Just put together my first fixie a little while ago and have been figuring out what needs to be tweaked and fine tuned. Can anyone recommend a good BB to fit a french frame?

(yes I am fully aware this is pretty ghetto, be nice... I'm learning)

Phil makes french cups.

sorry but to clarify... Phil Wood?

you can still get TA bottom brackets, but they'll run around $100 with both cups and a spindle. actually, i think that's cheaper than the phil.

is it absolutely shot? what is in it right now? if it's an old TA, you can probably get by with replacing the bearings and repacking it.

yar.

are u riding around brakeless and clip-less? thats pretty dangerous, I'd recommend a brake first and also clips for those pedals.

I can't tell fer sure from the photos, but if that's an old Motobecane, it's likely Swiss threading.

it's definitely an old Motobecane.

Phil makes swiss cups

Yup. It's a Motobecane... Swiss you say?

It's the original BB in the bike... so... I'll will give the repack a try and see what happens.

I hear you about the breaks and clips... I honestly have just been riding it around close to home/short distances because my right arm is quite messed up at the moment... hence the pedals.

If you think people give you weird looks riding a fixie with no breaks... imagine no breaks and one arm.

Before shelling out the $$$ for anything Phil, I'd make sure. Every Moto I've worked on has been Swiss threaded (Same pitch and sizing as French, but the fixed cup is reverse threaded). Swiss cups are extremely hard to find. If yours are in good shape, keep them, don't replace them. Overhaul with fresh grease and new bearings.

I have heard reports you can get English cups into Swiss frames, either by forcing or retapping, including reports from at least two folks I trust, but I have not verified this myself. Keep meaning to retap and see, there's about 3 Swiss threaded frames in the basement and a set of taps in the tool box. Keep getting distracted by other stuff. You can also get a YST bb for spent BB threads, about 20$ from Biketoolsetc.com. Should work okay.

Boy, I'd love to see someone force a left-threaded cup all the way into a right-threaded BB shell. Holy *****

Even tapping sounds bad: there'll be hardly any material as the threads cross over.

Swiss threading seems to ask for those funny BB's that don't need BB shell threads that are mentioned every now and then here.

Threads run in the same direction for Swiss and English (adjustable cup right, fixed cup left), and the pitch is close enough so that tapping (supposedly) works. Again, the reports I've had are from folks I trust, but I have yet to try it. So I won't say it necessarily works. But I do know folks who have done it; just would like to verify for myself.

Oh, sorry. Now I remember my BB has a leftie threaded side as well. Your previous post confused me...

I'm with Poguemahone on this one. By far the cheapest way is to tap the threads. It can be done! I had my LBS tap the Swiss BB with an Englishtap on my Peugeot fixie, then I forced two used English
cups into the threads several times for some extra oomph and then the guy who powdercoated my frame ran a tap through it again. It's dandy and running a Campy English BB right now. It all depends on the state the Swiss threading is in right now. If it is bad to begin with, don't do it and get the threadless BB made especially for shot BB threads.

But if the threads are fine, you want to convince someone at your LBS to run an English tap through it. Make sure he taps all the way to the end of the threads. This will likely scare a mechanic because the tap is not intended to force a new pitch into a shell and will consequently wear out faster, but the difference in pitch between Swiss and British is only 0.05 mm. Enough to prevent you from sticking a English BB in, but not enough for a tap to get stuck in.

I was a bit worried at the start of the project, but now I have a much wider choice of BB, both in size and quality!
hope this helps

cheers!

thanks for all the good information...

if it is not swiss, french-threaded bottom bracket cups are not hard to find on ebay. i have a small stash of them, waiting for my 20-year-old tange set to give up the ghost.

zum beispiel...