Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 3,520
Likes: 12
From: Colorado Springs, CO
Bikes: 1959 Bottecchia Milano-Sanremo (frame), 1966 Bottecchia Professional (frame), 1971 Bottecchia Professional (frame), 1973 Bottecchia Gran Turismo, 1974 Bottecchia Special, 1977 Bottecchia Special (frame), 1974 Peugeot UO-8
Originally Posted by
scale
so ....find a french spindle that is compatible with thin walled (stock) cups or get a new thick walled cupset and 70mm spindle? Do they make french threaded thick walled sets for this type of setup?
How do i tell if i have thick or thin walled cups to begin with?
I think all the Peugeots from that period, at least all the low end models with cottered cranks, used thin walled cups. As to which spindle, it depends. As I mentioned earlier, different cranks take spindles with different tapers. The cheapest route would almost certainly be to go Japanese in which case get the Japanese crank of your choosing and search eBay for a #5 spindle and you should be good to go. If, like me, you prefer to keep with the French theme, then locate the crank of your choosing like a Stronlight, Nervar or TA and then find a matching spindle on eBay. Here's where it get's a little sticky - as far as I know the spindles aren't marked in any way to indicate French or Italian or British or whatever. I don't even know if there were such things. In fact since the cups had to be different to accomodate different bottom bracket shells it seems it would have been easier to make the cups different thicknesses and use the same spindle for all of them (i.e. - thin cups for 68mm shells and thick cups for 70mm shells) but I have no idea if that was done. At any rate, I just ordered the first Stronglight 118mm spindle that came up on eBay and it worked except for requiring the afore mentioned 2mm spacer. They are fairly cheap so I'd say find one, spend the $20 or so and give it a try. You can always put it back on eBay if it doesn't work out. The spindle length might vary depending on what crank you using too so I can't guaranty that 120mm will be correct. It would work for the combination of a UO8, a Stronglight 49D crank and a Stronglight spindle. Making an old French bike work the way you want will probably take a bit of trial and error. Bon chance mon ami!
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1959 Bottecchia Milano-Sanremo(frame), 1966 Bottecchia Professional (frame), 1971 Bottecchia Professional (frame),
1973 Bottecchia Gran Turismo, 1974 Bottecchia Special, 1977 Bottecchia Special (frame),
1974 Peugeot UO-8, 1988 Panasonic PT-3500, 2002 Bianchi Veloce, 2004 Bianchi Pista