Just back from the paint shop (D and D cycles in san lorenzo)

Just need to fit a modern BB researched the forum: apparently the taper does not match the shimano sealed BB, but sheldon says it is not an issue as it will not be taken on and off. Rather not go with a phil wood BB as it will not be ridden hard or long

Comments welcome before I proceed thanks

Use punctuation please, I had a hard time reading that.

There that's better

Rick at D & D does really nice work.

That looks like a nice project. Is the serial number F71xx?

What taper and huh?

post #2

ft120

Man that's a beautiful frame!

My brain hurts...what's going and who's on first?

I don't know what's on second.

FT120 doesn't work as a Paramount serial number. F7120 would make it the 20th Paramount frame scheduled for production in June (F) of 1971 (71).

The serial numbers were manually stamped into the dropouts during that period, and sometimes weren't struck squarely.

I still don't get it. What *&^% taper?
TPI? Lunar eclipse?
I see no mention of a crankset.
Is it subliminal?

To keep peoples heads from exploding, please tell us what crankset you are using, what the current bottom bracket is.

reading between the lines, and swagging a lot, and having been through this recently with an Ofmega (campy clone) crank/bottom bracket, my guess is that you have a campy crankset, which uses a different taper than than what you can get in a shimano cartridge BB. (this is the case the whether it is british or italian thread in my experience)

If it is a vintage campy you also have to be aware that the spindle is not symmetrical, being longer on the crank side.

My recommendation is get a correct ball and cup bottom bracket or go phil wood (which is probably still less than the paint job). I spent a lot of time and some money (tried a miche sealed that looked like it would work but didn't leave chain clearance) coming to this conclusion

I know sheldon says they should work, but notes the it would not be good in higher stress situtions.

I looked at the interface between the shimano spindle and the crank set and the about of crank that was not contacting the spindle was more than I was comfortable with.

Serial number is F 7120


Thanks for your patience. You have described the exact situation. I have the original Campy BB and Crank. Sorry for the confusion.

I was hoping to avoid installing the original BB as I did not want to mar the paint job I will need to get my LBS to instal it as they are competent

Thanks again

Use the original BB; it's not that hard to do without marring your paint job and it will work right with the crank.

Great looking paint job btw.

afaik There would be no real difference in potential marring between installing hour original BB and installing a cartridge type....both have cups that screw in.

As long as the bb you have is good, use it. Use new ball bearings and really good grease (i like phil....but that is a religious discussion)

This.