Hey everyone,
I have spent the best part of a few days trying to solve my problem and its really frustrating me! I had a good condition Gazelle Tour de France frame lying around, and decided to start a project. I had it sandblasted and powder coated.
The problem is, I am now looking for the crucial part, the bottom bracket: The bottom bracket shell is completely smooth on the inside ( no threads whatsoever) AND it is a very awkward inner diameter, 38mm. The width is standard, 68mm. Picture attached.
I have looked everywhere online and in local bike stores for a solution, but to no avail.. I've now spent quite a bit of cash on various components that I want to fit to the bike, but nothing happens till I find a way to fit a bottom bracket!
All help much appreciated, and I've now learnt that I will only start a project IF the bottom bracket is normal!
David

Velo Orange offers threadless bottom brackets. I think there are cheaper versions at Amazon or Ebay.

https://www.outsideoutfitters.com/p-2...FWuCQgodDGEArw

Hi Brian,
Thanks for your reply, but I've already emailed velo-orange, but they said that the diameter of the bottom bracket shell could not be larger than 34mm
David

Phil Wood is probably your only hope, but it's going to expensive.

Lenton58 is having an org@$mic experience with a BB for a Gazelle. Maybe he can help you out.

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...xcited-by-a-BB!

It could need a Thompson BB. I had one on a frame once and could not figure out what the heck went in there. Basically the same as a one piece BB except instead of having attached crank arms it uses a cottered crankset. They can be found on ebay.

Looks like you might be able to make a "Spanish" bmx bb fit- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bottom_..._and_threading

From there it's going to get weird, but maybe there's a square taper Spanish bb out there.

Also: post 6 in this thread: https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...1#post15560127

I just looked at an old thread I made when I was trying to figure out my BB situation. The inside diameter was 40 MM, but I was using a ruler, not calipers, to measure it so I could have been off by a mm or two. If I were a betting man I'd put my money on it being a thompson BB.

EDIT:
38 MM Thompson threadless BB.

EDIT #2 : You should look definitely consider the second link IthaDan posted. Those bottom brackets look about 100x better than Thompson bottom brackets, which suck.

sand blasted a little too much.

Hi everyone,
Thanks for all the help. I see I have a few options, IthaDan, I have looked on that post, but funnily enough I live in The Netherlands and as of yet, I haven't been able to find a replacement from Gazelle. I have found a shop which may be able to solve my issue, but first I need to find a rear wheel...
I will keep you posted, and if all else fails I will fork out the money for a Phil Wood.

It was designed to take either an 'oil bath' BB if it's old or a sealed unit BB if later. You can use an old engineer's trick and shim out the BB shell with shiny calendar paper, cut to the BB width minus any shoulder the BB unit might have. Once you have rolled up the paper to fit inside the shell, you just keep trimming off the unrolled length till you get the desired and very tight fit.