kansukee

BurleyCat

When I walked in to The Bicycle Trip in Santa Cruz in Winter '76 all the bikes I was considering had low flange hubs. When I enquired I was told that high flanges were out fashion.

Feldman

Where I started my cycling, what killed off the cool factor were all the 1970 Masi Gran Criteriums showing up with small flange hubs.

ascherer 

The wheels I built for my International used early 600 hubs but eventually I wanted a modern drivetrain so I got a SunXCD cassette hub. Shimano on the left, Sun right. For that bike, the aesthetic of high flange is a given. All my other bikes are low flange even though I find high flange more attractive.

LDBenjamin

I have a Schwinn Madison from 2008, and it has the works - high flange hubs, a straight gauge, half chrome front fork, and no brazed-on cable guides.

rootboy 

Always thought the round hole Tipo hubs were pretty too

repechage

Faliero appears to be a snappy dresser, long sleeve, neck tie behind the shop apron at the Vigorelli shop.
knew Style.

in 1974 I bought a set of high flange hubs for my first set of race wheels, the low flange hubs were More expensive, by about 10%.
in 1975, the new race wheels were low flange, ( heavier rims too) more important to be there at the finish.

repechage

[QUOTE=rootboy;21108007]Always thought the round hole Tipo hubs were pretty too
[/QU
OTE]

the look has grown on me, has taken decades.
My training set was tipos with 400 gram rims, bulletproof, 36/40.

Mechanicjay

Ah yes, "The proper toque setting is in the arm of the mechanic." Say it out loud with a cheesy Italian accent for the proper effect.

Trakhak

A local racer who won many national and state titles starting in the 1960s, when asked how he decided which setup to use for a given race, said, "If I'm pretty sure I don't have much of a chance in a race, I'll use my lightest equipment. Otherwise, I use the stuff I know I can trust."

seypat

I can't remember if Fonzie's motorcycle had high flange hubs or not. I cannot answer the question.

Miele Man

I've had luck cutting cut spokes really short on the freewheel side of a hub and getting the ends out. The I put in new-old spokes from the inside of the flange but that requires a lot of bending of the spoke which is why i use old ones. Then I lace those spokes to a rim and lace up the opposite side of the hub also with old spokes. A bit of penetrating oil applied from the backside of the freewheel/hub interface might help a lot too.

Good luck and cheers

wawine

Back to the original topic.
I always associated the switch back to small flange as primarily fashion based. As every bike boom, gas pipe Raleigh and Peugeot came with high flange Normandy hubs, they began to be thought of as common and cheap. As the boom faded, manufacturers were frantic to regain market share and ‘updated’ many components and frame details as a last gasp to get customers back with ‘new’ products. High flange hubs, center pull brakes, safety levers, ‘fancy’ lugs (except on really nice bikes) etc. all but faded away as the bike boom faded. The trend was more streamlined and cleaner builds with the flash coming by way of paint and pantograph. Fashion sells products and changes as sales slip.

unterhausen

It would be interesting to see the Campagnolo sales numbers for high verses low flange hubs. I imagine they were dominated by low flange by 76-78 or so. By the early '80s, the Japanese brands were starting to sell their higher end bikes with low flange hubs. Here is a picture of me riding high-low hub in about 1981. That is, high flange front, low flange rear. Also, who rides on the tops?

T-Mar

My recollection is that the mass market trend towards low/small flange hubs started circa 1976 and I've always considered it to be primarily cost driven. During the boom you'd see small flange hubs on the inexpensive models such as three speeds and the budget 10 speeds. Sometimes this practice even extended into the major brands. For instance, in the LBS where I worked during the boom, a Peugeot A08 would have small flange hubs but when you stepped up one rung to the UO8 you got high flange. The base Sekine SHA came through with mid-flange hubs but moving up one step to the SHB/C you got true high flange hubs. High end models from the mass manufacturers were still primarily large flange though small flange was starting to appear on some of the smaller volume brands. As such, for the average consumer during the early 1970s boom, high flange were a status symbol associated with a better grade of 10 speed.

However, in 1975 the boom went bust. Many shops had booked their 1975 orders based on 1974 sales and had lots of leftover stock when sales dropped 50%. Consequently, 1976 orders were going to be down and bicycle companies were looking for ways to cut costs and remain competitive. One method was to spec small flange hubs instead of large flange due to their lower cost. A quick look back to my mid-1970s distributor catalogues shows Record high flange to a ~10% higher dealer cost than small flange. For Tipo it was ~15% difference. While a bicycle manufacturer would have rec'd better pricing, there should still have been a similar difference in relative cost.

Another factor may have been the move towards high performance wired-on wheel systems (aka 700C, though that's a misnomer), which occurred at the same time. With sales dropping, manufacturers were trying to encourage owners to upgrade. The largest market potential was the entry level owner stepping up to mid-range or high end models. However, the big block for many cyclists was the switch to tubulars, with their higher cost, reduced durability and more complex flat repair. High performance wired-on offered a significant performance gain and weight reduction over traditional 27" wheel systems, without the drawbacks of tubulars, though they still didn't match tubular performance and weight. Specifying small flange made them only a fraction lighter, but more importantly had a bigger impact on perceived weight.