Phil Wood at Interbike covered their table with their usual tried and true, bomb proof, extra pretty, practical hubs and components. I am a big fan of the Phil Wood pricey but practical and serviceable regular bottom brackets. The bb cups come in sets which can fit almost any frame's bb threading, French, British, Italian. The Phil Wood bb cartridge and cup design allows a mechanic, converting an old frame to a fixie, to adjust the position of the axel left or right, so you can get a proper and straight chainline. Since the cups do not protrude from the frame. You can slightly shift the entire assembly.
For 2008, Phil Wood has come out with a new smaller eccentric bottom bracket (BB). My photos of shiny things are pretty blurry. The new smaller eccentric bb is on the left. The existing eccentric bb is on the right. You can't decide to blow your payday on one of Phil Wood's shiny new eccentric bb unless you frame is built from the get go with an eccentric bb shell that can accomodate the diameter and width of one of the silver eccentric bottom bracket shown in the photo.
White Industries was at Interbike, and I am a fan of the eccentric ENO flip flop hub, which has been out for a while. It is a great solution for road or mountain single-speed or fixed gear conversions. If your frame has vertical dropouts, get a rear wheel built on an ENO hub, tension your chain correctly, and you are good to go. (This is off the subject, but I also like the thought behind White Industries Variable Bolt Circle [VBC] crankset. I'll write about it at a later date.)
Read after the jump if you aren't quite sure how eccentric components work.
Eccentric bottom brackets give mechanics another way to adjust the tension of your chain if you can't tension your chain by moving your rear wheel. You slip an eccentric bottom bracket into the eccentric bottom bracket shell. The eccentric bb shell is the stubby, short, frame tube sandwiched between your crankarms. Then you install a regular Phil Wood bottom bracket into the eccentric bb, and hold that regular bb in place by threading the regular bb cups into the eccentric bottom bracket. Think pimento, the red bit, in an green olive for a visual image. Then, you bolt on the wheel; add the cranks, cog, and chain that is the correct length. Since the eccentric bottom bracket ring is thicker on one side and becomes gradually thinner on the other, certain positions of rotation will make the chain become tighter or looser. When you find the correct tension, you tighten the eccentric bb, so it doesn't move. And you are done.
If you ride, but you don't wrench, "bottom bracket" or "bb" refers to the axel, on which you crankset is attached, and the loose cups and bearings or sealed bearing cartridge that holds that axel in place. Eccentric bottom brackets hold regular bottom brackets, and the whole assembly is housed inside eccentric bb shell, which is part of your frame.
The eccentric bb is a great way to deal with nuances of chain tension on bike frames which don't allow you to slide the wheel a bit forward or back in order to tension the chain. Track bikes and old school steel frames, like your 1979 Raleigh, have dropouts that allow you to move the wheel a bit backward or forward in order to get your chain tensioned correctly. Tandems often have eccentric bbs, and mountain bike frames are built with eccentric bbs. Frames with internal hubs that are bolted into a fixed positon in the dropouts, need to have eccentric bbs.
The ENO hub works the same way as an eccentric bb. Except, you rotate the elliptical axel in the hub forwards or backwards by placing two cone wrenches on the flats on each side of the hub. When you have found the correct chain tension, you bolt the wheel in the dropout. And voila, perfect chain tension. ENO hubs are great for converting a modern road or mountain frame with vertical dropouts into a single-speed or fixed gear bike. ENO hubs come in 126mm (old school road usually 5, 6, or 7 cogs in the back), 130mm (modern road usually 8, 9, or 10 cogs in the back), or 135mm (mountain usually 7, 8, 9 cogs in the back) spaced frames.
