Unknown Hubs
 

I have some hubs that I took off a early 70's Mercier 100 and after a lot of google searching, I cannot find anything about them. They are New Star (never heard of this before), 36H, and are pretty heavy. They spin smooth (after repacking) and the cups and cones are pristine. I'm thinking about lacing them up to a set of CR 18 and using them for touring/commuting. Any thoughts about the quality of these hubs? Thanks in advanced.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4032/...088c1a815c.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2713/...a7ef0579b7.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2682797...n/photostream/

-Dave

[edit by admin to fix photo links]

huh, tried to post some photos, will have to work on that

The original hubs on that vintage Mercier 100 are French Normandy high flange 36H and would have been laced to 27" steel rims with patterned braking surfaces. It sounds like the original wheels were changed out at some point. AFAIK Merciers from that era only used French brand hubs, and I've never heard of a French hub named New Star. Sounds Asian. Are the freewheel threads French?

I have it on the word from the original owner that these were the wheels that were on it when he bought it. That doesnt mean that the bike shop didn't put other wheels on it. They were steel rims w/ textured sides for brakes.

So, what brand of freewheel was on the rear hub?

They look real similar to Pellisier hubs. I suspect that there were other small manufacturers that made something like that. I would guess that they are comparable quality to the basic Normandy hube, and if they roll smoothly it's worth building a wheel around them. They are not as cool as something higher quality, but the the three-piece look is very retro.

I'm not sure what kind of freewheel it is. The photos are here, im having trouble reading the brand logo.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26827976@N08/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26827976@N08/4304791899/

I thnk it reads "Cyclo 64".
Not familiar with the brand. Looks vintage/old to me, pre 80's??

Chombi

OK. AFAIK, Cyclo is a French brand. The important thing is that it is "Made in France", which means it is probably French threaded as is the hub, and the hub is probably French as well, such as Pellisier as Slugo suggested. So, you will either have to use the same freewheel if you build up your hubs into a wheel, or find another French threaded freewheel. Your best bet would be an Atom or possibly a Regina with a French body.

Thanks for the advice. Are the axles differently threaded as well?

Fixed the hub photos for you. :thumb:

I've worked on a few bikes with Cyclo freewheels and they were all British threaded.

Maybe. Thing is, there are variations in axle diameter and thread pitch within nationalities just as much as there are between them. For example, your rear axle could be 9.5mm x 1.0mm or 9.5mm x 26 TPI or 10.0mm x 1.0mm (ISO). Also, there are variances in the curvatures of the bearing cups and cones. So, if you need to replace or use a piece of axle hardware, you are probably best off replacing the entire set.

Were they on French bicycles with French hubs and early 1970s vintage? I have no doubt that Cyclo made freewheels with English/ISO threading, just as Regina made freewheels with French threading, however, it is my experience that French bicycles (Mercier,Peugeot,Gitane) made prior to the early 1970s used French threading thoughout their bikes. The only way the OP can tell will be to try an Engish freewheel, and if it is a sloppy fit, then the hub threads are most likely French. Since the difference in thread diameter is only 0.1mm and the thread pitch is nearly identical, it is near impossible to determine this by measurement.

1. thanks for fixing the photos.

2. I think that the axle may be bent on the rear also, i would need to get a longer one to go to 6 speed as I a almost certain that this hub was made for 120 mm spacing. So if I need to replace it, how would I go about finding cones w/ the correct pitch?

Thanks again, you all have been wonderful help.

also, I found a pic of Pelissier hubs and they look pretty much identical. Thanks again.
http://www.classicrendezvous.com/Fra...ssier_main.htm

-dave

Noah and TT, you're both right. Cyclo, originally Le Cyclo, was a French company. When Britain went off the gold standard in 1931, high duties were placed on imports. To prevent lost sales, Le Cyclo persuaded their British importer to go into partnership with them and establish an English manufacturing facility, Cyclo Gear Co, Ltd.. From that point onwards there were French Cyclo and British Cyclo products. I don't know how long they lasted, but both were still operating during the early 1970s boom.

I don't recall New Star hubs. However, they look like they could part of that incestuous relationship between the Atom, Maillard, Normandy and Pellisier hub lines.

