Portlandjim

I built this front wheel today, using a reproduction Airlite hub I built. This hub is fully made by me, except for the wingnuts. I incorporated sealed bearings, which required minor modifications to the center body and flanges. The center body, axle and nuts are made from super high strength 17-4PH stainless steel. I can't wait to get the flanges back from the anodizing shop. I am doing some in red and blue. The rear hubs are for a 5 speed freewheel. This turned out nice! Jim Merz

I can't seem to share photos!

Portlandjim

bikemig 

Very nice. I have an Airlite front hub that I've been thinking of building into a wheel (with an SA 3 speed rear hub) for a 1950s Claud Butler Jubilee I'd like to build up.

merziac

WOW!

Great work as always, that is fantastic.

I assume there is a rear in the works?

Portlandjim

Yes, I am making rear hubs as well. As I mentioned, 5 speed freewheel version. I figured out why I couldn't add photos, Chrome! Edge works fine. Jim

bulgie 

Hmm, I use Chrome (well, Brave, which is Chromium-based), no problem adding pix. Do you use the "Upload" button? That's how I do it. Opens a dialog with the following choices:

• From URL: Paste a File URL...

• From Device
• Take Photo
• My Albums

But I don't use any of those choices, I just drag the .jpg file from whatever folder it's in on my PC, drop it onto the dialog window.
After a brief delay, the thumbnail appears in that dialog, then you have to click the Upload button in the upper right to complete the procedure. Then the pic appears in-line with my message. You can also have the pic appear as an attachment if you prefer, but I never do that.

Dunno if that's how anyone else does it.

Oh and bravo! on the Airlite repro, super cool, thanks for sharing.

juvela

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WHAT A BEAUTIFUL JOB!

occurred to me that some readers may be unfamiliar with the original product

here are images from the listing at VB




​​​​​​https://velobase.com/ViewComponent.a...=110&AbsPos=36


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obrentharris 

Fabulous work!
I'll ride my Carlton with its original Airlites at eroica California if you'll bring a bike with your reproductions. I'd love to see them in person.
Brent

Bergz

Where do I send my cheque please?

pastorbobnlnh 

We have a C&V member who lives in Israel who also makes reproductions of vintage hubs. Portlandjim you both need to connect! Let me see if I can recall his username and we can invite him into the conversation. I consulted with him about freewheels when he started.

pastorbobnlnh 

Paging amirinisrael

Here's what I'm recalling. Take a look at this thread;
https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...os-needed.html

Big Block

The original Airlite was riveted

(Velobase)
and many variations on the theme at Classic Lightweights

Curtis Odom has also made some beautiful hubs.

Jim Merz, again another superb job with your hubs. It must be immensely satisfying to make and then ride with something you have so expertly crafted.

bulgie 

Yeah Jim is aware — Amir and Jim are both long time stalwarts on CR (Classic Rendezvous).

Amir's interests are wide-ranging. He made me some 23.35 mm "one key release" bolts for old Stronglight cranks, fantastic (probably no longer available, but you could ask)



He also made me some high-precision Cr-Mo braze-on posts for Mafac centerpulls, back when high-quality braze-on posts were not available elsewhere. Back when I didn't have a lathe and couldn't make my own.

For a while he was selling Mafac Raids that he refurbished to better than new, with pressed-in brass bushings, for way less than what the Rene Herse versions go for. Not saying that Herse brakes aren't worth it, but I could never afford them... He's probably all sold out of those too, but you could ask.

Good man to know!

Jim M. has also made me some fantastic parts. Some of my most prized possessions in fact, like my Campy Sport/Gran-Sport-hybrid rear derailer, both pivots sprung, for a very much improved range of gears it can handle, but looks right on a '50s bike.



I'm so glad to know both gentlemen, if only through email. Well, Jim and I have met IRL but it was decades ago.

If you want to see some NOS GREEN anodized Airlites, I have a pair for sale here, sadly low-flange though, not the cool "rotary dial" flanges. I've had them since the '70s but I've been afraid to build them up, too precious. I have a single front large-flange, also NOS, that I guess will go on a bike with a '50s Sturmey alloy-shell IGH with wing-nuts, waiting for the right frame.

Mark B

Portlandjim

One set of hubs that I'm making are going to have polished flanges without anodizing. This rear hub goes with the front one on I shared photos of on the OP. I have yet to make the axle, bearing sleeves and nuts. I think this turned out very nicely! Jim Merz

repechage

Appealing, by the visible assembly shown, replacing the bearings requires flange removal.
a hunch that there is a machined tubular spacer to support the bearing side loads?
or are the bearings angular contact?

