1981

of course that should be "Persevere" in the title!

I'm trying to convert an old Raleigh from a road bike into a singlespeed fixer. I'm pretty confident in my mechanical abilites - but I'm having some problems. Tonight I'm on the cusp of giving up, and purchasing a built-up ready to ride and could really do with some advice.

The story so far:

I purchased a double Sora chain-set, the chain-ring arm fits great, but the opposite arm seems to wide for the BB axle, resulting in not enough threads to get the nut on, WTF?!? So do I:

A). Send it back and get a refund
B). Grind the flat side of the arm down so I have more thread for the nut
C). Hit it with a lump hammer and some 4x2 to soften the strike
D). Get the nut-end reamed deeper?
E). Replace the BB (which on an old Raleigh and a set of 120 mm track wheels may be more pain than its worth)

I also got a set of what I believed to be front and back Sora road callipers, but the spindle length on both are the same - resulting in the "front" calliper not being long enough to fit through the crown of the fork?

Am I being a complete tool? I always thought front callipers had longer spindles? Neither set failed to come with a chamfered washer for the forks, so that's why I'm basing my assumption on having been sent two rear sets?

...the conundrum, do I try to get a refund on all the parts I've just bought and stick it towards a IRO? Or continue with the madness...?

As always this is very much likely to be 99% newbie user error but any suggestions would be gratefully received.

*The real killer? I've been waiting from the summer to get these components today (my birthday) and set aside the whole day to get my bike finished, very f***ed off is an understatement.

Thanks for any help in advance.

DiK

summerinside

It totally doesn't seem like it should work, but the opposite arm of the BB axle always seems like it's too long. At one point, I actually bought three different BBs for a build until I figured this out myself. Here's a picture of how my bb looked before I added the cranks. now that the cranks are on it it's totally fine, but it throws you for a loop when you're standing there saying "WTF?"

the only important thing here is to make sure the chainline is sweet, and you should be good to go.

baxtefer

what BB are you using? You probably need an assymetrical spindle. a shimano 110mm BB has a longer NDS spindle than a 107mm, but still gives the same chainline.

brakes - the soras you have are designed for recessed allen bold mounting, something that your old raleigh probably doesn't have. You'll either need to drill your fork for recessed mounting (and maybe get a longer nut too) or get youself some nutted brakes.

1981

Yeah, thats what I thought, but when I physically fitted the new crank arm there isn't enough of the threaded BB axle to get the locking nut on. Holding the old crank arm against the new there's about 10mm in difference? I thought they would at least be standard!


I'll be happy to drill the forks, I guess it won't be too dodgy (would it make the crown weaker?), I can't face taking all these components back!

manboy

If you're using an older BB spindle, you'll probably have to get a new Shimano one. The same thing happened to me when I replaced the ancient cranks on my Fuji with Soras. Instead of using the old system where a nut held the crank on the threaded spindle, newer Shimano cranks use an allen bolt that threads inside the spindle, and the end cap and bolt are integrated. When I went to put my Sora cranks on my old spindle, I was able to get the drive side on, but the left wouldn't go on far enough. A new BB won't cost that much, and a sealed BB is maintenance-free until it totally craps out in a couple years, at which point you can get another.

Also, I'd take the brakes back and get some old-school ones. Less bling, less drilling. (More soul?)