Chuck Schmidt prompted me to finally compose a reply to Hugh Thornton's
query:
>>
>> I just acquired a pair of wheels with Bayliss Wiley medium flange hubs (they
>> have holes drilled in the flanges, but are not really big enough to qualify
>> as large flange). The front hub has a steel barrel with alloy flanges. The
>> rear is all steel and doesn't seem to have a normal freewheel under all the
>> grease and dirt and mess -- looks like it might be some sort of freehub
>> (5-speed) -- is that possible and what sort of date would it be? I have seen
>> lots of Bayliss Wiley parts (mostly bottom brackets) on 1950's and earlier
>> bikes, but not later -- did they survive beyond that or did they go out of
>> business?
These are Bayliss Wiley hubs from the 1950s. The front one is not a matching
pair for the rear though of course they might have been bought like that.
The rear is a Bayliss Wiley unit hub which was first launched in 1938 I
think it won the CTC innovation award in the year of its launch. However
the design was quite deeply flawed, the axle was not properly supported
(just like current Campag freehubs) with the right hand bearing closer to
the middle than the outside of the hub. Campy overcome this with a tougher
than real axle. BW didn't (couldn't?) and axles commonly bent. It is quite
common to find it in 3 or 4-speed form but I've never seen a five speed.
However the sprockets simply screwed onto standard freewheel threads and is
possible to use standard fixed sprockets. The pukka sprockets however have
square topped teeth rather than pointed ones in order for the chain to
release from one sprocket to another when changing gear. Trivelox at a
similar time made a freehub which did have the bearings in the right place
but it never received the praise it deserved. Both Cyclo and Simplex had
designs of freehub that preceded both. I am not quite sure about Simplex's
bearing arrangements (I ought to take apart one of the Simplex freehubs I
have and see where the hub bearings really are mounted) but Cyclo's was as
bad as Bayliss Wiley.
This design of BW front hub was I think dropped by the mid 50s. There
was a matching rear but I've only ever seen it in fixed form so may not have
been made in a gear sided version. BW survived into the 60s but for how long
I wouldn't know. They produced some very well thought of BBs and hubs from
the 30s through to the 50s which were standard equipment on many bikes.
Hilary Stone