Originally Posted by
pastorbobnlnh
Can I add my 2 cents from last night's search for French Threaded freewheels for clients and echo and emphasize what @
dddd and @
verktyg add to this discussion from above?
By all means....
Originally Posted by
pastorbobnlnh
Not all Atom, Normandy, or Maillard freewheels are marked accurately. I found several examples where they neither had the "Rectangular Punch Mark" (and were blank) nor had the specific threading stamped into the bottom of the inner body--- and some were French threaded and others were BSO/ISO threaded. My verification method was by using a Sugino ISO BB and a TA French BB threaded into the freewheel.
I used two Suntour Perfects as my test dummies--- one marked "M" for metric or French threading and the other blank for ISO threading.
So be careful with the Atoms, Normandys and Maillards.
Pastor Bob.... I'll raise you deux centimes...
During the 70's most of the lower priced and mid range bikes that we sold were French made. Back then it was safe to assume that those bikes had all French (metric) threads. There was a good Motobecane and also a good Peugeot/Raleigh shop near us so we didn't get to work on many of those brands.
Around 1978, the Peugeot shop started fading away so we began to get some Peugeots in for service. We noticed that some of the late 70's U-08s where coming through with British threaded pedals and freewheels. We suspected that they were made or assembled in Canada and started checking the threads on all of those bikes that we worked on.
Prior to that, it was a safe assumption that French bikes with original Atom or Normandy freewheels were metric thread.
Same thing with replacement freewheels. We imported 14-28T Normandy French thread freewheels loose packed in wooden crates of 50 or 100 freewheels. I think that they cost us about $3.00 each with shipping and duty.
The rare Atom or Normandy freewheels with British threads usually came on British bikes and had a mark indicating the threads on the back side. I remember we had a few Atom 14-28T freewheels with British threads in red and white cardboard boxes.
It appears to me that moving into the 80's as metric threaded freewheels were becoming less common and Maillard was changing their product offering, they started marking metric threaded freewheels rather than ones with British threads???
By the mid 70's the 2 most common French freewheels were the Maillard-Normandy (large splines) and the Atom, small splines.
Maillard- Normandy Freewheels usually came on lower priced bikes.
Atom freewheels had screw-on sprockets that interchanged with Regina. It was somewhat easy to build custom freewheels with a range from 13-34T.
We always looked down on Maillard- Normandy freewheels as they were a perfect match for Simplex Delrin derailleurs but this flyer points out several features that I wasn't aware of.
This 1977 ad points out the advantage of having a larger splined bore: The outside and inside bearing are the same size with 90 1/8" balls which balances the forces better, plus the large remover will fit over any axle nut. (From velo-pages.com)
By the 1980's Maillard offered a wider variety of freewheel models so all guesses are off.
Here's an oddity that I ran across. I'm not sure whether it's a good Photoshop job or ??? A Regina freewheel with ATOM stamped in???
Something else I've never seen before, a 14-34T 5 speed Regina Freewheeel, British/ISO threads.
BTW, Pastor Bob I like you idea of using BB cups to check the thread size.
verktyg
