shimano selecta bb

Since 2001, over 90,000 cyclist's have joined Cycling Forums to discuss topics from general cycling to equipment, training, racing and travel or vacation destinations (especially in europe during the tour de france). We also feature an great deals in our online store, 100's of articles, classifieds and product reviews.

Hello, I have an ancient Apollo that I'd like to convert to fixed (it has
nearly horizontal dropouts). It currently has a Shimano selecta bottom
bracket, which is a cup-and-cone type of thing, with two fixed cups
threaded into the bottom bracket shell. One of the cranks has gone from a
little play to a lot of play, and is now so worn that I have to replace
the bb.

Is it possible to replace a selecta bb with a cartridge bb? Where can I
find a tool for removing the cups? (It's something like a tool to remove
a old mtb freewheel, but smaller)

--
Matt Hughes
+ mhughe@uvic.ca

Matt Hughes wrote:
> Hello, I have an ancient Apollo that I'd like to convert to fixed (it has
> nearly horizontal dropouts). It currently has a Shimano selecta bottom
> bracket, which is a cup-and-cone type of thing, with two fixed cups
> threaded into the bottom bracket shell. One of the cranks has gone from a
> little play to a lot of play, and is now so worn that I have to replace
> the bb.

The Selecta was an early, small diameter spline system not known for
reliability even with freewheels. Not surprising it won't hold up for
fixed gear use.

> Is it possible to replace a selecta bb with a cartridge bb?

Yes, the frame should have standard ISO/English threading.

> Where can I
> find a tool for removing the cups? (It's something like a tool to remove
> a old mtb freewheel, but smaller)

That's an old style Shimano "Boss" freewheel tool. We've got 'em:

http://harriscyclery.net/site/itemdetails.cfm?ID=569

Sheldon "..." Brown
+-----------------------------------------------+
| I'll be appearing as Preposteros in |
| Gilbert & Sullivan's Thespis at M.I.T. |
| April 9-10,15-17 http://web.mit.edu/gsp/www |
| http://sheldonbrown.com/music.html |
+-----------------------------------------------+
Harris Cyclery, West Newton, Massachusetts
Phone 617-244-9772 FAX 617-244-1041
http://harriscyclery.com
Hard-to-find parts shipped Worldwide
http://captainbike.com http://sheldonbrown.com