Classic & Vintage - SA rebel looking for a cause!

Today I won a rare 28 hole AW sturmey archer (no brake, great!) hub on the interweb, just because I really, really dig SA hubs, not because I have a bike to go with it! So I'll guess this beauty will be the start of a new project. I was thinking along the lines of building a modernized English club bike... Or a lighter, faster version of the traditional dutch grand dad bike (north roads, black frame with relaxed frame angles). Any suggestions? go wild in the comments :)

My only comment is the 28 hole hubs were originally made for 20" bikes. It should work well for what you want to do. Roger

The obvious answer would be to go with a lightweight racer since you're using the 28 spoke wheel. The more I consider it though, an ultralight opafiets would be really unique.

Yes I wonder how the 28 hub will stand up to abuse... Luckily I'm quite a light rider and modern rims and spokes are of course a lot lighter and stronger. The only problem is the frame, I probably need a custom frame for it and that will be quite expensive! Or a good way to start in framebuilding :). I 've never seen any bikes that remotely resemble a fast opabike, save for some english 3 speed tourers, but no recent builds. But anyway, build list as follows: cinelli 1A stem, north road bars, some TT levers, Campagnolo crank (daytona, I have a spare one gathering dust), open pro's, brooks B17 saddle, bluemel fenders.

Yes I wonder how the 28 hub will stand up to abuse....

I wouldn't worry about that, certainly not if you go with tangent spokes. Radial spokes would be more likely to rip the hub apart, but I still wouldn't worry about it. It's a steel hub shell, and made to hold an adult rider on a bike plus whatever (s)he's carrying. The only issue the smaller number of spokes might cause would be that 28H isn't enough for the rim. But clearly you're not worried about that, as you say, presumably with good reason. So... no worries!

I wouldn't worry about that, certainly not if you go with tangent spokes. Radial spokes would be more likely to rip the hub apart, but I still wouldn't worry about it. It's a steel hub shell, and made to hold an adult rider on a bike plus whatever (s)he's carrying. The only issue the smaller number of spokes might cause would be that 28H isn't enough for the rim. But clearly you're not worried about that, as you say, presumably with good reason. So... no worries!

Well, the rims have to be bought anyway so I guess I'll turn to the old favourites, Mavic Open Pro's. But thanks for reassuring me that this actually IS a good idea! Now back to the web for a nice frame to put it on.

I'm actually building up the same thing for a friend of mine. His hub came off of a Dahon folder from the 80's. He bought a nos coda hub off of ebay for 5 bucks and I'm going to be lacing them up with velocity razor rims and putting them on his Royale III

I'm actually building up the same thing for a friend of mine. His hub came off of a Dahon folder from the 80's. He bought a nos coda hub off of ebay for 5 bucks and I'm going to be lacing them up with velocity razor rims and putting them on his Royale III

Nice! What kind of bars/brakes/cranks are you planning to put on it?

actually, this bike found on google sort of captures my drift, except that I think everybody who runs a bike without bartape for the urban look is an idiot and everyone who runs drop bars with such a stumpy lever is one as well.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30956457@N07/sets/72157614632292004/

actually, this bike found on google sort of captures my drift, except that I think everybody who runs a bike without bartape for the urban look is an idiot and everyone who runs drop bars with such a stumpy lever is one as well.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30956457@N07/sets/72157614632292004/

I don't know about "urban look". I live in the country ;).

The original Clubman did not have bar tape either. They used the standard grips on a Lauterwaser bar.

I have an FG hub that is going into a Clubman build. Mine is based on a Dawes Galaxy touring frame.

Aaron :)

Good to know that I'm not the only one building a bike like this :)keep us posted!