# Raleigh Cranks/ Bottom Bracket



## vai233 (Apr 10, 2008)

I recently purchased a 1970's raleigh record (yes i know, shitty bike, but its my first experiment with building/swapping parts). I want to replace the cottered cranks with cotterless cranks (and a newer chainring, which is really the main issue). I'm assuming i'd probably need to replace the BB, but from what i read theres only one replacement for the old raleigh BB (26 tpi, 71-73mm) and its a $110 BB, which is utterly ridiculous. Is there any way at all to upgrade the cranks/chainring with out spending way too much money(i'll keep the original stuff if theres no way because i'm not spending anywhere close to that much on a $50 bike). 

If anyone knows anything about this that would be awsome. Cottered cranks are way to much work to take on and off (don't even have the tools to put them back on, not even sure if the shop i kind of work at has something, although they should...). I might be able to get the chainring off some how, but i have to look at the bike again to see.

Thanks for the help.


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## wim (Feb 28, 2005)

I wouldn't replace the BB/crank. See if you can turn the chainring around and get some more miles out of it. You might also have to clean and repack the cup-and-cone BB. You could buy new balls.

It's been a long time, but I don't remember getting cottered cranks on and off as much of a problem. A heavy hammer, a piece of pipe (or a piece of 2 x 4) and a wrench should do. Instructions are on the web. The #1 mistake people make comes at the very end of the job: trying to pull the cotter tight by turning the cotter nut, they'll strip or break the cotter. You got to hammer it in


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## Kerry Irons (Feb 25, 2002)

*BB size*



vai233 said:


> from what i read theres only one replacement for the old raleigh BB (26 tpi, 71-73mm)


Are you sure about this? I would be surprised if this were the case. I thought Raleigh's were always English BB. I could be wrong, but before I started doing any serious changes, I would be checking the threads and BB width myself and not just relying on "what I read."


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## curlybike (Jan 23, 2002)

Sutherlands sez that if the BB is 71MM wide you will have 26TPI. You could get it reamed and tapped for Italian, but that is gonna cost also. I guess that you know that Phil Wood makes the rings required to put his BB into that frame. If you do that you just need to buy rings for any bike and keep using the BB by Phil forever. Might be a bargain in the long haul.


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## gersting (Apr 26, 2008)

*try a new BB, don't just read*

I had an old raleigh of the same era. I can't recall the TPI, but I know that I replaced the 
original cup and cone with a cartridge shimano that weighed about as much as the whole frame. Threading in can be tricky, as the threads on the older frames tend to get corroded, so clean with a wire brush, air compressor, and then grease.

if you "work" at a shop, take it in there and after you close, dig through the parts bin and start threading the heaviest BBs in that you find...one will work. 

Oh...don't stop reading all together, it will narrow your search, but there are options other than $100


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## wim (Feb 28, 2005)

*Some percentages.*



gersting said:


> if you "work" at a shop, take it in there and after you close, dig through the parts bin and start threading the heaviest BBs in that you find...one will work.


As noted above, Raleigh used non-standard 26 TPI BB shell threading on many of their bikes. With a cottered crank, it's almost certain that the threads are 26 TPI. Because chances are near 0% of the shop having a 26 TPI BB, chances of ruining the bottom bracket shell threading of your Raleigh are about 100% if you follow the advice quoted above.


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## gersting (Apr 26, 2008)

*rescind part of my answer*

Sorry :blush2: I mis-remembered what I had done with my raleigh frame. I dissected an older Shimano unit and used that spindle with the original cups from the raleigh. the difficulty I 
had threading was actually in reinstalling the original cups.

See http://sheldonbrown.com/raleigh26.html


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## Dave_Stohler (Jan 22, 2004)

Kerry Irons said:


> Are you sure about this? I would be surprised if this were the case. I thought Raleigh's were always English BB. I could be wrong, but before I started doing any serious changes, I would be checking the threads and BB width myself and not just relying on "what I read."


Raleighs of that period used Whitworth standard threading, an older standard than British threading. If you wish to read all about it, pick up a copy of The Machinery Handbook (any edition, it's been in print for almost 100 years). At the time, Raleigh was the ONLY bike manufacturer using Whitworth, and, as a result, almost nothing on a Raleigh of that period is interchangeable with modern components.


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## plussa (Nov 10, 2006)

I have a Raleigh Royale from the early seventies, maybe '73-'74 based on logo design. Originally it had cottered cranks and ~70mm bb shell, but I managed to install BSA-threaded Truvativ Elita GXP Megaexo cranks with no problem...! I've taken the bb cups out and installed again with no problems, threads are OK.

I just had to remove the outer seals from the bearings, so I could tighten the cranks all the way down. The inner bearings still have seals so I guess they will last for a while at least.

So it seems this one had a 70 mm english bottom bracket...


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## mikebreenuk (May 1, 2010)

Hi I've just found Raleigh Bottom Bracket Cups on the internet on a well know auction website. This guy http://shop.ebay.co.uk/the_official...72%3A2471&_ipg=25&_trksid=p3911.c0.m14&_pgn=1 is selling 26tpi Raleigh style BB cups and 71mm shell compatible Cottered Axles.Thats me sorted! 
Mickey.


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