Hey John,

Sorry to continually bug you about Hadley stuff. Would you help me again please? You once mentioned that Flight spindles are imperfect and tend to have tight spots when you spin them in a Hadley after install (I don't have the crank arms on yet). Very true, there is a tight spot. I want to make this a perfect install and am balancing between too much play at the loose spot and it being too tight at the tight one. How much tightness should I expect while spinning just the spindle at the tight spot. The notion of spindle play bothers me a bunch, but I'm not sure which is worse? Thanks as always.

Hey, it's not a problem, Keith.

Those spot-welded, threaded spindles were always a bit imperfect. It's especially noticable when paired with the precision of the Hadley BB.

As for adjustment, I don't ride my Hadley/flight set-up very much, and when I do, it's nothing more than a casual stroll around the neighborhood. With that in mind, I have mine set up for display purposes (read: SPIN! ). I have it at perfect adjustment at the tight spot. There is noticable side-to-side play at the loose spot; I like the ability to demonstrate how good my ol' bike's cranks can spin .

When I raced this set-up BITD, I actually set the BB a bit tight at the tight spot. My logic-in-thinking was the slight tight spot had far less load than the pedaling forces would generate, so it seemed unlikely to cause any damage. Also, the minimal increase in bearing drag didn't bother me. The impact damage to the bearing parts from a sloppy BB seemed potentially worse to me, so I tried to keep any side-to-side play to a minimum.

I hope this helps, and I'll see you at Rockford.

Sound logic John. Thank you as always for the tips. I'm going to set it up with a little less drag, but my main issue with spin (or lack thereof) is often the tension I put in the chain due to the rear wheel set-up. Reagrdless, I have the knowledge I need based upon your reply. Indeed, see you at the Rock. Always a blast!