Today the postman bought me some lovely new cranks and BB, but I have a couple of questions before I go ahead and fit them (nothing obvious from google or searching on here as yet).

The bottom bracket has a groove in it:
and there's a corresponding groove inside the driveside cup.

Should this have some kind of rubber o-ring in it? If not, what's it for?

Also, I have the Campagnolo fitting tool. Any thoughts on whether one will be enough (tightening one side at a time) or do I really need two?

Thanks.

no idea what the groove is for. oh well. mine's been on for about a yr now and still no probs.

one BB tool will do. two if you want to do it up double time!

I put these in a bike with one tool and I was wondering what that groove was for, too. It seems to work though.

the groove is to tell you left from right (educated geuss)

Sounds reasonable, not sure why you couldn't switch it around though (not the cups).

its marked so that when you have the right cup on the right side in at the right depth the grooves line up... (still geuss work)

The first time, according to chris' guess, I had it in the wrong way round then. That explains why it was so unbelievably hard to screw the cups in. I took it out, turned it around a voila, easy peasy. Still don't know why, 'cause it looks completely symmetrical.

Is your BB italian threaded? (mine isn't)

One cup tool is fine.

Both cups tighten in the same direction, so even if the bearing shell turns the opposing cup won't loosen off.

of course, thanks kowalski.

No probs.

I use the Finish Line Installation Lube on the cups before installing. Some people recommend Loctite.

Make sure your BB shell threads are clean as the alloy cups can cross thread if you're not careful.

Not sure what the line's for, but my CONdor has one on the BB shell too, so I put the line on the drive side.

Some BBs have additional/beefier bearings on the drive side (although I reckon the non-drive side is subject to more torque) so maybe that's what's being indicated.

Good luck!

No, British (or is it called English?).

Then how did you screw the cups in on the wrong sides?

Not the cups. The BB was in the wrong way round. Groove on the wrong side. Apparently. I put it in so that you could read what's on the bb from sitting on the bike. But that didn't go in so I turned it around.

I thought that was correct?

Eh... I might go have a look with some vernier calipers later, but I'm pretty sure the main BB body is the same diameter all the way along. And I reckon the RHS cup is a little looser than the LHS, so it must have been machined out 0.0000001mm more ;-)

Glad you didn't strip the threads on your frame though, that would be a sad moment.

Well, that's what I thought. I may have been something funky with the shell, though, or I was too stupid to do it. Anyways, I turned it around had no problems. Is this a recipe for disaster in the long run?

It is.

There's a matching groove in the drive side (RH) cup.

It's in! And the cranks are on. And the chainline isn't perfect (surely it should be-- it's the miche 107mm BB with miche cranks and a standard 120mm hub...). So I'm pretty glad it's adjustable. But it's not perfect :-(