Raleigh Royal 71, 126

[LHKKKK]

I have acquired a Raleigh Royal to which I am now trying to fit suitable new parts.

I found out that the BB is 71mm, 26TPI and the axle for this is 126.5mm long (stamped 5S).
If I keep the BB in place it still has a 126mm axle and I'm not sure which crank would fit for the chain line to go well.
I have tried to find out what was in this and find these parts, but I'm not sure what was in this. It seems this is a second generation of the Raleigh Royal, a blue model from the mid-80s.
Does anyone have a idea which crank would fit this, or should I just try to go with the threadless BB and its axle length, or perhaps finding a new axle for the current bottom bracket?

Regards,
Leo

 

[legrandefromage]

Well, the bottom bracket shell is 68mm or 73mm and it's standard British threading

The 126mm axle would have been for whatever 110mm bolt circle diameter 5 arm square taper cranks of the day, Shimano, Sakae, Stronglight and so on

So any touring, mtb type chainset will fit that is from that era of late 1970's into the early 90s. After that, 'low profile' chainsets appeared which use shorter axles

You can fit whatever you want though, later external bbs add a bit of chainline adjustment but don't look as nice as a good quality polished chainset

Here's my later 708 Royal with a shimano M550 Deore LX chainset

 

[legrandefromage]

And here's my Touriste with the original shimano Exage M450 (ish) chainset with better rings

 

[legrandefromage]

If your frame is older there will be a 71mm width but a 73mm cartridge bottom bracket takes care of that with a couple of 1mm spacers

If you are really unlucky and it's Raleigh threads, you will have to keep the cups and seek out the an axle to suit your needs

Pictures will help everyone though especially to date the frame