I'm a big guy (6'8"x230lbs) and run long cranks on my bikes (215mm.) I have a pair of 130bcd Andel cranks with a 24mm spindle along with the corresponding external cup bearings that fit into a standard 68mm BSA shell. In my experience, those bearings last half a year at best and I'm wondering about an alternative. As with most bike related things for big guys, bigger is better (tube size, spoke count, etc) so, I figure T47 is the obvious choice. Except, from what I can tell, if I want to re-use my Andel cranks, I will still use external cup bearings in the T47 shell. I'd like to get away from external cup bearings - The way I see it, bringing the bearing inside the shell will make it stronger: I rarely have to change the bearings on my super long ISIS or square taper cranks.

My question is: If I go to an wider T47 shell and use an inboard bearing, will that be that same as a 68mm t47 shell and external cup bearing? I'm not quite clear on the exact width I need - will 87.5mm work or do I need an 89mm shell?

Or perhaps the external cup/68mm T47 setup is already a lot better than my current external cup/68mm BSA setup? If that's the case then I'll just go to that.

I hope this all makes sense.

Thanks,

Lyle Wiens