old_alfie

the leather straps with their ends joined by a screw-back reflector and pressed wingnut that looped around our hubs and were used supposedly for keeping the hubs clean and shiny? They were sold off large cardboard cards that were in every bike shop. And small round reflectors with the screw backs were available on large cards also sold in every Western Auto/gas station/Sears/Wards etc.

As we'd ride the straps would be kept sort of upright by the weight of the reflector and at slow speed made a soft clinking sound as they'd randomly contact a spoke. Never seemed to cause any harm even if they may or may not have been entirely useful.

Hmph, don't even have Tandy Stores anymore or I'd buy a piece of leather and make a few for my nostalgia bikes.
alf

DieselDan

Newer incarnation are using "Livestrong" bracelets, and other cause bracelets, instead of a leather strap.

Homebrew01

Yup, I remember.

I also remember using little tacks to nail my cleats on the bottom of my leather cycling shoes. First you had to ride a bit without cleats so the pedal would make a mark in the sole, showing you where to place the cleat. Quite a project to adjust the cleats back then !!

monogodo

Take an old toe strap and cut it down.

nlerner

I've seen them for sale on eBay as "hub shiners." I have a few in my parts bin, taken off old bikes.

A strong memory from biking as a kid was attaching a playing card to the front fork with a clothespin and having it thwack away as we road down the street.

Neal

USAZorro

Never put that on one of mine, but I have them on the '39 Gazelle that's at the bottom of my project stack.

Little Darwin

I remember hub shiners, and playing cards.

I thought of playing cards a few times recently... when I watched Stephen King's "It" a few weeks ago "Bicycle playing cards"

Then, one of my favorite finds recently was an old bicycle item.

It is a manufactured equivalent of a card in the spokes caled a cycle-putter (I think, it is something close to that, I'll have to look later) but the main reason I got it was it was manufactured by Darwin...

Now I have the box sitting on a shelf in my dining room with the device in it, and I am thinking about mounting the putter to my Corvette when I start riding it in the spring.

Does anyone else have any old bike trinkets from the Darwin company? Wanna trade?

top506

Never used the store-bought kind, but I did loop a length of clothesline and wrap the ends with black electricial tape.
Second or third year of riding a ten-speed I learned it wasn't 'cool', so I cut 'em off.
Top
(medium-old oldtimer)

Noah Scape

Remember!... Heck, I'm currently using them on some Phil Wood hubs that I used for touring in the 80s. Lots of weather brought on some rusting and pitting. I used an old thin leather belt... no reflector.

dbakl

I remember them, and putting a Mickey Mantle card to the seatstay, plinking on the spokes...

mswantak

An underinflated balloon made a better, throatier sound.

astrodaimler

When I started, I had to nail my cleats down. Maybe I didn't know back then or was too poor but eventually, I started getting shoes that had screw cleats.

I never did like those hub cleaners. They always make me mezmerized when I'm riding behind someone with it.

monogodo

My uncles did that with my dad's baseball card collection after he left home for college (he's 12 or 13 years older than they are). Of course, they only used the cards that they knew the players, so all the cards that would have been worth something someday were destroyed.

new_dharma

i have many packages of the plastic 'hub shiners' with reflectors...I have a few old leather ones (I usually make my own from scrap leather and 1/4" SS nuts & bolts.

John E

I never used them, but several of my friends did.

frameteam2003

There also great at taking off all the chrome on your hub--just add a drop of oil and they pick up enough grime to sand the hub smooth--I have a wonderful new departure model A with no chrome in the center section---sam

ollo_ollo

I remember both. The hub polishers had little reflectors where they fastened. As to playing cards in the spokes, my buddy & I came from clothespin rich families, we put them on both sides front & back! This was about the time we stripped off the fenders & painted our bikes orange & black with Testors model airplane enamel! (actually they were already black, we just added orange trim & wrote "Captain Midnight" on the top tube) Don

Rabid Koala

I had some of the Hunt-Wilde hub shiners back in the sixties, used on my Huffy sting ray knockoff. For some reason I liked those little reflectors. I kept them long after the straps broke.

charlisity

Thats great. I hadn't thought of Captain Midnight in ages. He's well before my time (I'm 34) but I grew up with a brother that seemed to be reincarnated from the 1930's. He had recordings and I got into it too. I had the black and orange bike too. I had the cards in the spokes but I had the Skyway mags so they sounded different. When I was feeling more motivated, I ran over a soda can so it would stick to the front tire and make me sound louder.

Thanks for that moment. I need a drink and a phone call to my brother.

n4zou

They're still available here.
https://www.bikeworldusa.com/product_...roducts_id/100

ilikebikes

Heres a set of hubshiners I made myself, I also added a pic of a rare French frame, no matter how hard I look I cant seem to find a frame like this?

bikingshearer 

When I started riding semi-seriously around 1973, a LBS would rivet those old TA cleats on. Worked great.

tolfan

is that what those things are? I have taken a few off of asorted old bikes, didnt know what thay were. I do have bell bottum clips so your bells dont get cought in the chain. Also the most unsafe child seat ever made, its a small seat that bolts to the top tube and foot pegs that bolt to the down tube, share the handlebars I guess. Oh and I had a frame very similar to that in my younger days, still miss it from time to time.