At 8:08 AM +0200 8/22/08, M-gineering wrote:
>Amir Avitzur wrote:
>>The rear hub on Jack's tandem is super-high flange.
>>This enables spokes to be changed without removing the freewheel.
>>
>
>it's a drumbrake
On a drum brake, one flange has to be large (to clear the drum). If
you want to get spokes threaded into the other side (from the
inside), you need very large flanges, too. (The alternative is using
keyhole spoke holes, so you can hook the spoke heads into the hole
from the outside.)
>
>>Who made those hubs?
>
>Atom?
It looks like a Maxi-Car to me, an earlier model with round holes.
The front hub is a Maxi-Car Type 2/3 (the tandem hubs were the same
for both types)...
>
>>Did any other company make them?
Quite a few companies made drum brake hubs in the 1930s and 1940s. More recently, Atom and Maxi-Car made them in the 1970s and 1980s.
What Amir initially referred to are the extra-large flanges that Alex Singer and Rene Herse rivetted onto machined-down hubs (usually Maxi-Car) to facilitate spoke replacement and beautify their bikes. One company who made stock hubs with flanges that large was Prior - see the Barralumin bike in the latest Bicycle Quarterly. I am unaware of any problems caused by this design.
Jack Taylor's tandem looks nice - too bad there is no view of the complete bike. Another listmember owns Ken Taylor's tandem - it appears those guys had quite a few tandems between them. All Taylor tandems are pretty cool machines, and ride great.
Regarding the last Taylor, I suspect there are quite a few "last" ones, as they continued to trickle out after the shop closed...
Jan Heine
Editor
Bicycle Quarterly
140 Lakeside Ave #C
Seattle WA 98122
http://www.bikequarterly.com