How do I determine what kind of threading I have?

Hey all, I Have a 70's Zeus track bike and I am trying to determine if the threading on the original forks is English, French, Italian? How do I figure this out. I need a new lock ring on my headset but I cant seem to get one to stay on. They just strip off if I try and tighten it down to much and it just comes lose if I don't? Thanks.

Is this a silly question? Kinda surprised no one has any ideas.

http://cyclespeugeot.com/Threading.html

measure the shell width

68mm means iso or Franch, but British have left hand thread on the right hand side

70 mm means Italian

Threading gauges! Joke apart, check this and Sheldon Brown's entry for threadings. For English threads you can count (with some patience) the number of peaks per inch as is explained in the first link.

Being probably a custom ordered bike, the type of thread used might have been the choice of the original owner of the bike: Any idea about how old is the bike? Spanish bikes, as far as I know, used either French or Italian threadings in the 70s and 80s. The French threading became relatively obsolete (apart from France) by the end of the 70s, as the ISO standard became the reference for the components industry. My bet is that, given Zeus reputation for Campagnolo knock offs, chances are that your fork has Italian threading, assuming it's the original one.

Hope it helps

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Threading gauges! Joke apart, check this and Sheldon Brown's entry for threadings. For English threads you can count (with some patience) the number of peaks per inch as is explained in the first link.

Being probably a custom ordered bike, the type of thread used might have been the choice of the original owner of the bike: Any idea about how old is the bike? Spanish bikes, as far as I know, used either French or Italian threadings in the 70s and 80s. The French threading became relatively obsolete (apart from France) by the end of the 70s, as the ISO standard became the reference for the components industry. My bet is that, given Zeus reputation for Campagnolo knock offs, chances are that your fork has Italian threading, assuming it's the original one.

Hope it helps

Cheers ED 13! Very helpful.

Maybe fit a whole new headset?

Maybe fit a whole new headset?

Yeah, I probably will. But even then I will still need to know what threading is on the forks? I'm working on it.

to mit it sounds like you got a sore thread, if you tighten it and it suddelny comes loose.

Yeah, I probably will. But even then I will still need to know what threading is on the forks? I'm working on it.

are they 1" or 1 1//8"th ?

you can get 1 1//8"th threaded headsets?

you can get 1 1//8"th threaded headsets?

Personally I have only ever had experience with 1" threaded headsets but according to Wiggle you can get 1 1/8"th as well.