Bicycle Mechanics - Blasted French Threads!

So I've answered this to my self may of times, which is no, but its worth a try:

Is there an alternative bottom bracket for my old skoo Peugeot besides the Phil Wood BB cups. I was thinking of re tapping the threads to maybe an Italian threading, will that work or will I destroy a frame?

Cheers,
Michelle

If Sheldon Brown can't find French cups other than Phil Wood, it's a safe bet no one else can either.

Re threading to Italian will probably work. I expect that all bottom bracket shells are made with walls thick enough to accept English, French or Italian threads and just machined to the right width and threaded accordingly.

Fortunately French threads are right handed for both cups just like Italian so if you ream and rethread to Italian at least you won't have to reverse the thread direction for the ds cup.

Stronglight and J&B/Pyramid have BBs that threads back onto itself and not into the frame.

Y can also try Cyce Analyst in denver Colorado He should still have some french BB's in stock if not he can probably find some for you. the website is cycleanalystinc.com. these will either be nos or good condition used

did u try ebay? some people still have those bbs in stock. Regarding the italian conversion, yes it will work fine. THe question is who will do it? Find a place 1st.

Always u can use the frame to put plants over it, nice piece of cycling art :p

If Sheldon Brown can't find French cups other than Phil Wood, it's a safe bet no one else can either.

Re threading to Italian will probably work. I expect that all bottom bracket shells are made with walls thick enough to accept English, French or Italian threads and just machined to the right width and threaded accordingly.

Fortunately French threads are right handed for both cups just like Italian so if you ream and rethread to Italian at least you won't have to reverse the thread direction for the ds cup.

French cupsets appear on eBay all the time. I've bought three sets in the last year just for spares. Two are unused Campy Nouvo Record and the other is a used Stronglight. Sugino was making French cups until very recently and there are pleanty of those around. The rarest of the rare cups are Swiss and somebody got an incredible deal:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=330198066648&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=014

French cupsets appear on eBay all the time. I've bought three sets in the last year just for spares. Two are unused Campy Nouvo Record and the other is a used Stronglight. Sugino was making French cups until very recently and there are pleanty of those around. The rarest of the rare cups are Swiss and somebody got an incredible deal:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=330198066648&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=014

+1

I see them all over ebay. If you can't find them, you aren't looking very hard.

Tim

French cupsets appear on eBay all the time. I've bought three sets in the last year just for spares. Two are unused Campy Nouvo Record and the other is a used Stronglight. Sugino was making French cups until very recently and there are pleanty of those around. The rarest of the rare cups are Swiss and somebody got an incredible deal:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=330198066648&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=014
I guess Sheldon can't find a source of French cups that has sufficient volume and at wholesale prices he can accept. It seems you can get nearly ANYTHING on e-bay.

http://www.velo-orange.com/edbobr.html

Edco brand from Velo Orange might be a good choice at around 1/2 the price of Phil.

http://www.velo-orange.com/edbobr.html

Edco brand from Velo Orange might be a good choice at around 1/2 the price of Phil.

Only if he can use a 120mm spindle.

They're out of stock anyway.

A risky rethread when Phil has the solution? ?? ??? bk

There's probably not much hope that Velo Orange will be able to get more Edcos since they're no longer being produced, so I'm looking at Phil myself. They make a BB that's perfect for my '75 Record triple.

Another approach I've heard of is modifying a Shimano BB to use with Phil mounting rings:
http://house-of-yes.com/phil-wood-y-bottom-bracket/

Requires some work, and you'll still need to purchase the Phil rings and mounting tools, but nevertheless there'd be some savings over a complete Phil BB.