French Hubs: Treasure or trash?
 

I just received a set of front and rear low flange hubs from an EBay auction. Seller description, "These hubs are from a French bicycle. A Follis to be exact. The bike was probably from the early 70's. I do not know what brand they are. The only markings I can find are on the rear hub shell and it says Kalloy 60 60. The skewers are marked BlocG on the quick release handles. They are a sealed bearing. They are 36 holes front and rear. The rear hub is a 120mm rear spacing and the freewheel thread is standard NOT French. The rear hub turns smoothly and the front is a little bit rough. From looking at them they need to be cleaned up but I don't think they have a lot of miles on them. There is some rust on the skewer handles. These are still a decent and usable hubset."

Pics attached. The hubs seem nicely machined, the machine markings are easily visible. Seem rather heavy but nicely done. Definitely not like any Normandy/Atom hubs I'm familiar with.

Any info on the set? Manufacturer? Era? Quality? Worth building a wheel around? They seem almost unique enough to make a novelty component.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Scott

later 70's, might just be Japanese, Kalloy was a Japanese parts supplier, sealed bearings started to show up in cheper stuff in the later 70's 80's. Kalloy seat posts were around, rebranded or made by them would not surprise me.

Those aren't French hubs.

Even French hubs came in standard threading by the mid 70s.
I have a pair of Normandy high flange from a Peugeot of that time.

Look 1980s Japanese to me. Even French manufacturers began to use a lot of Japanese components as OEM equipment by the late 1970s. Often cheaper and also better quality than much of the lower tier French stuff of the era.

Good Kalloy hubs (if there is such a thing) arent as good as an entry Shimano hubs. Those are 80's, possibly 90's era hubs.

Nothing special nothing unique

While the hubs might be from Japan, the QR skewers appear to have a typical French chrome job, i.e., not very good. At first I thought the screw on nuts for the QR was the same as the ones on these Schwinn Approved Mallards, I now see that they are not. Finding QRs in good condition for these hubs took several purchases. Fortunately they were all rather inexpensive.
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...hwinnHFTop.jpg

The straight skewer handles suggest pre-CPSC, right? When was that, around 1978? The 120 mm spacing certainly suggests something earlier than 1990s or mid to late 1980s. Just 2 cents worth of wild speculation.

Send them to me...I'll 'trash-em' for you for free.

I'm guessing the skewers weren't paired with the hubs when new and they're probably 126mm. Some more wils speculation,

Jim

Now that's the most encouraging response I received! If you want em they must be worth something! :)

Scott