Hi, I'm new to this list. I guess I should introduce myself here, I've posted before, but never really have introduced myself. I am located in Southern NJ and have been riding and building older light weight bicycles for about 25 years now as a hobby. I have been around bikes all my life and have many various makes of vintage lightweights and even a few prewar balloon tire rides. I am not a bike shop but friends might swear otherwise by looking at my garage.
Anyhow, it's been my experience so that on Zeus hubs and freewheels, if it's not stamped B.S.C., it's French threaded. Maybe 'Metric' stamping denotes Italian threads? Using a BSC freewheel will cause thread damage to a French threaded hub, the BSC threads are slightly larger in diameter and feel 'loose' when threaded onto a French hub. Even if the BSC freewheel seems to tighten, it will eventually strip under load. It usually doesn't take much of a load. English and Italian threads can be made to work together but never French. Just for arguments sake, I took a Normandy hub which I new was English threaded and a new French threaded freewheel and it won't even start on the Eng. hub. But in reverse, an Eng. threaded freewheel will start on a French Zeus hub. Be carefull, there were some Normandy hubs made with French threads, I have a few here labeled both Normandy and Atom from the early 70's which are French threaded. Also, there are three different thread types out there, ISO, English (BSC), French, and Italian. You can check the pitch with a thread pitch guage. If the freewheel is marked French, and won't thread on to a metric thread, it is most likely Italian threaded.
Below is the actual thread specs as listed in Sutherland's. As you can see the French threads are the smallest diameter.
ISO Threading is 1.375" x 24 TPI = (34.92mm x 1.058mm) English Threading is: 1.370" x 24 TPI = (34.80mm x 1.058mm) French threading is: (1.366" x 25.4 TPI) = 34.7 mm x 1 mm Italian threading is: (1.378" x 1.058 TPI) = 35 mm x 24 TPI
Hope this is of help,
Joe McKishen
Vineland, NJ
<DTSHIFTER@aol.com> Sent: Saturday, February 21, 2004 8:03 PM Subject: Re: [CR]More on Zeus Metric Hubs......
>
> In a message dated 2/21/04 5:39:58 PM, jerrymoos@sbcglobal.net writes:
>
> << if the hub is not marked BSC, and the package is marked "Metric", it is
a
> 90%
>
> probability that installing and riding an English FW will ruin that hub.
>
> Get a French FW and try to install it. If it goes on without undue force,
>
> that is the proper FW. Leave it on or replace it with another French FW.
>>
>
> Jerry,
>
> I went and dug out a French freewheel and it fits just fine on the
Normandy
> hub, but will not thread onto the Zeus. I also tried the freewheel on a
> Suntour hub, and it would not thread onto this hub as well. The Zeus hub
is not
> marked BSC, so if anyone else has these 'Metric' marked Zeus hubs, it may
be
> prudent to test them in your hand before taking to the streets.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Chuck Brooks
> Malta, NY