I may have a few items of interest to our flangophiles rolling around in the
gruppo vintagisti.
First off let's roll back to the flange size origin.
In the beginning there were hubs, I don't think flange size was even thought
about other than to be of practical use for hub application, ie. standard or
just regular hub with spoke holes. Bigger to clear coaster brake mechanism,
smaller to clear bearing cup sizes.
It's what they made.
The real high flange hubs probably came about sometime in the mid -1930's or
so with Durkopp, Paramount, Airlite, etc.
Also a few hubs were made with the flanges riveted on and raced all over the
world's tracks by the competitors.
I have some pics and maybe even a wheel to show and for sure an old '30's
hub with riveting riveted flanges
I just happen to have a pic of a race in Milwaukee, Wis. on the 1/4 mile
Brown Deer Park track built in 1948 for the Olympic Trials with a bicycle
and wheel in a race with flange rivets clearly evident
The pic(s) I have are from 1949.
I also know who made many of those old 6-Day hubs.
He was a Chicago racer my dad rode against in the 30's.
I think the gent's name was Roehr, will have to look it up.
He had some sort of machine shop and made the flanges, then riveted them on
the BSA , Airlite or other "regular" hubs.
It stiffened the wheel, looked good, and made it easier to change spokes.
All this jawboning about big, large, high, low, small is all too Confucious.
It's just a HUB.
That's standard, or regular. Enough size to clear bearings.
KISS.
Now, if oversize, any adjective will do that makes you happy.
I think it would be nice if we assumed it's a regular hub unless specified
otherwise.
I think this thing about hub sizes probably started in the '50's when our
genius American importers got the large flang hubs from Campy on the bikes
because they cost more, therefore in their best Texas imitation of bigger
and more expensive is better they were specc'd on bikes regardless of
riding or handling knowledge on their behalf.
It probaly actually came about as the larger flange hubs were being
advertised prior (no pun intended) to the start of these bikes being
imported during the '50's.
Looking back at the old catalogues, it would have been a natural progression
to commodity broker bike distrbutors and wholesalers with no real knowledge
of racing and equipment to make this assumption.
Bikes were toys, weren't they?
That was the basic mentality other than the handful of dealers and very few
wholesalers who new better.
The paucity of interest and knowledge of international bicycling was
reality.
If someone in the group would like to post pics of these items on some link
that we all share, I will be happy to foto and scan them along for the
Vinagisti's pleasure.
I like the vintagisti spelling better than vintagistas, the gisti has a much
more romantic sound and roll to it. Much like the Campangolo folks referring
to their tools as instrumenti.
Much more appropriate for the level of our gruppo deportiva.
Just got back from our bike club's annual picnic and awards ceremony. This
was our 50th Anniversary as a club, South Bay Wheelmen, Inc. and a special
occasion indeed.
Members were asking for me to relate a little about bikes when club started,
so I brought along a 1942 chrome Emil Wastyn built Paramount with wood rims
and block chain.
The folks were impressed, especially when the saw how little track bikes
have changed in the last 2 generations, other than materiel and weight.
Always nice to show them our era wasn't totally behind the moon.
Ted Ernst
Palos Verdes Estates
CA USA
> Does anyone actually ride bikes with rivetted flanges on their hubs?
>
> I've collected lots of Grand-Flasque hub photos, but not one of a hub
> built into a wheel, let alone a ridden wheel.
>
> Has anyone seen a photo of a bike with Grand-Flasques?
>
> Amir Avitzur
> R"G, Israel