Well, if your cones are still in good condition and you can retain them, I'd first see if perhaps the axle is 10mm diameter, in which case it is most likely ISO 10mm x 1.0mm and should be easy to find. I have two French Normandy hubs with French freewheel threading and they both have 10mm axles.

Yes, they were 70s French bikes. I don't disagree that the hubs may indeed be French threaded, just wanted to put it out there that the OP shouldn't assume they are French threaded.

I think I have some New Star hubs, I'l be back

In case anybody was wondering, I brought the hub to a shop and they guy threaded on a freewheel for me and he felt that it was ISO. Thanks for all the information, you guys know a crazy amount of stuff.

dave

Not to get you worried here, but it is possible to screw an English/ISO freewheel onto a French hub. It will be a loose fit and will screw on most of the way before showing resistance due the very slightly finer French threads (1.000mm vs 1.058mm). Everything will seem fine until you put some hard effort into the cranks, and then strip out the hub threads. I'd only feel confident if you tried a known French threaded freewheel, and it would not thread onto the hub by hand. Remember, there is only a 0.1mm difference in diameter between English and French threads, and 0.22mm between ISO and French.

http://www.prettyshady.com/prettysha...d/DSC_0328.JPG

http://www.prettyshady.com/prettysha...d/DSC_0332.JPG

Here is my front hub, a low flange 'new star'. I can't remember what bike these wheels came from since im away from my regular computer. Intrestingly google seach didn't come up with much when I seached for new star hubs, I found your resquests, and this photo on flickr, (on sale) giving more evidence as to the date these hubs were built.

prettyshady - The hub bodies are steel (magnetic) and not aluminum, right?

Pretty sure its steel, ( can't find a magnet in this house!)

Looks like this thread ended without a definite country of manufacture & quality level of the "New Star" hubs. The pictured hubs are French made and were supplied to Pelissier (and others?). Quality is close to or equal to Normandy hubs of that era.

I just cleaned up a set of high flange New Star hubs that are inscribed "Made in France" and have Pelissier Quick Release axles. Came on a ~1970 Dawes and are laced to aluminum Nisi-Evian rims. The hubs are one piece all aluminum and are a very close match in looks and quality to the Normandy hub. English threading on the rear hub, but has a SunTour freewheel installed instead of the original unknown freewheel.

I know this is an old thread, so no resurrection comments. I figure someone else will do a search and might appreciate more information and pictures on New Star hubs as there is little information (or interest) on the internet.

Enjoy the day!

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=303728http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=303729http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=303730http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=303731http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=303732

New Star hubs came as original equipment on my Steyr Clubman, a mostly English-spec'd, French-equipped, Austrian-built bike from 1972. They say "Made in France" on both hubs.

The flanges on my 5-piece New Star hubs (and the freewheel threads) are alloy.
All 4 flanges are hat-shaped, surrounding the steel cups just like the OP's original photos (but different than Rancho's 1-piece versions above).
The driveside rear flange itself is threaded for the freewheel.

My rear hub is BSA/English threaded. The original Regina Freewheel is stamped F.I. on the back where a thread designation often appears.
Quoting Peter_B from bikeforums: "The older ones are marked with scratched letters "FI" for the Italian words for "fit Ingles" or English. The later ones have a single groove. No marks is Italian thread."

This freewheel threads freely by hand all the way onto an English Sansin hub, so freewheel is verified English-threaded for sure.
TejanoTrackie was right on about the freewheel threads btw. English freewheels usually thread freely onto French hubs, but French freewheels usually only go on several turns and won't go quite all the way without force.

One oddity with my rear hub is that the drive-side cone has no wrench flats! A defect, I'm sure.
I torqued it up against the locknut/spacer stack using big pliers, as the locknuts were found to be loose.

I also noticed that this well-used hub had a perfectly-straight axle, so it was surely made of very high-grade steel. All the bearings were in good shape so were also well-hardened. Adjustment was easy on these.

The solid rear axle is 26tpi, and the diameter is just 6-7 thousandths smaller than either 3/8" or 9.5mm.

The solid front axle is also 26tpi, diameter is again 6-7 thou smaller than 8mm, but only 3 thou smaller than 5/16".
So, consistency between the front and rear axle diameter's "hole clearance" suggests that both axles here are metric sizes (9.5 and 8mm respectively).

