Road Crankset / BB Questions

[Myles]

I posted this in the Tech section, but I thought I'd try here too since it's a road bike specific question...

I have a late 90's Bianchi road bike with Campignolo parts that I wanted to put a compact crankset on. It has the standard 39/53 front rings now (8 speed 12/26 cassette on the back). But that gear ratio is just not working for me in the hilly area where I live.

I found some good, well priced compact cranks from FSA & Ritchey but they need an ISIS or Octalink BB. The current BB is Campignolo, so it's square tapered. It is also a cup & cone BB. I checked and the compact cranks can be configured with spacers to work with an 8 speed rear (they are spec'd for 9/10 speeds) but I have questions about the BB.

Can I replace the cup & cone BB with an ISIS or Octalink one?

If so, how do I determine the correct size BB to get?

[CouchingTiger]

Yep, shouldn't be a problem. All you need to now is the thread type on the BB (English or Italian) and then the BB shell width (probably 68 or 70mm wide). The BB will be specific to the crank in terms of the BB spindle width and the interface style (ISIS or Octalink).

ISIS is an industry standard and Octalink is Shimano proprietary.

One question though, why not just swap cassettes to a wider range (or do they make a wider range? You may have better luck (and spend less) going that way.

The cheapest way to go may be to just get a square taper standard 5 arm size (110mm) MTB crank and run a double chainring setup with a 48/36 or something.

-Couch

[meemtp]

The other thing you could do is keep your present crank and get smaller chainrings. Specialties TA makes a whole bunch of campy compatible rings. It would be cheaper than getting another crankset and BB. Try www.peterwhitecycles.com, he has a whole inventory of different size chainrings and a lot of info about rings in general.

Corin