Originally Posted by
plonz
Gents, I dusted off my old Expedition project the other day and found the rear hub flange has crumbled apart. Apparently from garage rot
The hub is a 40 hole Specialized-branded hub laced to a decent Super Champion rim. I think Sansin may have made the hub for Specialized?
Anyway, 40 hole hubs do not appear to be readily abundant. I'm looking at a 40 hole Maillard Atom hub off a Schwinn Voyager to lace to the Super Champion. Is this a suitable enough replacement? I'm not as concerned about "correctness" as I am about a decent hub that spins well and withstands the miles.
Thanks all!
Maillard could (and did) make some very nice hubs. I think we (as people 30-40 years down, running into old beat up stuff, running into a lot of the cheaper Maillard hubs and reading horror stories about the Maillard Helicomatic) forget that Maillard was a highly respected company that made highly respected products that were specced on top of the line bikes. As a 40 hole hub, almost by definition, is bound for a touring bike or a tandem, chances are really good that you're dealing with a high quality hub.
For whatever it's worth- I've got a set of the Super Champion 40 spoke wheels laced to Phil hubs- they're the most impeccably spinning hubs I've ever experienced.
And for whatever it's worth, I had a Maillard/Matrix wheelset built for my Trek 400. The front wheel was a Maillard 700 laced to a Matrix rim from my Trek 720; the rear is the Matrix from the 720 and a Maillard 600 sealed bearing hub. It's a nice wheelset.