Takahashi “lugged” BB shells for old-school 1-1/8" and 7/8" tubes, Italian thread. https://www.ebay.com/itm/116321358039 Mid- to late-'80s vintage, maybe early '90s.
I know the guy who’s selling these, it’s Bill Davidson’s old partner Bob Freeman. When Bill retired he gave a lot of the old framebuilding stuff to Bob to dispose of. These Italian shells were imported specifically for Dave Tesch I believe. At least he was the one who used the most in Ital threading, if not the only one.
Why anyone would want to use Ital threads at this late date, I can’t imagine. But there are adaptor rings to turn an Ital shell into Eng/ISO, Ceeway sells them. You’d just have to face them down to 68 from 70 mm wide.
I’d say the asking price is attractive, $20 each with quantity price breaks (e.g. $16 for four). Or make an offer.
I know these will have almost zero takers for this obsolete part, but I gotta say, those are seriously nice shells if you have a use for one. Finer casting quality than almost anything else you’ll see, whether in production now, or ever. About the only other shells I saw that were this perfect were Eisho, and no surprise because both Eisho and Takahashi shells were cast at Hitachi. There’s a little Hitachi “chop” or hallmark cast into both of them.
Cable guides underneath are sensibly placed, they actually work, or you can grind them off in a few seconds if you don’t want 'em.
Frame angles between the sockets are probably available somewhere on the web, but we used these castings to make normal road, touring and track bikes from 46 to 66 cm, with some normal FB tricks to tweak the angles as necessary. Chainstay splay angle was designed for 126 mm at the dropouts back in the '80s, but we had no problem using them for 130 or 135, again using the time honored tweaks that lugged builders use.
I have no interest in the sale, just passing along what I know.
Mark Bulgier in Seattle