Jan wrote ;
> But what about British hubs? Airlite, Harden, etc. Which are best and
> why? What made them special? I have heard great things about them
> through the grapevine, but never used them.
>
IMHO of course !
Both of course from the post WWII era, the best annular bearing hub, has to have been the original Harden, and best conventional cup & cone hub, the Duralite by Blumfield, at a time when Tullio was still pushing steel barrels and alloy flanges.
Why ?
Hardens (by The Harden Tool & Gauge Co.) circa 1945 to the mid 50s ? for a simple and very effective approach to the application of annular bearings to conventional hubs. The bearings were an interference fit into the all alluminium-alloy shell over a high quality steel spindle. Of particular note were the alloy dust caps not only providing some pre-load on the bearings but also revolving with the spindle in a close tolerance recess in the hub and providing an excellent seal against water ingress. Someone mentioned earlier that they were fitted with oil nipples. For once however, these were actually Tecalemit fittings intended by Hardens for lubricating the hubs with grease only. (Anything else originally voided the warranty). Originally they were supplied undrilled with plain large flanges, but were later supplied drilled, and also in a small flange version. There was a cup & cone version - the 'Flywate' (sp?) that looked similar however these were no better than the tradtional products from the likes of British Hub or Bayliss, Wiley, and of course at a much reduced cost.
T.F.Blumfields 'Duralite' hubs were the high-end of traditional cup & cone bearing hubs in the post war period, and were available in small and large flange versions. Provided with high quality Dural shells, they had almost bulletproof profiled high-quality steel spindles and felt oil seals behind the dust caps, the finish and performance of these hubs is way beyond that of similar hubs of the period. Blumfields are maybe better known for their motorcycle components in particular gear cases, but like Hardens where cycle components were not their core business, they appear to have taken a fresh look at the inherent problems of the traditional hub.
British Hub & Bayliss and Wiley produced lovely looking hubs - particularly the large flange models, but they were the Shimano of the post-war era UK cycle industry. Their products were well made and competent and very widely used, but probably this had more to do with them being the defacto "standard" on the the archetypal 'club' machine, and clever marketing.
Bob Reid
Stonehaven
Scotland