do you have to use a Miche BB with the Primato crankset or will a standard square taper work?
i'm trying to decide on cranks to go with. Are Sugino RD's any good? would it be a crime to put em on the Pinarello i'm converting?

I got my dad the whole Miche set. It uses a Campy taper,but the width is not the same as Campagnolo.

The Primatos take a 107mm ISO spindle, which is a very hard item to find.
I'm exploring my options with the Miche cranks I have lying around.
1. Miche BB - cheap but mixed reviews
2. Phil 105 mm campy BB. Sweet, adustable, but $$$$$.
3. a JIS tapered 107mm BB, at the risk of buggering the cranks or getting a horrible chainline.

I recently replaced my Miche bottom bracket with the very easy to find 107mm Shimano UN-73. No fit/taper issues. It works great with the cranks, better, IMO, than the original BB. Basically, the Miche BB required constant attention and maintenance -- adjustable cups kept loosening in the BB shell, even with loc-tite, and the crank arms kept loosening on the spindle. I have had no such problems since switching to the UN-73.

It sounds like your real question is about cranks. The Miche cranks are beautiful, but have an odd b.c.d. that limits your options for 1/8" track chainrings. You may want to go with a crankset that has the more standard 144 b.c.d.

You can definitely use Campy BB's with the Primato Crankset. I have one in my fixie right now.

I've been riding Miche Cranksets for the most part for about 5years. The crankset is great, and I've never had any issues with it, but yes

The BB is questionable. A LOT of people (including me) have had issues with the Miche BB. You really do get what you pay for. After not very long, many of us noticed squeeking and other noises from the BB. They are just not durable.

I am running a Centaur BB I believe which has not given me an ounce of problems in 3years. The Campy BB also makes the chainline much easier to set.

Cheers

good stuff
thanks. i can get a nice deal on some primato's and i'm leaning that way. otherwise it's the cheap sugino's or wait longer and get some campy ones, only thing is, it's a road frame and i kinda feel like campy pista cranks on a bike that's never gonna see the track overkill...i'm torn....

the one thing i DO want is 165mm arms though.

Thanks to shiftlessbast- for the heads up.
That Miche BB had looked attractive to me because of its adjustability.

Do I understand from Bikeophile that the Campy BB also adusts left and right?
I know the Phil does.
What keeps the Phil from drifting like the Miche?
Some sort of lock ring?

The campy one does adjust and is really much better made than the Miche one. I haven't played with the Phil BB's much. If Cavernmech is around perhaps he can answer. He is the one who originally let me know about Miche problems when I brought in my track bike with creaking problems after a month of riding on it.

For an extra couple bucks I really would go with the Campy BB. If you're not trying to make the lightest bike on the planet, you can save by getting the Campy Veloce BB rather than the Centaur one. They are identical, except I believe the cups are a little heavier on the Veloce...You'll save a few dollars this way and still have a very good, long lasting BB.

Where can you find a campy BB in a 107mm length?

i have had no problems with my miche bb so far. easy to adjust, runs as smooth as the shimano los cheapos, and does not creak. i haven't found that the cups loosen. i just checked today and they were tight.

There are Shimano BB's, square tapered, from Performance, that work quite well with the Miche BB.

Its a $29.99 BB, shimano square tapered 68x107...

I believe we used a 111mm Campy BB which worked fine.

I've used a 111 Campy BB with the Miche cranks, but it put the chainline too far out for me. I've since switched to a Campagnolo Chorus 102 with which I am very pleased. It puts the chainline at 41mm, and the Q-factor is tight. The crankarms clear the stays on my frame by about 1mm.

thanks motion sickness. I checked mine this morning and it is a Centaur 102

Ok, sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I have a question about the Miche bb. I have one with some Miche Advanced cranks, and the cups appear to be in place fine but the spindle looks/feels like it's loose inside the bb shell. I can move the spindle slightly in the bb shell with the cups appearing to be firmly in place still. I'm gonna take this up with my lbs, but what gives? It seems like with everyone else the problem is the cups coming loose instead. I haven't actually taken the cranks off and inspected the bb, I'm at work and don't have the tools at my disposal right now. But has anyone else had this problem?

Yeah, I've had similar problems. My bb threads are completely buggered, I hafta talk with my LBS about what I can do to save my Soma Rush frame. Pretty pissed, to put it lightly =\

I am still trying to decide if I want to get the Miche BB with my Miche cranks. But I mean in all honesty most of these complaints are from many years ago, surely by now Miche fixed there BB. SURELY they aren't selling the exact same BB as they did back in 2003 and 2005

One would hope, but not necessarily. The consensus around Miche stuff is that it's pretty good, but still there's a reasonable number of duds, so to speak. With all of this said, the bb I have is from a 2004 model Marinoni, so it stands to reason the bb is from around 2003 or so. Not sure though. In the end it's your call, though I'm a bit turned off of their bb's from now on hah =)

no probs with my miche.

erichsia-is your bb shell 73mm? you could have run out of threads(bottomed out)

I just pulled the trigger and bought the miche bb to go with the cranks. I doubt I will have any problems it looks like a solid bb.

Nope, it's a Kilo TT, so it's 68 mm I think. The cups thread all the way in, it's just that the spindle itself looked loose between the cups, which sounds odd. But I guess since both of the cups are removable, it's a possibility. I had my lbs tighten it up and throw some loctite in there. Hopefully it never has to be replaced.

before you blame thebb problems on the bike's bb shells, know that miche bb's coming loose is a common issue. i had this happen on a bike with a miche drivetrain. it looked like it was tight, but the spindle slipped side to side, and it turned out the cups were loose after all. best solution without getting a new BB is to use loctite or plumber's sealing tape around the thread cups.


new bearings, plus loctite or plumber's tape = great bb for the price

The bb shell was never in question for me. It just always seemed like the cups coming loose was the common problem, where mine looked/felt like the spindle coming loose between the cups. I thought this might be a more uncommon problem as none of my searching yielded any results for that particular issue.

But yes, I was aware that the Miche bb had a reputation for coming loose before i bought it, just wasn't sure if my problem fell under the umbrella of issues people encounter with it. In any event, my lbs tightened and loctited it up. It rides smooth and silent now, and I hope it stays that way.

The pista BB is part made by Kinex. It's the same one as 5 years ago. Remember that the Primato Pista crank was based on a road crank originally made in the 90's sometime. Doesn't make it a bad product; the Record crank has gone unchanged for ages too. Miche do make two other models of BB you could try (so as to get the elusive 107mm iso taper) called the Supertype Ti and Primato Evo Light.