Fixed BB cup

I bought my girlfriend a bike which has/had a cottered bb, she didnt want cottered so I said I could change it for her, but didnt have time.

So today I get a phone call from her saying she had taken it to a bike shop to get the BB taken out and the guy is saying the "fixed cup" is in the wrong side and its cross threaded, and is going to have to charge her quite alot because it will be such an effort to remove, IF being able to remove at all.

I don't know a huge amount about bikes myself but I know the basic's enough to have put my bikes togeather in the past, the fixed cup on my bikes have always been on the right with the adjustable cup on the left. Which is also the case for the bike my girlfriend has taken in.

Is this right? Or has every bike i've bought/pieced together always been weirdly wrong?

I just wanted to make sure before I ring the guy and call him an asshole for trying to take advantage of a girl.

Cheers

Seems odd: the "fixed cup", with some exceptions (Italian threaded BBs) has a left hand thread. I think it would be virtually impossible to get it into the wrong side.

Maybe the LBS guy means that it's stuck rather than "fixed".

firstly cups are not cottered and not-cottered - that's only the BB spindle- get an old style (non-cartridge) BB that takes cotterless cranks and you can leave the 'fixed' cup in situ (wheter it's cross threaded or not )....and fit the spindle that takes cotterless cranks

eg: moving from

http://images.andale.com/f2/115/106/3561856/2006/11/30/chater_lea_bb.jpg

to

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cup_and_cone_bottom_bracket.jpg

notice the difference is on the ends but the cones are the same for both spindles ('axles')

this latter pic shows older style with male thread on the axle whcih takes nuts on - but you can get some with female thread in the axle to take bolts in aswell it'll make no difference.

by fixed i'm guessing he means the drive side which on older BBs is hard to get out and so often remains in there - it's not 'fixed' as such.

check out the BB removal tool on sheldon brown before shelling out on LBS

• i agree^ it doesn't sound likely it's cross threaded. sounds more like a case of LBS BS - he can't actually even know it's cross threaded until it's out because he doesn't know wheter it's an italian BB or not
  
  

ask him how he knows it's cross threaded.. can he see some BB cup thread? probably not - does he know whether it's Italian ?- probably not . although even the correct thread in the correct side can go in at the wrong angle in which case you'll need to remove it if he tells you the BB cup is not sqaure to the BB shell on the bike - it will need to come out. if it is square ask him A) to leave it in and replace the axle for a cotterless one and B) why he didn't know to do that without you having to tell him.....

home made BB removal tool
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/tooltips/bbcups.html

use a very aggressive thread. the bolt should look as rugged as a wheel nut for a car if you use something that looks a bit like a bike axle thread you'll strip it. mine has never ever failed to get one out - and if the thread is fucked - all is not lost - get a thread-less BB in there.