[CR]Toronto Report - There's No Hockey Night in Canada so we invented Hub Night in Canada

(Example: Framebuilding:Restoration)

From:
To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2004 19:08:11 -0500
Subject: [CR]Toronto Report - There's No Hockey Night in Canada so we invented Hub Night in Canada

HUB NIGHT REPORT - AKA The Morning After

In the Hub World I could start with AB and end with Zipp, but with each letter of the alphabet comes one, two or sometimes more manufacturers and before long you come to realize that what you're looking at is "engineering marvel and eye candy", allow me to explain.

Wednesday night was a real treat, Mike Barry organized a memorable evening, Mike was joined by Glen Norcliffe. Glen is an avid cycling "enthusiast" a man has spent many years studying the history of our sport, his era of expertise is mostly termed "Victorian" which places him deep into the realm of the 1860's to the early 1900's. On "Hub Night" Glen graciously shared his insight of the Victorian era and deeper into the dawn of cycling, his topic "The engineering of wooden hubs". Glen and another fine Canadian cycling fanatic Ron Miller are (re) building the first bicycle, an 1819 Hobby Horse, (aka drazine). Now you might wonder what this has to do with "Hubs" but think of it in this manner, many hundreds of "Hobby Horses" were built, but the evolution of the bicycle stopped after it's introduction for a period of almost 50 years. Why 50 years? (the opinion of our guest) The combination of social reaction to "these enthusiasts" (sound familiar) and Hub design.

Let me share with you more of the discussion concerning the latter, The Hobby Horse used no drive mechanism ("dead axles") and the engineering of a suitable pedalling system had a very "slow organic like" evolution. Combined with the social reaction to rider behavior (did I hear "ponce") and the fact that "riding the rail" amid poor road conditions not only slowed a man's speed on the carriageway but also the growth of his family.

Glen brought with him to Hub Night two hub assemblies he had commissioned, with the aid of a wainwright from the nearby Mennonite community. The Hobby Horse Hub "dead axle" assembly with 10 radial spokes and a "Live Axle" Hub assembly with offset spokes. The discussion of hub friction (or longevity) showed some ingenuity to reduce friction on the part of our modern day duo ( Glen & Ron) and left us imagining how well hub assemblies may have endured in the 1820's. Well the 1860's brought a better alternative that was aided by the development of better hub shell design using offest spokes, the "live axle" allowing a drive mechanism and the "ball bearing" to deliver durability.

If you would like to see photos of the wheel assemblies please visit: http://community.webshots.com/user/wxxxxxjolly

Well as the evening progressed so did our history lesson, but now with a distinctly Vintage Lightweight flavor, Mike Barry organized literally 80 years of hub evolution, (British, American, French, Japanese and Italian) for our edification, (I will reserve identifying all the hubs on display but there are two photos of Mike's collection in the above photo album). Most of the time was spent passing rounds these various marvels with the notable discussion of "helicomatic" technology and why the French should rule the cycling world and not Italy or Japan, Mike also performed an interesting demonstration with his Cinelli sporting it's "bivalent" hubs, showing us the removal / installation process and the unique self alignment features.

And as always the evening sported a few notable vintage bikes, brought in for the event, such as; Peter Cridland's "Bad in Black" Taper Tube Gillott and Mark Hukezalie's "Lovely Vintage 1951" Bianchi direct from Italy. Thanks Peter, Thanks Mark, Beautiful Bikes !!!!!

Click the link for the photos: http://community.webshots.com/user/wxxxxxjolly Look for Hub Night... Enjoy the photos.

Mike on behalf of the group thank you, let me be the first to say that Hub Night truly rounded out our cycling education.

Topic for our next gathering on December 15th... "Nothing New Under The Sun" by Peter Cridland

Wayne ( All spoked up about Hub Night ) Jolly, Toronto Canada