English/Italian Hub Threading Question
 

Long story short, guy I bought an '80 Raleigh Competition GS screwed up the rear wheel, replaced the campy gran sport hub and rear rim with cheapies. Want to restore the bike to somewhat original condition and finally found the correctly spaced rear hub and correct rim. The only thing is, when I took the new hub in to get respoked to a new rim, the bike mechanic at my LBS said that he couldn't transfer the original English threaded freewheel because it isn't compatible with the Italian threaded hub. Am I screwed?

Sheldon Brown says: Italian freewheel and headset threads are the same as British/ISO, except for the thread angle difference. They may be interchanged, but you should not go back-and-forth bewteen Italian and British/ISO headsets. Italian freewheels are basically extinct, so the issue is moot there. Italian size handlebars/stems generally use a clamping diameter of 26 mm. Many high-end aftermarket drop handlebars and "road" stems also use this size even if not Italian made.