I believe it is only the clampon Retrofrictions that are threaded French - or at least have a different thread than Campy brazeon shifter bosses. Brazeon Retrofrictions have always worked fine on Campy bosses for me. Clampon Retrofrictions not only have a different thread but need a different diameter post, so I don't think those will work at all with Campy bosses. I wonder if you have a pair of brazeon levers with the bolts from clampons. I've converted brazeon to clampon using clamps from the Plastic Prestige shifters, which unlike the more expensive clampon Simplex, has a post the same diameter as Campy brazeons. But there was an issue with threading there also. IRRC, the brazeon bolts were a different thread from the Prestige clamp. And the bolts with Prestibe clamp must have been too short, as I used stainless steel socket head bolts like you are doing. Actually the stainless socket head bolts look fairly nice to me. I've seen Retrofrictions with D-rings, with slotted heads, and with slotted head on one side and D-ring on the other. Prestige shifters had bolts with plastic wingnuts.
Regards,
Jerry Moos
> From: Aldo Ross <aldoross4@siscom.net>
\r?\n> Subject: [CR] Long bolts forSimplex retrofriction shifters?
\r?\n> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
\r?\n> Date: Saturday, June 13, 2009, 11:08 AM
\r?\n> Installing a set of Simplex
\r?\n> Retrofriction shifters last evening, I realized the included
\r?\n> slot-head bolts are threaded French while the bike is
\r?\n> threaded Italian. I found some socket-head bolts that
\r?\n> will work, but the heads stick-out pretty far and look
\r?\n> awkward.. Are there any D-ring bolts long enough to do
\r?\n> the job? What type of bolts did Simplex provide...
\r?\n> where they all slot-head?
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Aldo Ross
\r?\n> Middletown, Ohio, USA
\r?\n> (anxious to see if/when this goes through, as the list
\r?\n> seems to be down at the moment)