5mm would be about the amount one would see with a 73 vs 68 mm shell setup. Just tossing that out.

im pretty sure that the bottom brackets are not 73. they should be 68. they're sugino 75's.

sugino 75s ARE 68. Dude, isn't your frame bent in the first place? Not a good idea to ride unless it is coldset back into shape or you get a new one. I wouldn't worry about the BB issue until you get that matter taken care of.

I'm reviving this thread because I can now add something useful to it. I have a 2003 Steamroller (Dave Gray) with
Sugino 75 cranks and BB. My experience with this combo was pretty much the same as 165's. Two weeks ago, I was lucky enough to find a 2001 or 2002 Steamroller (Boston Baked Bean) at the Seattle bike swap meet. My plan was to simply move the parts from my gray SR onto the brown SR. When I did, lo and behold, I had the same problem that dwguy reported. I know the frame is straight because Charles (Wright Bros.) trued both the frame and fork to the gnat's a$$.

After staring at both frames for a moment, the difference was evident. The brown steamroller's version of the 'Fatties Fit Fine' chainstays is dramatically different from the heavily manipulated version on the gray one. The brown frame has widley spaced, STRAIGHT stays whereas the gray stays are quite curvey. Measuring back 6" from the BB, the width of the brown stays is MUCH greater than the width of the gray stays at the same point .... Hence the contact.

My solution was to use a different spindle ... I think it's the only way. I suspect that Surly became inundated with emails when the early steamrollers came out, about this very issue. The idea of making a 120mm spaced track-like bike that couldn't use a standard track BB, and subsequently changed the design. One caveat here, I do ride 175 mm cranks. It is possible that 165 mm cranks might 'sneak' by the chainstay using the Sugino 75's spindle .... I don't know.

Take care...

Jim

and i was thinking bout buying a surly, now?

110mm spindle, grey steamroller w/ curvey chainstays, 170mm Sugino 75s, and no clearance problems.

Yep, the new ones seem to have the problem licked .... but the brown is so pretty. I posted pics in the photo sticky.

Jim

Huh? I'm not sure what you mean but I think the Steamroller is an excellent bike. The newest 'Charcoal Metalic' color looks really nice too.

Jim

109mm spindle, brown steamroller, 170mm Sugino 75's, no clearance problems, its a little closer than with the new steamrollers but still fits fine.

Wow, 170mm must be the cutoff point, good to know ... thanks

Jim

is this problem isolated to the sugino75 bb/crank combo? i hope so, cos i just brought my brown steamer into my lbs to step down to a 110mm bb so my chainline matches with my new rear wheel and now i'm a bit worried. how much would crank Q-factor come into play here?

i might send an email to the guys at surly along with a link to this thread. maybe they can shed some light on the problem.

I'm not certain how it could be a problem with only the Sugino 75 setup. Track bike chainline is more or less standardized to 42 - 42.5 mm so the chainring location is rather fixed. Higher "Q" cranks could mitigate the problem I suppose but I'll bet most track cranks have similar "Q". Others however, have reported clearance with 165 - 170 mm cranks so your setup may be OK (depending on your cranks). It would be interesting to hear Surly's thoughts on this but I suspect they'd say that the earlier design cut things alittle close so they changed it.

Jim

what size spindle are you using now, and how well aligned is your chainline?

i'm wondering if this is a problem of varying frame quality. everyone seems to have different results. dwguy has problems with 165mm on his 53cm, you have a problem with 175mm (on what looks like a 59cm), but ryan has 170's and everything fits fine on his 56 - and all of you are using sugino75's.

Honestly? I'm not certain what the my correct spindle length will be. I used an asymetrical spindle I had in my parts box. I'm not sure where it came from but it gave me a perfect chainline when I placed the short end (reversed it) on the chainring side. In a day or two I'll head for the spindle bin at Recycled Cycles to see what I can find. I would like to find a symetrical spindle.

I agree, that there seems to be some variability here. I hadn't realized that dwguy's problems occurred with 165 mm cranks ... yikes. I guess the mystery is not as resolved as I had thought. I am going to hammer at this issue some more and will report back. BTW you are correct, my SR is 59 cm. I wonder if dwguy ever solved his problem?

Jim

this is what andy from surly emailed back.

"we reworked the steamroller stays to more easily clear straight arm
cranks, particularly track cranks, which tend to require a close fit with
somewhat large rings. since our frames all take larger than standard tires
for each frame type, this means track cranks will always have more trouble
fitting our frames than on standard track frames with really skinny stays,
but clearance now is decent. i still recommend road cranks, or at least
something with a bit of offset to them, but nearly every crank should fit
the gray frames. the brown ones? you may be SOL. the fit was so close that tolerance variance meant some fit and others did not. there were the usual variables, like crank type, model, length, all that, but mainly it was just tight no matter what."

Well there you have it. This all sounds reasonable. Still, I think it's workable in most cases, it's just sad that there isn't a stock track BB/crankset that works in all cases of brown SR's.

JIm