I wouldn't ream and retap it. French BB's aren't all that hard to come by, and with today's ISO threading, Italian cups themselves are becoming less common . Are you sure it is French? Remember that many Swiss-made bikes, including many Mondias, are Swiss thread, which is the same as French except that the fixed cup is left-hand thread, like English, whereas French fixed cups are right-hand thread. Sheldon has Swiss TA BB's and last I checked, Phil Wood BB's were still available with Swiss mounting rings.
Regards,
Jerry Moos
> Hi,
>
> Thought I'd come out of lurk mode w/a couple of questions. I recently
> acquired a 1970 Mondia Super frameset. I had been looking around for an
old
> 531 frame to build up as a randonneur/sport tourer. Part of this plan was
> to paint it a certain color, etc, w/no regard to decals, etc. Anyhow,
since
> acquiring this, I'm wondering whether I should rather just restore the
> existing paint/decals, since these and the chrome plating are in terrific
> shape. I guess I'm a little worried that me stripping this down and
> repainting it could be an act of defacement perpetrated by an uninformed
> boob. I know that this is not a sought after nor collectible item, but
> still, my spidey senses are tingling a little. Opinions?
>
> A couple of other questions:
>
> 1) BB is French threaded. Given the limited choices for French BB's, is
it
> a good idea to get this reamed and rethreaded Italian so I can have
greater
> latitude in BB selection? How much does something like this cost? Who
can
> do this reliably?
>
> 2) Real dumb question: I see the occasional NOS/Used Campy French BB (in
> addition to new Phil Wood or TA). Will these only accept a Campy spindle?
>
> 3) What do people think of/have experience with TA loose ball BB?
>
> 4) BB has no drain hole/opening - is it a good idea to create one? Frame
> is fully chrome plated, as far as I can tell.
>
> Probably more to come later. Appreciate any comments on these.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jay