Another interesting detail about german roadster bikes and Thompson BB's ist that before WW II mostly all bikes were outfitted with pressed in BB cups (Thompson) using a square tapered conical spindle and pressed on cranks. No cotters but a securing lock ring with for whixh you needed a special tool. Play was adjusted with the bearings cone threaded on the spindle. A virtually indestructable design which almost never failed. Anyone who ever tried to remove those cranks will tell you it is a real pain...I have heard there is a special puller for that (the cranks do not have own threads like modern square cranks) but I have never seen one. After WW II almost the complete industry changed over to cottered spindles either in cheap Thompson BB's or in threaded BSA BB's for the higher quality bikes. Just in the eighties they got back to the square tapered cranksets like we all know. I have no clue why that happened.
Regards
Michael Schmid Oberammergau Germany Tel.: +49 8821 798790 Fax.:+49 8821 798791 mail: schmid@zunterer.com http://www.zunterer.com
-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- Von: classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org [mailto:classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org] Im Auftrag von Michael Toohey Gesendet: Donnerstag, 26. April 2007 00:03 An: Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Betreff: [CR]Thompson BBs (was:Just for the record: Torpedo and Torpedo)
Interesting to finally find out a bit about those German Thompson BBs. Thanks Sheldon and Toni. We get the odd one turning up Downunder, usually in the possession of Dutch or German immigrants. My own German bike is so typical of the type. Cheap lugged steel frame (but with an English BB), Torpedo 3 speed coaster AND two Weinmann calliper brakes, stainless rims, guards, bars, spokes, seat-pin, etc, 47-622 tyres. It was probably made in the late eighties and I can see no reason for it ever wearing out (apart from the cheap-s**t Torpedo trigger which is completely knackered now-give me a SA trigger any day).
But the really interesting thing (to this old spanner-hand anyway) is that the Yong Jiu (Forever) Er Shi Ba (28" Roadster) that I owned in China had a Thompson BB. Unlike the Indians, who make faithful copies of English designs, the Chinese seem to have been a little creative as to where their design inspiration came from!
As a final note on the pervasiveness of English industrial design (or maybe just the marketing power of John Boyd Dunlop), I once had a 'discussion' with a customer who argued that Germans never, ever use inches. I reached up and grabbed a Continental 28 x 1 3/8 x 1 5/8 tyre off the hook; he was gobsmacked!
Michael Toohey in New Zealand.
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