Pete Geurds wrote:
> Not to state the obvious: but they started out as regular 36
> hole small flange hubs with the flanges than riveted on?
[snip]
> This could be a nice little cottage industry for someone.
This is mostly guesswork, but I think in the 50s they didn't have the technology to make all-aluminum large flange hubs. Large flange hubs were most commonly steel hub barrels with aluminum flanges pressed on (Airlite, Gnutti, FB etc).
It seems to me that the all-aluminum body was MaxiCar's and Prior's claim to fame, but they couldn't make a near-net forging with large flanges, due to the limitations of their aluminum forging technology. (Near-net means close to the final shape, little machining needed) Of course a modern-style one-piece large flange hub could be machined from a solid billet, but that would be inefficient and wasteful. I'm assuming that near-net casting was possible but not considered for a high quality part - probably the aluminum casting technology of the time would have resulted in a weak part or one with thick, ugly sections.
So to keep the one-piece AL body and accommodate the fashion of the day for large flanges, Prior and MaxiCar made these riveted-together oddballs.
I'm hoping a real cycle historian can correct this or add to it.
Mark Bulgier
Seattle, Wa
USA