Originally Posted by
obrentharris
I could use a French bottom bracket cup to make into a thread chaser if any of you happen to have an orphan. The outside few threads on the fixed cup side are quite loose and ragged. I would like to rehabilitate them as best I can.
Ooh, that gives me the willies. This bike has come so far, and to ruin the BB thread now would be a tragedy. Not saying you WILL ruin it, just there's a risk, and I think it's a
high risk.
I have Campy piloted BB taps in French, unfortunately many miles from where you are. But someone closer to you must have a set too. With the opposite-side tap threaded in thoroughly, and the very rigid pilot running in its high-precision fit, the side you're repairing will be guaranteed to be square and on-center. There are lots of other piloted tap sets besides Campy (e.g. Var, Park), but most of them suffer from more slop and more flex, and the slop and the flex can add up, so the concentricity and parallelness won't be quite as perfect. Likely good enough -- do you feel lucky?
With a DIY tap with
no pilot, holding squarely enough will be super tricky. Unless you know some tricks? DIY pilot too? The very first threads being the ones that are munged, it will be very easy to do this wrong. I know I couldn't do that trick reliably enough, given how nice the frame is. But I also know there are people better at it than me.
I apologize if you are a whiz at this, and I'm getting worked up over nothing. I do that sometimes.
Oh yeah and thanks for continuing to share the pics and story. I've been following the thread since day 1.
Mark B in Seattle