ColonelJLloyd 

Does Royce have a website?

robatsu

Well, I would post it, but after the grief you gave SoreFeet for not using google before dissing Berthoud.

Ok, fine, here it is https://www.genisysconsulting.co.uk/royce-uk/hubs.htm

ColonelJLloyd 

I did, but purposefully ignored that link assuming it was a marketing website. My mistake.

How about buying the domain name "www.roycehubs.com"? Seems like a no brainer to me unless they produce as many hubs as they can or want to already.

rat fink

This build is going great. I love those hubs!

It's okay Keith, it now resides on my Schwinn Peloton.

robatsu

Honestly, I get the impression that there about 4 guys working there. I called them once on the phone, it was like somebody's no good sister-in-law answered. Quirky, eccentric place, supremely British in some old school mode, they also are world famous for their pedal car hubs.

rekmeyata

Yes, see: https://www.genisysconsulting.co.uk/royce-uk/hubs.htm

Oops, sorry for the extra post, I didn't see someone got it for you.

robatsu

Just playing around in the garage, the Colonel will be glad to hear my report that the Shimano M732 brakes will work, even with the stock pads. This is on a 23mm wide rim. Thinline pads, like some nice koolstops will further improve the adjustability situation, although it seems ok as it is. Sorry for the fuzzy picture...

ColonelJLloyd 

Cool. I received the NOS set today. They are mint. What size tire is pictured, robatsu?

robatsu

28mm Pasela Panaracer Tourguard.

Did you get a bikes worth or a wheel's worth? You really only need this for the front. You still have to be careful w/the back, but the situation is not as bad there, the posts are more widely spaced.

ColonelJLloyd 

It was a bike's worth.

robatsu

That was a rockin' good deal for $50 then. I paid $90 per bike's worth, free shipping from benscycle.net, and I was happy to get them. These are spiffy because you can adjust the spring tension and balance the arms, some of the earlier model Deore brakes, sorry, too bad, on that point, gotta start bending springs & crazy stuff like that.

Here is another hint for these brakes and other similar shimano. The black toe-in adjuster is pretty neat, but after some usage, it gets dented by the brake pad post, so you can't really then adjust the toe in - the dent will capture the post. Put a metal washer on top of it to distribute the load a little, will preserve the plastic toe in adjuster.

ColonelJLloyd 

Awesome. Thanks for the heads up!

robatsu

One last thing - is the hole in the fork crown, you know, where a caliper brake would go, is it threaded on your 620. It is on mine, but it wasn't on my previous one.

Road Fan

Robatsu, I have a 610 and a 620, neither of which is threaded. I think somebody tapped yours, for some reason.

ColonelJLloyd 

I don't even have the frameset yet. I'll have it next week. It'll be a ground-up build. I've never heard of a threaded hole in the fork crown. I wonder if a previous owner tapped it. Is it 5M or 6M?

This build is for my dad. It'll be the only bike he has and will use it for exercise and hauling a few things from his house to his shop. I think the paint is in pretty bad shape and will warrant a powder coat. I'm considering an off-white, 700x35mm tires, aluminum fenders, triple, 8sp cassette hub, vintage Deore derailleurs and brakes, Soma Oxford bars and thumbies. It should be a bike to last him until he gives it to a grandson.

robatsu

I sort of doubt this, because the standard unthreaded hole is larger than this threaded one. At least I think it is.

robatsu

Ok, I just went out to the garage to double check - It is threaded 6m. Usually these fork crown holes are big enough to allow a 6m bolt to slide through. However, this one doesn't even really allow a 5m to slide through, you can start jiggling it in, but it is clear it is hitting a lot of threads, I'm not sure I could put is all the way through. So if this was threaded after the fact, it was a pretty small hole to begin with.

Also, unlike I thought earlier, the threads in the front hole and back hole are coordinated. I thought this wasn't so at first, but after I cleaned everything up and got a little braver, I was able to screw a bolt from the front all the way through the rear hole. This definitely suggests that this was a shop job rather than a home guy with his hand held tap/die set.

I wonder if somebody special ordered it? It does seem pretty handy for bolting on fender mount and such.

ColonelJLloyd 

That's odd. What would you mount to the rear side of the fork crown tapped from the inside of the crown?

robatsu

Well, now it turns out I can screw the Nitto M12 rack all the way on through both holes. That is going to be one securely mounted front rack, that's for darn sure.

Very odd. I pinged the vintage trek site owner asking if he has any insight.

Road Fan

Just to look back at Vintage-Trek tubing specs for 1984: Trek in the brochure claimed the main tubes of the 531cs set and the 531c set have the same wall thicknesses, while the 531p was thinner. The 660 and 760 were respectively 531cs and 531p, and those were different, with the p being thinner than the cs. The 620 was also specified with 531cs main tubes, while the 720 had 531st main tubes.

robatsu

Another Trek 620 owner makes the shocking discovery that his fork crown is threaded exactly like mine (undersized hole threaded to M6) while trying to install Nitto M12 rack. A mid 80's Trek 850 owner pipes up that, hey, his fork crown is threaded the same way.

Skip Echert of Vintage-Trek.com reports he's never heard of this, finds it quite interesting, as he does all things vintage Trek, then offers that perhaps some leftovers of a special order of fork crowns to some specialty guy somewhere perhaps got mixed into a mid 80's order to Trek.

The Golden Boy 

Mine is threaded as well.

robatsu

What model & year do you have?

The Golden Boy 

The 85 620 I got the day after you got yours!

robatsu

Oooh, righty-o. Well, lucky you, one of the rare "threaded fork crown holes" variants... But maybe this won't turn out to be so unusual once people start looking at their mid-80's trek fork crown.