Chicago Al 

In a thread on the C&V Valuations forum, there was a reference to Ukai HF hubs being very desirable. Is this true and if so how much better are they than their Japanese competitors?

BTW my 'score' from our big neighborhood garage sale this weekend was a Campy low-flange hub built with an IRD rim. It's a rear with a 7 sp freewheel mounted. Seller said he might have the front...then pointed to the solid wall of crap built up in his garage which it might be behind, somewhere, maybe. There are broken spokes and the rim looks flakey so not much hope there, but the hub feels smooth. No skewer unfortunately. However...not bad for $4.

wrk101

+1 I was waiting for someone else to point this out. Want vintage high flange hubs at a reasonable/low price? Look for a vintage donor bike, such as an old UO8, or a Schwinn Continental. Both came with high flange alloy hubs, with QR levers. Both laced to crappy steel rims, but you can correct that deficiency.

Polish them up, and they could look really good.

suncake

Yeah, they're insanely light (not much over 260g IIRC). Dbakl was gracious enough to let me use them. But they're going on my fair-weather PX10.

suncake

My old UO8 had the "regular" Normandy hubs--I was assuming these fell below what you would call "quality" hubs, but perhaps I'm mistaken (?). In fact, I still have the wheel (steel rim & all) hanging on my wall as a display piece...I think this was the intended use of steel rims.

suncake

The Maillard Normandy Sport? Are they somewhere between the regular Normandy & Luxe Comp, or closer to the ladder?

Grand Bois

Regular Normandy hubs=Normandy Sports.

JohnDThompson 

Agreed. I picked up these NOS Gnutti hubs for less than USD$20:

suncake

Were Gnutti hubs independently made, or are they a rebadged version of another hub?

Ankheg

Absolutely. I spent an afternoon polishing the "Schwinn-Approved" Maillard hubs from a long-dead dumpster find, and they're quite beautiful. I just used a rag and some Flitz, and they wound up barely short of mirror-like. Even if you can't find a donor bike, the hubs themselves are plentiful, and cheap, because of the whole Schwinn stigma...

JohnDThompson 

I'm not aware that they were rebadged from any other source.

ecnewell 

There's a set of Lamberts (Viscount) on eBay for $39: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-lamb...item416529b432

It looks like you could put together a set of Normandy hubs for around the same price if you were willing to buy the front and rear separately.

jyl

I cut the steel rims off my daughter's UO-8 and overhauled, cleaned, and polished the Normandy high flange hubs, they came out very pretty, and are not particularly heavy.

beech333

+1, but they are somewhat hard to find.

redneckwes

I may have to re-evaluate my "castoffs" as every S* (Sunshine,Shimano,ect) Hub just goes into a cardboard box on the parts shelf.

Grand Bois

I'd buy the Lamberts if it weren't for the French threads.

I've given away Normandy Sport hubs. I suppose there's really nothing wrong with them, but they were used on a lot of cheaper bikes. They don't seem to have the soft cones that the Luxe Competitions have a reputation for having and they look pretty good.

dddd

I think that the reputation for "soft cones" or poor bearing metal often results from over-tight adjustments having been made.
Most cup-cone hubs are adjusted far too tight from the factory, something easily verified by clamping the Q-R over a couple of fat washers put on each end of the axle.
As such, I regard the factory bearing adjustment as merely an "inspection" adjustment, or possibly for use during wheel-building on certain older trueing stands (Eldi comes to mind here, as it does not compress the axle with a QR skewer).

Many don't realize just how much that axle bearing adjustment is affected by applying the quick-release pressure, which shortens the axle significantly. This can result in the bearings rolling under way-excessive force, followed by rapid pitting.

Similarly, threaded headsets are often adjusted "to perfection" without a stem quill in place.
Tightening the stem quill then expands the steerer, thus also shortening it and making the bearings much tighter.
I once ruined a 7400-series Dura-Ace headset this way on the first ride, and suspect that many others may have done the same to so many Campag headsets with "soft" bearing races, since normal steerer flex under ride loading rocks the crown race, "pinching" the bearings toward the front portion of the lower raceways.
I should note that before actual riding, however, even a very severe over-tightening of the headset bearings will not damage the bearing surfaces, and many home-mechanics have even used heavy headset tightening as a substitute for headset press tools!

My observation with the Normandy Competition hubs was that some had a very "first cut" look to the rolling surfaces on the cones, with apparently no subsequent fine grinding/polishing whatsoever. Some of these lasted a long time however, and I suspect (from considerable observation) that these were the one's that were adjusted more loosely. The same is true of a lot of the other more mass-produced hubs and headsets.

JohnDThompson 

The seller is likely mistaken. AFAIK, Lambert never made French thread hubs.

dddd

Yeah, the seller claims they're made in France.

Actually they were English-made, and only sold with English Lamberts and Viscounts.

Grand Bois

They're good looking, free spinning, there's virtually no maintenance and you can get them cheap.

Of course they can't be French-threaded. I don't know what I was thinking.

seypat

No mention of the Pelissiers that come up from time to time?