Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 19:04:32 -0500 Story Number 2 sounds familiar, I got my first good bike that way
I had an old Arctic in High school, and raced on it a couple times after senior year. One day I tried a steep bit on a hill to a friends house and stripped the freewheel off the hub. Same problem, wrong freewheel on the wrong hub. I got to the Bike shop just before closing, and since I hung out there the owner loaned me a wheel for the weekend, He explained the problem later, and told me it was time to get a better bike, since I was probably strong enough to need it. I'd ridden for transportation on the Arctic for about two years. I got my Motobecane Grand Sprint, which I still ride. The Arctic is a long term project. Unfortunately the shop is long gone.
After 20+ years, I still wonder where the guys from the Bicycle corner in Arlington Ma. ended up.
Steve Birmingham Lowell,Ma
From: HM & SS Sachs <sachs@erols.com> To: teaat4p@yahoo.com, classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: French FW threads, was [CR]1970's French Hubs Message-ID: <4036A090.8010501@erols.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Precedence: list Message: 14
Richard Cielec asked, as an afterthought on a French hubs posting <snip>
"Ah, and threading - what about threading for free wheel? French hubs with English threads?"
I've been involved with derailleur bikes a bit more than 40 years now, and it suddenly strikes me how SELDOM the issue of french-threaded hubs and freewheels has come up. I have one French threaded FW (34.7 mmx 1mm), which I just keep around in case someone shows up with an old Atom Tandem brake hub that needs it. Or something.
But, two tales come to mind:
1) The early Phil hubs came with firm instructions that using FR FW would ruin the hub, because the diameter was enough smaller that it would squeeze and damage the cartridge bearing (as I recall the reason).
2) It was some kind of big event, one that included a climb to a Cascades Pass, about 1973, I think out of Eugene. We were near the top, and one chap had a real problem. He had used an Eng/Ital FW on his french-threaded Campy Record hub, and spun off the tops of the hub threads with the loose FW. Just ruined that hub. As usual, the cheaper, easier to replace part, the FW, was steel; the harder to replace and more expensive hub was Al. Guess which fails? Steel crank puller, aluminum cranks...
harvey sachs
mcLean VA.