French Threaded BB's...what to do?

[Dekonick]

I am working on a project bike (freebie) that is probably 30+ years old (late 70's or earlier)

The frame appears to be salvageable, as well as some of the misc parts (seat post...) but...I am looking at the BB and it looks like nothing I have seen before. I was reading on Sheldon Brown's site that it probably is a french BB and will have be right thread on both sides - my question is what to do.

The shell appears pretty thick - makes me wonder if it could be chased to work with another BB - I have no idea where I could even look to find a French BB. Worst case I guess I can try to take it apart and rebuild it - but a sealed modern BB would make my life alot easier.

Anyone ever done this before?

Are there other options?

Any advice is appreaciated :)

[mooooots!]

I believe that Phil Wood makes bottom brackets for that application. what`s nice about it is that you buy the b.b shell, and the mounting rings seperately for the required application!

[ShockTreatment]

Phil Wood makes French threaded bottom bracket rings. That is probably your best bet.

I have an old made in France Mercier, and replaced the bottom bracket with an old-school Zeus that I found on Ebay. This is a cheaper way to go.

[dbrk]

So long as there is Phil Wood there is hope in the universe. They even make the Swiss threaded bb for my Mondia.

dbrk

[Peter]

You could tap it out to Italian thread. Italian bb's have the largest I.D. and this is a common solution. Any good bike shop or frame builder should be able to do the deed for $75 or less.

In the end though, I think the Phil Wood solution is less risky and worth the money.

[sspielman]

What crank will you be using? If you will be using a period crank, you will probably be able to buy a period BB in French thread off of ebay. Otherwise, Phil is a good option. If you are doing it on the cheap, Stronglight makes a cartridge BB that uses tapered lockrings...it works independent of threading so it can even work with stripped threads. Check www.stronglight.com. This model is at the bottom of their range. You may be able to find what you are looking for at a larger shop that was in business in the 70's and early 80's. Of course, when you ask the MTB kid behind the counter for something French threaded he will either have no idea what you are asking or will run away as if you have leprosy....It is interesting that French threading went the way of the dodo as it is the only system that was based on the metric system....

[Brian Smith]

C'mon, a french-threaded BB, if you are in the U.S., is either in your collection or your network LBS's, and you don't need to ask here about it, -or- it is too costly or short-lived to warrant buying. Freebie frames without French-threaded bbs abound, and new frames have never been such a value for the dollar. Is the next thing you need a threaded headset for french threads?

Offer it to someone who has the parts and tools to make it work. Such a project is only worth pursuing to dumbdumbs like me who would have taps and cutters to workaround this or that and many bins of older parts to improvisationally create that wonderful machine from piles of others junk and their own time.

Sorry for the bad news, but I think you'd be better off in the long run finding an even better project frame for less or not much more money than overcoming this one stumbling block.

[David Kirk]

Find yourself a mavic BB. They didn't use the threads and will fit most anything. I see the on eBay all the time.

Dave

[csm]

an Italian bottom bracket, lots of oil and a LARGE wrench.

[Dekonick]

an Italian bottom bracket, lots of oil and a LARGE wrench.

I like the sound of this!

As far as the frame and not having the tool's...I have access to just about anything/everything even if I don't own it. The whole point was to have fun and resurect a frame. I like a project and this was just slowly dying in a friends garage after her father died.

DK - Ill give that a look!

[Brian Smith]

I like the sound of this!

DK - Ill give that a look!

Cool.
There's one on the 'bay right now for about $60 in the UK.
For around $100 you should be able to find a Mavic crank to go with it.
You'll need to have the frame machined to accept the Mavic BB. Sounds like you know where to go to find someone with the special Mavic tool to do it.
They weigh a ton and are one of my favorite bicycle components, and require 'obsolete' square taper (Japanese size) cranks, but ditto on the cranks. They're excellent quality, heavy, obsolete, still somewhat expensive components.

The Stronglight looks very very similar, and might be cheaper, if you can find a source, to procure in exactly the length that you need.