I'm restoring a '75 Raleigh Gran Sport, and have run into a little trouble. At some point someone removed the Stronglight 93's toothless ring/chaingaurd, moved the chainrings over, but left in the 125mm triple BB spindle. Obviously, this doesn't work too well. I figure it would be easier and cheaper to find a new spindle rather than another chaingaurd and all the triple spacers and fasteners.

The only source I have says it takes a 118mm spindle, or a 120mm "long double". I have seen both on online auctions. So which do I need? I know 2mm ain't much, but I'm worried that the 120s might have been for Italian 70mm BB shells, so the shoulders would be spaced wrong.

Can anybody shed any light on the subject?

Thanks!

Mine have 118mm spindles.

Thanks Grand Bois. Would a TA 118mm spindle be compatible, or should I stick to Stronglight?

^ I think I answered my own question. ^ I remembered I have two TA spindles (one too short, one too long), and when I compare them to the 125mm Stronglight spindle it appears the shoulders are spaced a little differently.
I almost popped for this https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Stro...p2047675.l2557 last night - the listing said 118, but the thing is stamped 120. One will come up eventually. It's the only thing keeping me from finishing this project a riding it.

i've had a same problem once when i worked on my '74 GS.
not being able to locate a good condition Stronglight spindle in 'right' price, i got a TA one off the 'bay.
while it had been listed as 118, it actually was almost 119, like 118.7543218345...
as far as i studied around, a TA 118 spindle totally would work with SL 93.

(however i ended up going with Campy Chorus arms + Veloce BB,
as my SL arms turned out unmatched)

there are some titanium version of SL 118 spindles around NOS, more expensive than entire GS bike itself...
good luck. it's a beatiful/fun/great riding bike.

My Stronglight 93 equipped bikes both had 118 spindles on the original SL bottom brackets. Stronglight needed the longer spindles because the cups are thicker and protrude out from the frame.

Currently, I have two bikes with Stronglight 93 cranks. One is on a 113m Phil BB, and the other is on a classic Campy NR 113m ball & cone BB. Not only do these work just fine, but you get a slightly lower Q factor, to boot.

Just for your considerations.

Thanks for all your advice guys! I've found a couple, but they're much more than the $15 or so I was hoping to spend. I've been working on this bike for a few days and thought that I was almost done. I just want to ride the thing, even though it is to small for me.

Tim

FWIW, a Shimano 115mm cartridge bottom bracket will practically last forever and will duplicate the chainline you would get using the 118 SL spindle.
I forced the English Shimano into the Swiss-threaded Peugeot bb shell and ended up with a slightly shorter chainline measurement, but I used the shorter 113mm size.
The taper difference is enough to make the Shimano (JIS) bb spindle fit like it was about 5mm longer than it is.
The Shimano also is symmetrical vs the Stronglight's slightly-offset stance, so the 115mm Shimano works perfect.
You could even duplicate the Stronglight's slight offset using a 1mm spacer under the cartridge bb's cup flange.