Went for our first proper ride on the tandem today and noticed side play on both cranksets.
Looking closer, there’s about 3mm end float on the bottom brackets.
Both are Shimano Hollowtech 2 with Hope cups and new bearings.
When the crankset is pushed all the way one way or the other, the crank arm rubs on the BB cup.
It’s as if there should be a 1mm or 2mm spacer on the BB axle between the bearing and crank arm, yet there is no spacer shown here.
Can I buy spacers to fit anyway ?

have you put spacers between the BB and Hope bottom bracket. 1 for 73mm and 3 for 68mm ?

Missing a spacer by the sound of it…

It’s not the big spacers that go under the cups causing the problem.
They are both 68mm shells so I’ve got one spacer one side and two the other.
It’s the cranks touching the cups.
There’s something wrong with the focus on my phone camera, but you can see the two parts touching here.

There’s metal filings around one of them where it’s been rubbing.
Shouldn’t there be a 24mm ID spacer in there to keep them apart ?

Have you put the hope plastic shim/ dirt protector in correctly, which has a raised edge on the outside of it?

Sometimes it’s a bit trial and error with hollowtechs,I got to the point where I had no spacers on the crank side of my hard tail,try and even the spacers out on both sides and yes looks like it needs a 1mm spacer churched in.

Chucked even…

Thrustyjust, I think that’s it.
I’ve just been thinking about this and yes, the 25mm ID Shimano bearings have a shim adapts them to the 24mm axle and extends outside to space the crank away from the cup.
The 24mm ID Hope bearings should have a shim/dirt seal to do the same job.
I’ve got no idea what I’ve done with mine, so I now I need to find where I can buy some new ones.

So far, this is all I’ve found.
http://wheelsmfg.com/crank-spindle-spacers.html
I can’t find the proper Hope shims as a separate part.
Does anyone know where I can get them, or something else that will do the job ?

Thrustyjust – Member
Have you put the hope plastic shim/ dirt protector in correctly, which has a raised edge on the outside of it?

+1 – BB looks like the outer seal is missing, easy to knock it off when you push the crank axle through.

Found them at £1.10 each.
http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/hope-bottom-bracket-outer-seal-prod25770/

I’m building up the tandem with bits from my spares box where possible and I think I remember the outer edges of the spacers being worn away where they should engage the cup, so I threw them away, not thinking about them spacing the crank away from the cup as well.

In my defence, I’ve got Truvativ cranks on my Qoroz, which clamp up against one bearing without the need for spacers, so I didn’t really think about them when fitting the Shimano cranks.

That’s the beasts. They shim out the cranks from the bearings and cups 😀

I bought some from SJS at £1.10 each, then, as I needed some new BB bearings for another bike, I had a look at simply bearings and found they are only 21p if you buy them with the bearings.

£12.72 without seals
£12.93 with seals.