Pic's of your Eroica Britannia bike

Guyrwood-

Hilary (he, not they) used to live near me so I have bought stuff from his permanent bike jumble sale house in Bristol.

But then funnily enough, I tried to buy a BB from him once he moved to Newport. The BB never arrived. I emailed him, he apologised, but still, it never arrived. Avoid.

Others will concur.

But the web is full of good advice on old bikes, Sheldon Brown being your obvious starting point. Getting the fixed cup out needs a spanner or wrench, removing the adjustable cup is a job for a pin spanner, or a one of these:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BOTTOM-BRACKET-BB-CUP-CYCLE-TOOL-WRENCH-FOR-ADJUSTABLE-CRANK-CUP-UNION-/182121812092

1/4" bearing races. You could go with loose balls but these are easier:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PAIR-1-4-x-9-BALL-RACES-BEARING-CAGE-FOR-BOTTOM-BRACKET-ON-MTB-OTHER-BIKES-/201570608278

If the cups are also knackered or you can't be bothered cleaning them, then this lot comes with bearings greased already:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/STANDARD-BIKE-CYCLE-BOTTOM-BRACKET-CUP-SET-BEARINGS-THREADED-24tpi-1-37-BB-SET-/201565369932

whilst these look higher quality all round:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TIOGA-BB501-SEALED-BOTTOM-BRACKET-BEARING-CUP-SET-CR-MO-WEATHERSHEATH-1-37-x-24T-/391450337318

Guyrwood -

Actually, you've totally dodged a bullet there! St. Sheldon of Brown smiles upon thee. You fortunately have Japanese (=everything sensibly sized) 50.4 bcd crank arms that just need a standard tool. The older French (=everything odd sizes) cranks have smaller threads.

Modern BBs just need less maintainance. Cheating is when you to bounderishly fit a 90s hyperglide freewheel, thus allowing you to swiftly and smoothly change gear under load whilst your fellow cyclists sit there, rattling away. But then Terry Thomas would have done that, and he's soooo L'Eroica Britannia. 

Those brake cables must be flapping in the wind though, aero didn't exist in the 70s!

I have a square taper sealed cartridge BB. It looks the business because it is sort of retro-styled, but these are becoming rare nowadays. You could just replace the bearings in the BB and grease them up, and separate cups and axles are all available for very little cost. It looks the part, and you won't regret it!

Bike jumbles, eBay, LFGSS classifieds are good places to find old parts when you really know what you need. But otherwise, look to online shops that accept returns and order multiple sizes so you don't end up with a box of unusable bits.

Everyday's a schoolday with old bikes. It's part of the appeal for me, once you've cracked it you feel truly L'Eroic. 

I'm cheating here, this is my early 1970s Mattolini Corsa which I rode in the Eroica last year and subsequently sold to fund the purchase of my Croix de Fer.

It was a lovely  bike, light, fast and responsive but a bit too racy for me at my advanced age.

A particular problem was the non indexed Campag Nuovo Record was most reluctant to stay in low gear, making climbing the Peak District hills rather difficult.

(not TheDoctor)

It's a handsome machine. I would invest in some mudguards if I were you, it still rains in the Summertime and it would complet the build nicely.

I have some sage advice, having overhauled similar bikes myself.

If you don't have one, I got a VAR tool for removing "Cyclotourist" cranks from Spa Cycles. It works for TA or Stronglight 49D versions (despite being slightly smaller in the threads than the 49D, it works fine when it's well tightened up).

As for headsets, stack height can be an issue for older bikes. The quality 1" headsets often have more stack than your threaded tube steerer will take. The Tange Levin is about the lowest I have found.