>On the Sabliere I think the "cups" are really bearing shields, close fitting
>to exclude dust and water
Indeed. They also may help locate the bearing against moving sideways
under load, as they snug up against the bearing.
>The bearings sit in the shell but further in than with Klein,
>Fisher/Ritchey, and Ritchey (and probably hundreds of other over the years)
>which have the bearing either flush with the side of the shell or they use a
>bearing with a lockring groove and just seat the lockring up against the
>side of the shell.
Yes, they are further inboard.
>I have bought lots of Phil plain spindles for this
>purpose.Typically the spindle is positioned in the shell by lock rings
>although I've seen a lot of other clamping methods over the years.
The spindle usually has shoulders to locate the inner bearing races.
There was a Rebour drawing of an Herse BB in VBQ Vol. 3, No.1. Unfortunately, that one isn't online. But Joel Metz' page has some photos:
http://www.blackbirdsf.org/
--
Jan Heine, Seattle
Editor/Publisher
Vintage Bicycle Quarterly
c/o Il Vecchio Bicycles
140 Lakeside Ave, Ste. C
Seattle WA 98122
http://www.vintagebicyclepress.com