Portlandjim

The flanges do need to be removed if one needs to replace the bearings. The objective of making these rare and beautiful vintage hub reproductions was not for utility. It's unlikely the bearings will wear out from the miles I put on my 1946 Holdsworth that I'm putting a set of these hubs on. The rear hubs use 6001 bearings, which are radial contact. I specified 6001 bearings in the Specialized hubs from 1984 or so. Many hundreds of thousands of these hubs were sold, with good results. One simply adjusts the threaded bearing sleeve so there is no preload. All of the vintage Phil Wood hubs used radial contact bearing, with no ill effects. Jim Merz

repechage

thanks. My problem with the Phil design is that pesky to me bit of play at the rim, that and from time to time moving the bike around a Phil hub bed bike makes noise like it has a loose headset. At least the way Phil assembles them.

repechage

Darn this site is wonky lately, cannot edit if I don’t catch the spell corrections- meant to write Phil hubbed bike.

USAZorro

Just curious. What tools does a person need to pull off a project like this?

bulgie 

It's a lathe job. If the only tool you had was a lathe (with all the lathe tooling), that would be enough, but most people would want at least a good solid drill press, if not a milling machine, for the lightening holes and spoke holes in the flanges. A rotary table or dividing head makes it easier to get the holes spaced evenly, but with careful layout those could be done with a regular drill press.

Jim's lathe is CNC (computer-numerical-control) but an old-fashioned manual lathe can do it too. The one hub I made, back in about 1977, was on a clapped-out pre-WWII lathe with a leather belt drive. That hub wasn't pretty like Jim's though!

Mark B

bulgie 

Hi-E hubs had that feature too. I did replace bearings on one once. It came to me as a bare hub, otherwise would have had to unbuild the wheel to pull the flanges, PITA but the hub was free and I was broke.

I think '70s Weyless hubs were that way too.

Mark B

Portlandjim

Mark's reply is right on. I have a dream hobby machine shop, centered around my Hardinge clone toolroom CNC lathe. I also have a Bridgeport clone knee milling machine. Both machines are extensivly tooled, and I have a full range of measuring tools. Mark mentions that one can make bicycle hubs using manual machines. Back in the 1970's I did make some pretty nice bicycle parts including hubs. One advantage with using CNC equipment is once you make the program and set up the tooling, the next part is much easier. And much more likely to be the same as the first part. Back when these Airlite hubs were made, before CNC machines, tracer lathes and Swiss screw machines would have been used. For lager part runs, custom made dedicated machines would be justified. Obviously this strategy works, all the aircraft used during WWII were made this way. But, the setup is time consuming and requres fixtures made by master craftsmen. Making 5 sets of hubs would not make much sense. As if me making 5 sets of hubs does! However, the setup time for making one part on my lathe is not much more than making one part on a manual machine. Compared to making two parts on a manual machine, the CNC machine is night and day better. Most of the surfaces on bicycle hubs are cosmetic, so the accuracy is not so important. But in order to use sealed bearings, the tolerances for the bearing bores and shafts have to be tight. Also the flange to center barrel fit has a tight tolerance. My lathe can repeate to 0.0001", only very good manual lathes with a skilled machinist can do this. Making parts like this helps keep me out of trouble! Jim Merz

USAZorro

Wow!

I have immediately ceased wondering if this super-cool skill and bit of craft is something I'd like to learn/do on my own. I love the appearance of the old Airlite/Harden/Maxi-Car hubs, but for metal items that require such precision, I'll accept that my place will remain cleaning/polishing and lubricating. Now I need someone to disabuse me of the idea of cutting and turning my own spokes.

mpetry912 

they are real pretty parts. Very nice.

Phil Wood worked at FMC in San Jose before he retired and started making hubs. FMC = Food Machinery Corporation. He got the idea for using 6001 bearings (I think a 6003 on the rear drive side) came from using those bearings in conveyor belts and factory systems.

Jim I noticed you laced the front rim 4 cross ? is that 1946 "period correct" ?

/markp

PilotFishBob 

Beautiful work Jim, as always. I have a few of your first gen Campy derailleur cage stops, top notch items - definitely jealous of your machine shop / skills. As an aside, I have a recently acquired 1954 Holdsworth Monsoon sporting wheels I built using Airlite hubs. Beautiful, but unfortunately the front's races are rather worn so it's a tad rumbly. But so it goes.....