Lightweight Techno Talk: Rim a hub a ding dong - period correct wheels for your lightweight - Part 2

Of course a good pair of wheels will improve the performance of any bike (apart from a good and strong pair of legs and good health). And most cyclists will agree on that without having physics in mind because everybody should have noticed this improvement by his own.

On other hand you want a period correct wheelset for your bike, right?

What kind of rims you should go for you might find in part 1 of this article. Leaves us today with the question about those period correct hubs.

For those of you interested to see that there was life before Tullio re-invented the turn of the world I suggest to have a look at the Fratelli Brivio hub article as well.

Since each country had it´s unique champions some manufacturers are more known then others making their hubs the only possible sought after stars in that time and today and leaving others fairly obscure to the masses. On other hand there are hughe regional differences resulting in very different setups for GB, France, Italy and Germany.

Whilst french riders of the 20th and 30th sweare on hubs made by Pellissier, Atom or Exceltoo their british companions would have gone wild for a set of Harden hubs or a set of those made by British Hub Company, the italian peleton luckily went with hubs from Gnutti and Fratelli Brivio and german riders would have been spinning their wheels with hubs from Fichtel & Sachs, Weco, Union or Wippermann.

First we want to have a look at the britsh scene of that gone by days and the hubs they were familiar with:

• British Hub Company Airlite (Continental) were introduced in the 30th, made out of a chrome barrel with alloy flanges became the mainstay of the british lightweight scene as long as quality and not the price was the decision point with large flange hubs beeing more popular in post war times than small flange ones. Available one side free, double fixed and free/ fixed and with axles for quick release skewers and those for track nuts and anodized in various colors too. (period correct up to 1960)

• British Hub Company Solite were introduced in the 30th, made out of a chrome barrel with alloy flanges also.  Available as small flange hubs only but again one side free, double fixed and free/ fixed (period correct up to 1960)

• Bayliss & Wiley, available in both large and small-flange, are looking very similar to Airlites but lower in quality, again available one side free, double fixed and free/ fixed (period correct between 1945- 1960)

• Bayliss Wiley very cool and early "cassette" body freehub Type Hub. Sprockets are 1/8" fixed and the threaded body turns like a freehub unit. Cover behind sprockets keeps dirt out of the ratcheting unit. I´ve seen some with Flip-Top oiler in the center of the barrel, some without. In addition I own one of these hubs marked Osgear that was sold together with the famous OsGear derailleur. (period correct 1935 up to 1950)

• Harden Hub Comapny Bacon Slicers, very cool and rare large flange hub with annular bearings. Most of these are single fixed but a rarer gear-sided only or double fixed also turns up at rare occasions. Same for those gold anodized ones. (period correct 1935 up to 1955)

• Harden small flange (Bacon Slicers) again with annular bearings. Most of these are double fixed but available single fixed and fixed/free also. (period correct 1935 up to 1955)

• Harden Hub Company Flyweight large flange only hubs with cup and cone bearings available fixed, double fixed and fixed/ free (period correct 1946 up to 1960)

• Blumfields all alloy hub, available in both small and high flange with grease nippes in center of the barrel and very attractive engraced makers marks. Amongst the best hubs that could be sourced in that time. Available single fixed, double fixed and fixed/ free. (period correct 1940 upt to 1955)

• BSA small flange hubs made of steel with oiler hole and oiler clip in center of the barrel. A low priced hub often seen on early and low priced club racers. (period correct 1940 up to 1965)

• SUN Supralite high flange hub made of alloy, a Normandy Pepperpot copy, often seen on budget production racers ot that time (period correct 1960 up to 1975)

• VEW Continental high flange, higher quality copy of the Normandy Pepperpot (period correct 1960 up to 1975)

• VEW Light high flange, very similar to their Continental hub (period correct 1960 up to 1975)

• Resillion high flange hub made of steel, a pricey Normandy Pepperpot copy often seen on low budget production club racers and lightweights. (period correct 1960 up to 1970)

• Viscount Lambert high flange hub, a medium quality copy of Maillard/ Campagnolo hubs (period correct 1970 up to 1985)

• Royce high flange hub made of alloy, a rare but high quality Maillard/ Campagnolo copy with annular bearings. (period correct 1975 up to 1980)

Stay tuned for part 3 and others.