I can't speculate as to the threading pitch of the OP's Q.R. axles. They could be 26tpi or 1mm pitch (25.4tpi)

These hubs feel heavy because of their chromed-steel, 3-piece center sections.
Also, the aluminum flanges do not appear to have a machined finish, just as-stamped, so these were low-cost units.
The dust caps are integral with the flanges, so not removeable.

I found another example of the OP's 5-piece hubs, only these say "made in italy" (in much smaller text) on the barrel, instead of "New Star".

No question they are from the same design, it's actually hard to tell them apart except that these newer ones were laced to 1975 Rigida rims (3 years newer than my other set) and have a less outwardly-positioned left side flange in back (which is a dish-reducing design change that also occurred in some of Atom's one-piece hubshells during the same years).
The metal finish is even identical, and the axle threading is similarly 26tpi but there is a faint "BSA" engraving on the integral drive-side dust shield found only on the older (French-made) rear hub.
A letter "R"-dated Shimano freewheel, (similarly English-threaded) was fitted to this later, Italian-made version, part of a wheelset that was originally fitted to a French ORLY-Motobecane.

So there was perhaps some kind of conglomerate having these hubs built in both France and (later) Italy, being shipped back to France.
Or maybe the old factory was simply moved to a place where cheaper labor could be sourced?

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8091/8...c3865d7f_z.jpg

dddd

Your additional info will be read by all who search on New Star along with my additions...one of the reasons I like these forums for historical bike research!

Enjoy the day!

Hmmm......it looks like I will be resurrecting this thread one more time.
A buddy of mine is looking for a rear wheel for his 1979 Canadian-made Raleigh Grand Prix that he recently acquired.
The bike is in pretty good nick EXCEPT someone along the way has replaced the rear steel-rimmed 27 x 1 1/4
wheel with an aluminum-rimmed 700C wheel. The poor GP looks like it's riding uphill when standing still.
The front 27 x 1 1/4 wheel looks like the correct item with a Rigida steel rim dated 1979 and a Normandy hub dated 1-79.
I've exhausted all my local sources trying to find a suitable steel rimmed wheel for him. A big seller of used parts said
I'll be #3 on his list of guys looking for steel-rimmed 27 x 1 1/4 rear wheels !!! Even obscure guys in the loose "network" of
vintage bike guys in Calgary laughed their heads off at my request. Hmmmmm.....I sense a shortage ocurring here.

Now the fun part: I have in my stock of project bikes a 1980 Baycrest men's 10 speed which I posted about
in another thread while trying to identify it. Turns out, it was made in Quebec, Canada by an outfit called
Procycle (and that's a whole 'nother story). A true "department store" bike made for the Hudson's Bay Company group
of stores to cash in on the tail-end of the 10 speed craze. While looking for a suitable wheel for my buddy's GP, I looked
at the Baycrest and, amazingly, it has VERY nice 27 x 1 1/4 steel rimmed wheels with Rigida dimpled rims date coded 1980.......
and 3 piece chromed steel NEW STAR low-flange hubs stamped "Made In France" but no date code.
So it appears that NEW STAR was still in business up to 1980 at least.
Now the question is: do I sacrifice the Baycrest to put his GP back on the road ?? Or go ahead and refurb the
Baycrest and let my buddy scramble around for a rear wheel on his own ?? Decisions, decisions !!!

UPDATE: Well, my buddy Too-Tall Al finally got organized and opened up his garage after getting home from a weekend M/C rally .
We searched through the various spare wheels he has and, lo and behold, there's a rear wheel with chromed steel Rigida rim (no date code)
and a Normandy one piece high flange hub (with no date code). It also had a real almost miniature road race Cyclo 5 cog freewheel on it so
we figured out it must have come from one of the 4 or 5 Peugeot hulks he has hanging around. We tried a Shimano UG 5 cog freewheel on
the wheel to make sure it'll take modern equipment and the Shimano spun on nicely so the hub apparently has modern ISO threading.
It looks like my GP owning buddy will get his back wheel after all and I'll keep my Baycrest intact.......if the OLD works out on this replacement wheel.