Just bought a lovely pair of Zeus hubs on eBay, and the seller says they're BSC. The hubs are unmarked, and the box is marked Metric. Seller did check the hubs, an english freehwheel screws on and a french goes on two turns then binds.
My testing is identical, english screws on, french goes about three wrist twists (1.5 turns) and then binds. However the english freewheel seems to rock ever so slightly on the hub, and I always thought that a french freewheel wouldn't even start on an english hub. Also, the french freewheel I used for the test is an old, rusty dirty unit, so it's possible the threads are contaminated with dirt or otherwise damaged, hence the binding. On the other hand, the rocking with the english freewheel could be just bearing play (I didn't tighten it all the way down, as I don't have a rim laced to the hub and don't want to get the freewheel stuck).
I'd appreciate some enlightenment on whether this hub is english or french, or whether there's some other test I need to perform. The primary question is whether a French freewheel will thread about two turns on a BSC hub, then bind as opposed to my old belief that a french freewheel would not even start to screw onto a BSC hub. I don't want to risk ruining the hub with a BSC freewheel, so I'm looking for the warm fuzzy that this is not a french threaded hub.
Tom Adams, Shrewsbury NJ
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