British BB lockrings have the same threading as British FW, 1.370x24. So, if you're not sure whether a hub is the smaller French thread, a lock ring can can be a decent guide. Just compare its looseness on the hub in question with its looseness on a high quality BB cup or "standard" FW hub. If it's pretty loose, it's likely to be French 35 mm x 1.
I've never been comfortable with running English thread FW on French hubs, but may over-react to the sight of this poor bloke almost to the top of the pass in Oregon, sitting there looking at his stripped French-thread Campy record hub wheel and looking at his replacement FW. As I recall that long-ago sad sight, there was aluminum in the FW threads. The rule is simple: the expensive, hard-to-replace part is always the aluminum one whose threading fails.
harvey sachs mcLean va
>>I have a Maxi-Car tandem drum brake rear hub that I would like to >>know the freewheel threading compatability with existing vintage >>freewheels. I have Suntour Perfect (14-30 )freewheel that I would >>like to thread on. Would this fit or irreversibly damage the >>threads? It had a Maillard freewheel (French) that was on it but in >>an unusual 6 speed 13-19 configuration. A tight freewheel for a >>tandem! >> Anyway I wanted to know what the thread pitch is and/or which >>freewheels will work. BT >> >> >>Bruce Thomson Spokane WA 99204 >>(509) 747 4314 >>Masi3v4me@yahoo.com rapidfire10ring@hotmail.com
In later years, Maxi-Car hubs were made both with French and British freewheel threading. The French is marginally smaller.
Ernest Csuka of Cycles Alex Singer used to claim that he ran BSC freewheels on his tandem with a French-threaded hub, just with a few layers of Teflon tape to take up the slack.
I haven't tried this and cannot endorse it.
I suggest that the first step is to figure out your hub threading... (Maillard probably made some British-threaded freewheels, too.)
Another thing that might help: Late Maillard freewheel cogs are the same as the Sachs-Aris cogs. So if you find a Sachs freewheel with a suitable cog range, you can move the cogs to the Maillard freewheel body...
Jan Heine
Editor
Bicycle Quarterly
2116 Western Ave.
Seattle WA 98121
http://www.vintagebicyclepress.com