bulgie 

In a recent thread on cottered spindles I mentioned that a Boehm would be a holy grail find for me. Apparently my mental inventory needs updating because I just found I have a complete Boehm BB. Forgot I had it, found it while looking for something else. It wasn't even with my other cottered spindles, apparently I felt it was too precious to hang out with that riff-raff, it was where I keep all my grails.

Here's a view showing how dang hollow it is:

It weighs 125 g.
I have hollow cottered spindles from Stronglight and Zeus, which both weigh 180 g. Just 2 ounces heavier than a Boehm. Significant? You decide. Weird and cool? You betcha.

On the end it says FORME INTERIEURE DEPOSEE which I think means "inside shape registered trademark". Different from a patent, so probably this wasn't patented.
The hollow inside is forged to the shape! Specifically, the flats where the cotters go are forged in after the large diameter hollow is created. There is no way to drill or machine that shape of hole.

Here's a catalog shot with cut-away view:

juvela

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have you been able to learn years produced?


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oneclick 

How long is that Stronglight (should be stamped), I just weighed a 130mm at 183g.

repechage

Cool archaic tech.

bulgie 

I have a vague memory someone told me '30s-'40s, but I don't remember where I heard it, don't trust me on that. Company full name is Felix Boehm, based in St. Ettiene

bulgie 

Yes I have a 125 mm and a 130, and I'll bet it was the 125 I weighed.

bulgie 

One more datum to report, the end diameter where it mates with the crank is 16.01 mm (.630"), the largest I have ever measured, which is not all that many really, probably fewer than 20. But all the other spindles I measured were undersized compared to their nominal size. Generally speaking, the more expensive they were, the closer they were to the nominal size, but always under. This one really is ever so slightly oversized! Yes I measured it several times in different places, and not on dirt or rust, you can take that to the bank.

One bike shop I worked at in the '70s had a 16 mm reamer made for bike cranks, some bike tool brand, like Eldi maybe? It had a long gradual taper that took something like 8" to go from a bit under 5/8" to 16 mm, so you could convert an English crank to take a French or Italian spindle. You'd run it only as far up the taper as needed to fit the crank — ISTR somewhere about halfway up was usually enough. You'd definitely need to use the entire reamer to make a crank fit this Boehm.

This would be a cool spindle to use with Duprat hollow cranks, or maybe Maxi-Plume which was cottered light-alloy. I do have a hollow steel cottered crank called Wedge-lock, but it almost certainly needs a 5/8" spindle, being English. So this spindle will just live in my "box of grails" waiting for the right bike to come along.

juvela

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...have a faint memory of Ron Kitching being a stockist for it and it being shown, via drawing, in an old edition of "Everything Cycling"

the distinctive lockring seems to have made a dent in that which passeth for me "memory"

perhaps one of our UK members will recall the RonKit connection...

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EDIT:

found it

the Kitching Handbook, 1963 lists the product on page thirteen

they spell the name BOHEM

this could be a simple error or they could have been confused by the OE digraph

the listing states that three lengths were stocked: 127, 132 & 135

only British thread was stocked


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juvela

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Zut alors!

found one fitted to a handsome Helyett Speciale Piste of the early fifties over at Tonton

cycle as found -



assembly as found -



cycle following a spot of lavandation -

​​​​​​

​​​​​​

discussion thread -

​​​​​​https://forum.tontonvelo.com/viewtopic.php?t=18680


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juvela

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found meself a wonderin' what BOEHM may have done to accommodate Italian dimension shells

expect they may have followed the lead of SPECTA & Verot-Perrin (pure speculation) and made the walls of the Italian dimension cups one mm thicker than those of BSC and metric cups

by so doing they could avoid the cost of tooling to offer three additional spindle models

the one downside of the arrangement is that it leaves no means of fitment to those 70mm BSC shells found on some Belgian products


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Duke7777

One of these came in a nice Metropole racing frame that I estimate to be from the early 50s. I had never heard of these before, and marveled at the quality and lightness. This frame also came with a headset that was clearly a step above the usual Stronglight commonly seen on good quality 50s race bikes. It was stamped AIY or possibly A/Y. It was similar to the Janisson typically found on Herses of that era.

juvela

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Thanks very much for this information, greatly appreciated!




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