Old french frame - UN72 BB, cup crank compatibility

I am going to use a UN72 as a BB in my '68 French road bike. A couple
questions:

1. Are Deore LX and XT the only cranks that will work with the UN72
bottom bracket? They are listed as being compatible on the site where I
bought the UN72.

2.If the stock BB cups on my frame are in good shape, do I have to
replace them with the Phil Wood French cups to make the UN72 work? Or
will my stock cups work?

THANKS!

I can only answer part 1, but UN-72 are also compatible with a variety
of Shimano road cranks and in fact were standard issue with Ultegra of
the era. I've also used them with 105 and DuraAce square taper cranks.
I have them now on my beater with Ultegra 600 (8 speed) cranks). They
came with the LX and XT gruppos but also with the road gruppos.

Lou D'Amelio

"Protag Hiro" writes:

I am going to use a UN72 as a BB in my '68 French road bike. A couple
questions:

1. Are Deore LX and XT the only cranks that will work with the UN72
bottom bracket? They are listed as being compatible on the site where I
bought the UN72.

2.If the stock BB cups on my frame are in good shape, do I have to
replace them with the Phil Wood French cups to make the UN72 work? Or
will my stock cups work?

UN 72 are just a nice, ordinary square taper BB. There are only a
couple of differant standards for the shape of the part of the BB with
the four flats that fits in the crank, and it is the same on all
Shimanno cranks. BB's come in a variety of lengths, and whether or
not they work with any particular Shimanno crank is going to depend on
the length. Whether or not the BB fits your frame is going to depend
on the threading, there are a couple of current standards and a couple
of obsolete standards for that. Anyways, just saying "UN72" isn't
enough information to know what sort of BB you have got. Have you
taken a look at the bottom bracket bits of Sheldon Brown's website?
He explains a lot of this stuff there.

"Protag Hiro" wrote in news:1120636536.399860.326320
@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

I am going to use a UN72 as a BB in my '68 French road bike. A couple
questions:

1. Are Deore LX and XT the only cranks that will work with the UN72
bottom bracket? They are listed as being compatible on the site where I
bought the UN72.

I'm using one with a Sugino XD300, which is the best bang for the buck out
there. Nice shaped arms, Gorgeous level of polish. Steel rings that will
last forever but don't look cheap. Got mine for under fifty bucks.



2.If the stock BB cups on my frame are in good shape, do I have to
replace them with the Phil Wood French cups to make the UN72 work? Or
will my stock cups work?

The stock cups most definitely will not work. They're for ball bearings,
not cartridge bearings. The Phil "cups" aren't really cups, per se, they're
retainer rings.

This is a great upgrade if you're looking to triple-ize. Good luck!

-Hank

Protag Hiro wrote:
2.If the stock BB cups on my frame are in good shape, do I have to
replace them with the Phil Wood French cups to make the UN72 work? Or
will my stock cups work?

No, your stock cups won't work, because the Phil Wood "cups" are not
actually cups but just retaining rings. Your cups are probably not thin
enough to fit around the BB shell, and even if they are you won't be
able to get the correct chainline.

Be careful to get a UN72 and not a UN73, because the right side
retaining ring on the UN73 is part of the BB and can't be removed.

Jim Smith wrote:
UN 72 are just a nice, ordinary square taper BB. There are only a
couple of differant standards for the shape of the part of the BB with
the four flats that fits in the crank, and it is the same on all
Shimanno cranks. BB's come in a variety of lengths, and whether or
not they work with any particular Shimanno crank is going to depend on
the length.

Whether or not the BB fits your frame is going to depend
on the threading, there are a couple of current standards and a couple
of obsolete standards for that.

When I titled this thread French frame, I thought it would imply that
it was French threaded, which is obsolete and requires the UN72 or a
Phil Wood BB with the French cups.

Anyways, just saying "UN72" isn't
enough information to know what sort of BB you have got.

What if I know what I need, and gear my original question aroung that
fact? I have a French threaded bb that requires French cups, and a UN72
or a Phil Wood bottom bracket. The size my LBS told me I needed was
115mm.

I just thought of a third option. Can I use a spindle and bearings and
skip the whole cartridge bottom bracket mess? Are there square spindles
that take the modern cranks? Thanks for the help.

"Protag Hiro" wrote in message
ups.com...


I just thought of a third option. Can I use a spindle and bearings and
skip the whole cartridge bottom bracket mess? Are there square spindles
that take the modern cranks? Thanks for the help.


I have a 1972 Gitane Tour de France. I am using the original (French
threaded) cups; I am on the 3rd spindle. I regrease the bearings every 12
months or so in a 30-minute operation. The most time and cost-effective fix
for your old French bike is to only replace the spindle.

The Sugino cups that came with my bike takes a standard spindle - that is,
one with a center section measurement of 52mm.

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/harris/bottombrackets.html

Fortunately, your bike will take 11 x 1/4" (standard) ball bearings and the
bottom bracket shell width is the same as standard english units. The cups
in you frame may be toast, but there are French cups are still for sale
through Harris, or Ebay. Or, buy a beater Motobecane or Peugeot at a thrift
store just for the BB cups. If your cups are OK, then measure your old BB
spindle, and go to the Harris site, or a good LBS for a replacement. The
Harris spindles will be compatible with every (non-Italian) crank made in
the last 25 years.

Replace the balls of course. The spindle route all-in will cost less than
$20.

If you go the Phil / UN 72 route, keep in mind that you will need 2 Phil
retainer ring tools working in opposition to properly tighten up your new
BB.

BTW: if you want a shop to remove the old and then install new cups (the
right hand cup must be tight!!) ... be careful. I would guess that about
half of the LBS wrenches nowadays were born after French-threading went
extinct. Some might have never worked on an Italian BB either. I have
talked to one who simply did not accept that my right-hand cup had a right
hand thread. Leave very clear written directions attached to the BB shell.