i recently purchased a phil wood bottom bracket (105mm, ISO spindle) from an online retailer. however, the tapers on the spindle look more like the ones on my shimano BB (JIS) than my miche BB (ISO). is there a way to tell by looking or by measuring whether the spindle is ISO or JIS? here are some pics of the BB. can anyone tell from looking at these pics?

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also, i emailed tech at phil wood about this and hope to hear back soon. i plan to contact this particular online retailer tomorrow during business hours.

thanks!

can we get some side-by-side shots?

maybe tomorrow. the other BBs are installed and i can't get good shots right now.

ok, i think i might have figured it out. can someone tell me if this way of ascertaining the difference is valid?

with calipers, i measured the cross-section of the spindle where the taper begins (frame side).

miche: .53"
shimano: .55"
phil: .53"

not much difference, but there was a difference. by these measurements, the phil is more similar to the miche--therefore, it's ISO.

but is this a valid way to ascertain the difference?

My understanding is that all modern tapered bottom brackets are compatible with each other, except for Campagnolo. Your Phil BB should work with any square-taper cranks that would fit on a Shimano BB.

don't think this is correct. lots of people have discussed this, but anyway...

campagnolo = ISO, so any BB that is ISO (e.g., miche) is also not compatible with cranks that a campy BB isn't compatible with. phil makes both ISO and JIS (shimano) tapered spindles (see here)--which is why i wasn't sure.

^ your understanding is wrong.

Ah, my bad. Then, I don't have enough experience to tell. But the pictures looked more like a Campy taper than a Shimano, now that I'm thinking of it in the new light.

Btw: Habitus, are you a sociologist? Both your username and the "self for every occasion" (and the picture) lead me to think this. I'm at UNC-Chapel Hill.

bax, you're not talking to me, right?

no, him
sorry I can't be more insightful. your problem perplexes me.

quite alright. it perplexes me, too.

Measure it.. IIRC Sheldon Brown has the specs at www.harriscyclery.com. Both have the same taper, but ISO starts and ends smaller in cross section.