British Tools & Fasteners

I had to cutdown and re-thread a set of Triumph pre unit forks tubes for a project bike I'm working on. I originally thought I just cut the threads on the lathe (they'd be my first lathe turned BCS/CEI threads). I don't really have access to a lathe large enough to handle the size of the tubes well so I ultimately decided to buy a tap instead. An Internet search took me to British Tools & Fasteners. I was familiar with their website but up to that point I had never bought anything from them before.

I did quite a bit of research but could never confirm for certain what the thread was. I contacted BTF with the best specs I could provide. Based on the specs alone BTF was not able to 100% confirm the thread despite them taking time to do some Internet research of their own! I basically decided I'd have to take an educated guess and order one. Unfortunately Murphy's Law assured my guess was wrong. I had to return the tap for the correct one. BTF was super helpful and their communication was simply awesome.

The large taps BTF sells are not inexpensive. Dropping nearly $100 on a single tap is not an easy pill to swallow initially. That said when my 1-1/16 BSC/CEI plug tap arrived I could immediately tell it was the highest quality tap I've seen in my life. Once I used it I was even more impressed!

You may be saying to yourself "It's only a tap, who cares?" The primary purpose of this post is to share how much I was impressed with BTF from a customer service perspective. Vintage motorcycles are primarily hobby for me, meaning the whole thing is supposed to be fun. Way too often the third-party goods and services you rely on to complete a vintage motorcycle project are a complete nightmare. When I run into someone exceptional I feel almost obligated to share. If you need British taps/dies, tools or even just fasteners I'd highly recommend giving them a shot.