Miche bb cups question (again, sigh)
 

I know there are other threads on this, but since a bunch of people will have picked up the cheap group on chucks recently, I'm wondering how you dealt with installing the Miche Primato bottom bracket.

I bought a Park BBT-5, and it fits fine. My question, is how much to tighten the cups, and which? And in which order?

I've only ever installed bbs with lockrings, which is pretty obvious.

Following the instructions on the Park Tool site: finger tighten the drive side, then tighten the non drive side. Theoretically tightening the left side tightens the right side. Is that right?

http://www.parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=94

Also, how far out do I want the drive side cup to be out? I can put it flush with the bb shell, with a couple of threads exposed, what? Right now I have it so the last thread is just in, and I can run a fingernail around the edge of cup that's exposed, a mm or so sticking out of the bb shell. Just want to check before I start cranking the hell out of anything.

Also, how tight? By the Zinn books, you want bbs to like 600 pounds of torque, but I don't have a torque wrench. His manual description for this is "vein poppingly tight, but tighten until just before your veins pop." This is for bbs with lockrings though, so I just wanna be sure.

Frame's a Steamroller if it matters. It's also my new baby, as I busted something on my other frame just a couple days ago, so I can't screw anything up.

As a matter of due diligence, here's a link to a thread (started by you) in which I included pictures of my Miche BB on my Steamroller frame:
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...mm#post2094073

With regards to tightness... maybe consider having your LBS do it? Especially if you're worried about screwing something up, given that the preload on the bearings is determined by how tight your cups are.

I understand where you're coming from: it's great to do everything yourself, and other BB's (like those with lockrings or Shimano units) are super-easy to install. However, sometimes you just have to hang up your wrench and have someone else do it for you...

Thanks keevohn, I forgot about your closeup pictures.

I ain't hanging up my wrench. My shop is pretty good, and they build great wheels (which I don't mind as long as I don't think about 150 for rims plus 100 something for hubs not counting spokes and labor, sigh), but when it comes to non-shimano, they're kind of mmm, they usually deal with shimano. I brought in my bb to check that it was a campy bb tool that I needed, and they sat there putting a shimano tool against it going, man, that's weird, it's not italian threaded.

Plus I just paid them to build my wheels and install a headset. I have to install something on this bike ;)

Heh, if anyone's as clueless as I am, tightening the non-drive cup tightens the drive cup. I tightened to near veing-popping torque and tested the other side to find that it was just as tight. Hope I don't have those loosening cup dilemmas others have had.

Hey, anyone notice this from Miche bbs from Chucks? My chainline is waaaay off with a phil cog on a Miche hub now that I've got the cranks on.

Noticing this, a memory flash tells me that printed on the cartridge shell of the bb was 115.5, and deciding that I had never read the shell of a bb before, only the box. Searching the forums I found some references to Miche bbs where the number reflected the spindle length. The only other bb I have around is a campy, nothing printed on the shell.

Anyone notice this? Is this the wrong length bb in the right box? The box is marked 107.

That means the length is about 4.25mm off on both sides for the recommended width for Miche cranks - that's kind of a lot, and for that much I kind of don't want to readjust the bb - it's half a centimetre, not to mention that the non drive side will be way out to get the drive side right.

I have a campy 111mm bb here, but that doesn't seem to be an elegant solution. Certainly no Miche bbs at the shop or orderable in any short length of time.

Damn.

Where'd you source your BB? I got mine from Red Rose Imports, and they sent a 107mm.

A look at the Miche website (www.miche.it), turns up the following:

http://daapspace3.daap.uc.edu/~rutledkf/miche.jpg

Apparently you scored the 115mm variety...

I guess I got the 115 variety. It came with the group from Chucks, but the box says 107. I don't know how I missed the spindle being that much longer - I'm running a 107 on another bike and the crankarms are nearly flush with the bb shell.