This reminds me that I was going to ask if French BB thread taps are still available anywhere. Does anybody know as I rather desperately need to retap a BB?
With respect to Charles difficulties threading a cup in all the way, I have had this happen to me when the BB was only tapped enough to take a relatively shallow cup and I had to tap it further to get a deeper cup in. In this case, if I could not get the right tap, I would be inclined to grind down the first few threads on the cup rather than force it in - I would rather modify an almost expendable cup than risk any damage to the frame.
Hugh Thornton
Cheshire, England
From: Charles Andrews <chasds@mindspring.com> Subject: [CR] swiss bb tap help! To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Date: Tuesday, 27 October, 2009, 15:17
So, in the ongoing saga of this Mondia Special frame I bought in a moment of madness..I did find a swiss bb fixed cup (thanks Richard!)
But, now, after much elbow-grease (basically, re-tapping the worn threads with the cup), I simply cannot get the cup to go on the last two mm or so. I've been using the usual campagnolo cup-wrench, not the big shop-tool version. I know that wrench is pretty much useless for anything more that a snug cup, but I have managed to use it to get the cup in almost tight.
What I really need is to find someone--or a shop--that still has swiss taps.. Any suggestions?? Anyone know of a shop or person who would have a swiss tap so I can do this job right? I really don't want to break out my VAR-copy cup tool and force the thing in, although I will if I can't find someone with the right tap.
Thanks!
Charles Andrews Los Angeles
"everyone has elites; the important thing is to change them from time to time."
--Joseph Schumpeter, via Simon Johnson