Richard, et al: The planet is littered with GB stems. As cheap and readily available as they are, even a cheap and compulsive bottom feeder / component mangler like me wouldn't fight this battle. Buy one cheap just for the hardware. Buy two. Too many other battles that are unavoidable. Dr. "know when to fold" Dremel
Which gives me an opening to include this cautionary tale from News of the Weird:
Ken James, 64, died in February when he fell off a stolen bicycle in Melbourne, Australia, and hit his head; police later found 435 bicycles and hundreds of parts in his home, stacked to the ceiling in every room (with only a few of the bikes having been legitimately acquired). [The Age (Melbourne), 6-3-04]
Anybody we know? Ignoring the theft and helmet aspects of the story, there's still a message there for some of us. Larry "not stacked to the ceiling in EVERY room" Osborn Morgantown WV
At 03:52 PM 7/7/2004 -0700, you wrote:
>Don:
>Finding metric hardware in the States is impossible.
>What I hope to find is: chrome or stainless; metric then SAE; fine thread
>For nuts, I would like to find metric fine thread stand-off that I would cut
to short width for nuts. As you recall, a stand-off looks like a long hex nut.
>For the bolt, if I can't find something that looks decent when trimmed to fit
as you have also suggessted, I hope to find metric fine thread socket head cap
screws. Be OK if the head is too large because that would allow for filing a
flat. If the socket head is too small for a flat then, that's OK, I can live
with that. Just happy to have good threads.
>
>I hope some of our fellow European listers read this and perhaps will do the
kindness of finding the metric fine threads in their local hardware store.
>
>Thanks and Regards,
>Richard Cielec
>Chicago, Illinois
>
>Donald Gillies <gillies@cs.ubc.ca> wrote:
>A 1970's raleigh-type GB stem uses M8 x 1.00 (fine pitch) metric nuts
>and bolts. The bolt must be ground down (with a dremel) in order for
>it to fit snug against the stem. The bolt needs to lose about 1-2 mm
>on all six sides. I have at least 5x of these and for the past month
>i've been making the bolts i need for some stems that lack the bolts.
>
>I have been unable to find anything like the tall nuts used for these
>bolts in M8 threading (coarse or fine threading). these nuts are
>approximately 11 mm across and 10 mm tall, which is about twice as
>tall as a normal nut. this is hard enough to find that i haven't been
>able to find any 10 mm tall nuts. These nuts also have a what I call
>a "skirt", e.g. a circular taper inward 2 mm from the bottom, and a
>circular (not hex) taper outward at 1 mm from the bottom.
>
>Luckily, regular nuts _do_ fit behind the stem and can be turned,
>despite their larger diameter.
>
>- Don Gillies
>San Diego, CA