I have at least one French-threaded 5-speed FW. I believe that it came on a French tandem of the 1960s, with a (French) Atom drum brake hub with French threading. The hub was an 'orrible piece, with the patent bend-o-matic axle and narrow-spaced hub bearings... Like lots of other artifacts at the house, I have no idea why I keep the pair, but I guess it is the perversity that keeps me collecting "worst of type" things like the Campy Gran Trashmo boat anchor and "Sport" derailleurs, and the early Normandy hub with right flange pulled out pretty far to the right, to maximize tension difference between L. and R. spokes. French 5-speed FW is of course the opposite of Capn Brown's assertion, which dealt with English thread 4-speed of French manufacture; there is no contradiction.
harvey sachs
McLean VA
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Quoth Dominic Rose:
>Could anybody tell me when french threads stopped being used on bikes made in
>>France for the french market and how common they are? There is a four speed
>>currently on ebay.fr but the seller doesnt know which thead it has.
>>I'm trying to decide whether it's best to rebuild a wheel with an
>>english hub than trying
>>to find a four speed french threaded freewheel.
>
>
I can't tell you exactly, but I believe the switch occurred after the move from 4-speed to 5-speed.
I very much doubt that you would find a French made 4-speed freewheel with English/ISO threads.
The 4 to 5 switch occurred in the late 1950s.
Sheldon "Filetage Anglais" Brown +---------------------------------------------------+ | There are many humorous things in the world; | | among them the white man's notion that he is | | less savage than the other savages.--Mark Twain | +---------------------------------------------------+ -- Harris Cyclery, West Newton, Massachusetts Phone 617-244-9772 FAX 617-244-1041 http://harriscyclery.com Hard-to-find parts shipped Worldwide http://captainbike.com Useful articles about bicycles and cycling http://sheldonbrown.com