[CR]Why is the Italian threading standard weird?

(Example: Racing:Jacques Boyer)

Date: Sun, 27 Aug 2006 05:38:43 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Tom Dalton" <tom_s_dalton@yahoo.com>
To: fatticbicycles@qtm.net
cc: Classic Rendezvous <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Subject: [CR]Why is the Italian threading standard weird?

Doug wrote:

Harvey asked why Italian bottom brackets were a strange mixture of both metric and English treading. One fascinating combination that I found really intriguing was at the Kharkov bicycle factory in Eastern Ukraine near the Russian border. Some might remember I've been involved with a bicycle project there that included getting bikes from this factory. In their advertising brochure, they don't refer to their wheel sizes in metric dimensions like we do (i.e. 700c) but rather in inches, even if the actual size is metric. In addition they use the same abbreviation for inches we do ("). It's the one part of the description I can read out of the Cyrillic letters. Looking at their catalog from 2000, they have 12", 16", 20". 24", 26". 27" and 28" tire sizes on their different models. I don't know of any connection this factory (that used to make most of the bicycles used in the former USSR) had with capitalistic countries much less English ones. Somehow English sizes must have become some kind of standard over there sometime in the history of bicycling. Perhaps my Russian speaking CR list member from Germany, Toni, knows something.

Doug Fattic Niles, Michigan

Doug,

I recall Campy listing their new-at-the-time disc wheels as being avilable in 24", 26" and 28". This was in an English language brochure, so maybe Campy saw fit to translate at the expense of technical accuracy, but I did think it strange at the time. They were referring to discs that were available in 450c, 650c and 700c, if I recall correctly. Of course, at that time we DID refer to the new fangled little front wheels for funny bikes as 24" and" 26", but we knew of the proper specs for these sizes. I certatinly never thought of or called a 700c wheel 28". 700 was always referred to as 700, because it needed to be distinguihed from 27". Anything tublular was just assumed to be 700. The only 28" references I recall from back then were to utility bikes like the Raleigh DL-1. Thus, I thought it odd that campagnolo, of all companies, decided that a standard-size racing bike wheel was 28".

Tom Dalton Bethlehem, PA, USA

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