Bicycle Mechanics - Identifying French vs English BB?

Hey all,

I have an old peugeot, which looks like a UO-9 as far as I can tell, bought in Canada, where I'm assuming it's made. Is there a way to identify what type of BB is has without taking anything apart? or am I going to have to suck it up and open the thing?

Thanks!
Shane

Post a pic of the bike and a closeup of the fixed cup and I may be able to tell.

has the right fixed-cup come unscrewed by itself? that's a good clue to French status.

Otherwise, it's tough: they're both 68mm-wide shells, and ISO/British threading is 34.8mm while French threading is 35mm (thread counts are also slightly different).
But given this it's very difficult to tell from the outside. The adjustable cup is normally-threaded on both types, the fixed (drive-side) cup is reverse-threaded on ISO/British.

am I going to have to suck it up and open the thing?

Thanks!
Shane

Yes. It probably is french.

It won't have French threads if it was made in Canada.

It won't have French threads if it was made in Canada.

that's what i'm hoping. long story short: it sounds like you can't tell what threads it has till you try to unscrew it.

thanks!

shane

Any markings on the cups? E.g. letters, numbers, rings, shapes, knurling on the lock ring, etc?

It won't have French threads if it was made in Canada. It might if it were made in Quebec :p

Declare war on your bottom bracket. If it runs away, it is French.

Sorry for that, but I could not help myself.

Hey now!

Hey all,

I have an old peugeot, which looks like a UO-9 as far as I can tell, bought in Canada, where I'm assuming it's made. Is there a way to identify what type of BB is has without taking anything apart? or am I going to have to suck it up and open the thing?

Thanks!
Shane

Why would you assume it was made in Canada? The only mass-production bikes I know of made in Canada in that general era were CCMs, Mieles, and Sekines. Experts will know of others, no doubt. But Peugeots?
My Jeunet from 1975 (made in France) has a French-threaded bottom bracket. My Mariposa, built in Canada by an British ex-pat, has Italian threads. Go figure.

I'm betting your Pug will have French threads. If you don't see something helpful like "35 X 1" machined onto the face of the cups, one way to tell is to take off the lockring (lefty-loosey) and attempt to thread it (gently!) onto an adjustable cup from your parts drawer that you know to be English-threaded. Then take a known English lockring and try to thread it onto your adjustable cup that is still in the BB shell. If the parts look like they are trying to fit but won't thread more than a quarter-to-half turn before binding, your BB is French-threaded, and therefore your fixed cup will unscrew counter-clockwise. Test-fit both combinations because sometimes French and English threads, if sloppy, will mate just far enough to be confusing. But if you test both, one of them will surely bind. Since the French cup is bigger, it'll usually be the English lockring that binds on it rather than vice versa, but YMMV.

Peugeots were produced in Canada at one time. Japan, too.

^^^ Ask the man who owns one, I guess. :-)