I think the typical torque spec for the cartridge BB fixed cups is 50nm. It doesnt take a lot of force to reach that since most BB tools are used with a long lever.

Ah, the ISO/English BB have left-handed threads on the right sid so as not to unscrews themselves. It's the Italian and French threads that do the unscrewing thing.

Sorry about that, I guess I got my threadings mixed up....how will my question apply to Italian and French threaded BBs then??
Will a cartridge BB with the sealing/bridging aluminum tubes help keep them from unscrewing on the drive side??

Chombi

I would think so. Indeed, Shimano gives a torque spec, IIRC, and it isn't really so high.

Would using the blue Loctite prevent the drive side from loosening up? I've always wondered why the French and Italians got away with this back in the day.

Why did hood covers prevailing color go from gum to white to black?

Yeah, my first three bikes the hoods were white. Now, all my bikes' hood covers are black.

I think you can still get white (and red) from SRAM, but Shimano only has black. Don't know about Campy. MicroSHIFT has a white option, too. but black is the default.

Well, I have 2 vintage bikes with white hoods. Ahem, I should say, more of a yellowy brown smudged dirt motif. My old black hoods barely look used. White sure looks pretty at first but it doesn't stay white. Probably the same with other hoods. Also, maybe hardcore roadies think coloured hoods are not serious enough.

Does anyone know what the grease hole nuts on some old hubs are called? I would say a "grease nipple" but they are really plugs. Anyone know where to buy them?

Have you ever owned a pair of white sneakers?

They were called grease ports and had a small zertz fitting to which a grease gun with the smaller adapter went on to the fitting. Dustcaps cover the ports.

I have no idea where one could buy a small zertz fitting for a bicycle hub, but I don't think they can be replaced.

I only have one bike with hubs that have the grease ports, I wish all my hubs had those, their easy to maintain.

crowns are 26.4 and 27mm. if french, usually it's 26.5mm. they're close, but are off just enough to require heavy drinking. i recently had my moto gr crown milled down to the 26.4 standard to fit an english campy headset that i paired with the two threaded pieces from a french set. i couldn't find a complete french campy sr headset for less than a million dollars, so had to join a couple orphan sets together. concerning stack height, the set came up a little short for the old frenchie, begging me for either a dirt cheap 1mm notched washer that's an appropriate silver color, or to replace the rust colored, flat-sided, 2 pound washer original to the moto. i went with the pretty, cheap and light notched one that isn't made for flat sided french steerers. but after reading this thread, i'm now scared i ruined the threads and will be forced to dump the whole bike in the puget sound and officially commit myself over to the local buddhists.

so ... right after i did all this i found a complete headset on craigslist that would've saved me $30 and a lot of hassle. this kind of thing happens, and it's important to have past hobbies, such as guitars, that one can run to for solace and then pawn so as to continue the vintage tinkering.

It's a Zerk fitting.

Why are there so many different sizes for cable housing ferrulles? Life would be simpler with just one size.

[One great thing about standards is you can as many as you want.]

As components seem to ever spiral up in price, do you guys even consider what the ratio should be for the price of the compnent group and the frame. It's just that component groups, specially the ones from the big "C" now usually easily ovartakes the value of most frames that one might consider hanging them on, to the extent that some builds almost seem to be becoming more about the components and not the bike, which is ridiculous because it is the frame that gives identity to the bike.
this component/frame values flip seem to also be happening to high line French builds in the last couple of years, and it really sucks, IMO.

One day, the norm might be "Hey! Look at that beautiful C-Record/Delta going down the street with a Colnago frame on it!"

Chombi

Lol, Chombi!

Btw, what difference does mounting direction makes? To my knowledge mounting on either side doesn't interfere with the parts.

Your right, the weird thing is if you do a internet search on both spellings they both come up as grease fittings with no attempt to correct either spelling so then after seeing it used this way thousands of times you start to think it's correct.
https://robonza.blogspot.com/2009/02/...-let-down.html as just one of many examples of this usage.

Hmm, not entirely sure that is what it is, these ones are just little screw in plugs. I don't see a hole that would make it a real grease nipple. When I unscrew it, all that appears is a hole into the hub for the grease, no seals.

Who makes the hub?

They might be for oil . People used to do that for faster spins on racing bikes . In Forresters book "Effective Cycling" he was still recommending this in the 80's .

My stupid question concerns barrel adjusters. As far as I can tell, all they adjust is the cable housing, and how this a(e)ffects cable tension is beyond me. I know that it does, but I don't understand how. Can anyone clear this up for me?

Ah, barrel adjusters are usually used for adjusting barrels.

Okay, the key feature of a cable is not the length of either the cable or the housing, but rather the difference between the two. When you turn a barrel adjuster so as to tighten a brake, for example, you are increasing the effective length of the housing by moving the housing end further from the lever. What this really does is makes the housing take up more cable so the cable becomes effectively shorter, which is to say shorter w.r.t. the housing. The actual cable length doesn't change but it becomes shorter compared to the housing because the housing gets longer.

^^Sounds like smoke and mirrors. Sorry, but I'm still stupid in this regard.

Pushing the housing (via the adjuster) pulls the cable making the cable tighter.

the adjusters on my tektro side-pulls work very simply. if there's too much slack in the cable, the barrel may be adjusted to move the end of the housing away from the brake. that's all it does. moving the end of the housing moves the total length of housing away from the brake, thus pulling all the cable with it. pulling the cable away from thr brake pulls the calipers closer to the rim. are there other types of adjusters?

Its so you can't see the name of the crank when riding.