As you can see in the picture above the down tube and seat tube on the Lambert have non mitred ends in the bottom bracket. I guess when they were manufacturing this bike they could save time by not having to mitre the ends in the bottom bracket because the axle was connected to sealed cartridge bearings. Pretty revolutionary at the time. However, today, trying to get a replacement spindle because mine is stripped is next to impossible.
I did a little research and came across this bottom bracket made especially for threadless bottom brackets. Turns out a few other manufacturers in France and Italy made bikes this way, too. To fix my problem, I will need to get Grand Cru Threadless Bottom Bracket from Velo Orange. After speaking with the good folks at Velo Orange who knew my dilemma right away said that the bottom bracket has to be as smooth as possible.
This means I have to grind out in the inside of the bottom bracket of the non mitred tubes that stick out into the bottom bracket. Fortunately, I have a Dremel Rotary tool with a long extenstion that will let me work in this confined enviornment. Once I get the tubes ground down to a millimeter above the surface of the bottom bracket I am going to finish it with a file. I don't want to compromise the integrity of the bottom bracket in any way.
Of course, if I don't want to shell out $60 bucks for the Velo Orange model, I can get one for $20 elsewhere.
3 comments:
Why even bother?
Because it's fun and the bike is a classic
I'm pretty good at math and $20 is less than $60.
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