I've been using a set of Stronglight cranks with a Campag square taper BB for years now and no issues. Apparently Stronglight are meant for Shimano BBs, but I've been lead to believe that Shimano and Campag square tapers are not quite the same – any feedback?

Cheers again!

I think……….

shimano are thicker axels/tapers, therefore……..

Camag arms on shimano BB wont go on far enough

Shimano (or other) arms on a campag BB go on too far

So as long as theres space to get the bolt on the end of the BB it should be fine?

thisisnotaspoon – thank you!

That makes a lot of sense. I was worried it'd be something to do with the angle of the squared faces. I'll double check the axel thicknesses when I get home.

Campag BBs seem to last forever – "an £11 Veloce BB? – yes please!"

I think thats right, im basing it on what I was told when I asked the opposite question (campag make better looking cranks than shimano IMO)

no they are not quite the same. the taper angle is different so a campag crank won't go onto a shimano bb axle fully. i imagine that the shimano on a campag just goes on a bit too far.

took me ages to work out why i couldnt get a decent chainline on my cross bike when i switched to compact cranks.

i thought it was the same angle, different size? hence why it goes on, but chainline gets messed up?

i believe the taper on both is 2degrees, just that Campag and shimano begin the taper at a different size.

My guess is Campag use a metric measurement and Shimano an imperial measurement, so nearly the same but not quite.

Campag is ISO
Shimano and virtually everything else is JIS which sounds unpleasant but is actually Japanese Industrial Standard