103mm ISO BSA bottom bracket

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  • Hello, have a TA track crank in need of a bb.
    I understand this is 103mm and ISO. The TA Alix seem out of stock and I know Phil Wood and perhaps Royce are options if you luck into the correct axel.
    Anyhow… anything out there?

  • I'm actually in need of an iso taper bb myself, so decided to look into what's available out there, also with an eye out if any came in the 103mm axle length you're in need of. And I discovered that Spa Cycles currently sell one, and they appear to be in stock, and one of the axle lengths is 103mm
    See link: https://www.spacycles.co.uk/m16b0s110p3233/FIRST-COMPONENTS-DX-30-Bottom-Bracket
    It's quite a budget priced jobby though (suits most of my bikes) but looking at the names you mention above, I guess you'd only be considering higher end kit?

  • Thanks for the info, I’ll take a look. Seems to say JIS in a few places too though - perhaps one to call them up about.

  • Oh right, well I must say that I didn't check the details of the bottom bracket besides it mentioning iso towards the bottom of the page on the link. No, I'd first heard the opinion of a chap on the Cycling UK (CTC) site, and the guys on there seem pretty savvy on such matters and were specifically discussing iso square taper bottom brackets. Anyway, now there could be some doubt I decided to have another look. The guys on there only referred to the First Components bb once, but another iso taper design the brought up several times were older Miche models. This caught my attention as they'd mentioned that some of the models were still made today but that in more modern times the axles had been changed to jis taper. That made sense to me (what with iso having become less popular in recent times) and what seemed to be reassuring was that the older ones were apparently stamped 'ISO', and because they were discussing it I think it's likely this means it's iso taper and not iso threading (and there's also the fact that many European companies were making iso taper bbs at that time, and of course Miche is European). Actually this was quite pleasing news because I happen to have a few of the Miche bbs and know that none of them are from modern times, so will now check which ones have the ISO stamping. And whilst I'm at it I can also measure the axle lengths for a possible 103mm length if you'd be interested?

  • Going back to my youth in the 70's, TA had their own axles with really short tapers and nearer the JIS end of things rather than ISO (but still 2% iirc)

    They also had their own size of crank extractor!

  • Pretty sure I have a short Phil track BB in 'stock', let me measure when I get home

  • Thanks all - @walkmanman appreciate the offer but I think I’ll follow some other leads for now. Cheers for the input though. @zephyr26 I’ve sent a message.

  • I have a Token BSA bottom bracket with a 102 mm axle length if that's any good? I bought it for a bike I was building up but it was too short for my cranks, so it's just been fitted to a frame, then removed.

  • Okey dokey, hope you find something.

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103mm ISO BSA bottom bracket

Posted by Avatar for Mat-CR @Mat-CR

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