[rcnute]

I have an older set of high-flange Campy hubs (my guess is 70s). Will any freewheel work or is it likely to require Italian threading?

 

[Mark Kelly]

The English thread standard for freewheels (1 3/8" x 24 TPI) was used by virtually everybody except the French who had two variations: one a smaller diameter thread and the other the later "Helicomatic" system.

 

[11.4]

The threading for the freewheel should be engraved along the base of the flange between the flange and the freewheel threading.

French threading is unique to itself -- totally incompatible with everything else (so French).

BSA/British/English became more or less a default standard, and is very close but not quite identical to Italian. It's not a perfect fit but doable -- you can go either way (Italian freewheel on a BSA hub or vice versa) but with a lot of freewheel removals you can gradually degrade the thread quality on the hub. Most people rarely if ever change cassettes, so this isn't too much of a problem.

 

[Kerry Irons]

No worries

I have an older set of high-flange Campy hubs (my guess is 70s). Will any freewheel work or is it likely to require Italian threading?

Absolutely no problem. Campy never made French threaded hubs, and French threaded hubs disappeared in the 60s anyway.