if it was sudden, or if I had examined it before it broke I would have been able to see anything. I think it broke right near the drive crank, outside of the groove. Sounds like it may not have been a very common problem so yours might be just fine. It was the grey/silver and blue aerospace and it had the tange chrome replacement fork on it when I got it used for whatever that's worth.
I think some have tapped it for italian, but the phil sounds better to me, maybe uses the same bearings too. I've still got that frame, nice frame, just can't justify the costs for now.
I'd try fitting a triple on the existing spindle just to get a general idea. You'll probably want a shorter one. That spindle might be a little longer on the drive side, and the tapers might even be different, affecting how far the cranks slip on, but the phil might be adjustable. Good luck.

unworthy1

both Phil and Viscount apparently both use a 6003 cartridge bearing (available at any bearing house, but you could buy them from Phil if you really want their "house brand" of bearing, they don't actually make the bearings). There are other plain spindles that might allow a press-fit in the ID of a 6003 bearing, Ritchey had a few and they might still be available from Icycles.com (and were very cheap, too). I haven't tried the fit of that combo so can't say. Spindles with an inner shoulder might not permit the bearings to seat completely in the Viscount BB shell: you'd have to try it out and see.

JohnDThompson 

Not so. Trimming the tubes inside the BB shell does not compromise the strength of the fillet outside the BB shell. A Dremel with a stone cylinder fitted does a quick job of getting rid of the excess tube. Once that is accomplished a threadless cartridge can be fitted.

N.B. The shell on my Viscount is only 65mm wide. If the OP is using crank arms intended for a old style asymmetrical spindle, the 127mm length would probably be best.

JohnDThompson 

That's an interesting solution. I do wonder about how well the Phil spindle worked as a replacement. The original spindle located the bearings using a circlip, while the Phil cartridge uses a shoulder machined into the sleeve to locate the bearings. The bikecult hack seems to lack any means of locating the bearings, so the spindle would be free to slide sideways inside the BB.

unworthy1

[QUOTE=JohnDThompson; The bikecult hack seems to lack any means of locating the bearings, so the spindle would be free to slide sideways inside the BB.[/QUOTE]
I'm guessing that there's a "tight enough" interference fit between the bearing ID and the spindle, but time and hard use might prove that wrong. It's been so long since I had an old Phil BB apart but I almost recall that the really old ones had only a simple sleeve to trap the OD of the bearings (no inner shoulder or lip) and this (I assume new Phil) SS spindle clearly has no machined shoulder on it. I wonder if you could get away with some Loctite green on the spindle/ID if it was nearly tight enough...these are questions for the guy who's been there/done that. At least the original Viscount BB shell has an inner lip for the bearing OD.

JohnDThompson 

I got this ancient Phil bottom bracket in a very rusty Legnano Henry III gave me. There was so much rust that I literally had to hammer it out of the frame, and it fell to pieces as a result (you can see where one of the bearings rusted completely through!):



Unlike the spindle bikecult used, this one has circlips to locate the inner aspect of the bearing, as well as a shoulder machined into the sleeve.

Another option is to ream and tap the shell for Italian thread components.

unworthy1

Well I stand corrected, thanks for the clear info and pic. Wonder how come you hardly ever hear of Phil spindles failing at their circlip grooves?

dnomel

What I heard about that phil type was that it could be tapped side to side for centering, but shouldn't slip. I was also interested in the vo bb, and cutting out the frame tubes in the way, but still wasn't sure how or if it would fit that bb shell. The vo site says it won't work on itallian bbs. Not sure exactly how to measure the viscount shell, as there is that step up in inside diameter for the bearings.
Also, just checked that old broken spindle, and it broke right along the end of the tapers, so maybe the c clip grooves weren't the main problem.

JohnDThompson 

The ID of the shell where the bearing sits is 35.0mm -- the same as a French shell, so the VO threadless cartridge ought to work once you've trimmed the tubes.

dnomel

It does sound like it ought to work. Maybe it would be ok even if it just wedged up along the ridge where the inside of the bearings used to set. That's what I'm imagining anyway just by looking at the pictures.
Here's a review of the vo bb.
https://tsaleh.blogspot.com/2010/01/r...hreadless.html