Kind of like finding an old baggie of Benotto tape and building a bike around it...
I was stuck for a (reasonably priced/ reasonably light) 20 hole front hub but I wanted something with bearings larger than the 699 size that are popular with light weight Asian offerings.
I found a couple of these Rolf hubs for $10 on you'vegottobekiddingme-bay, and a $7 Dura Ace front spindle. I took everything to bits and had a local machine shop split the hub and turn a sleeve with spacing rib which I then used to reassemble the shell halves properly registered for standard lacing. I used a Loctite Speedbonder structural adhesive to accomplish this. The hub now uses 6802 sized bearings which are buttery smooth and can be adjusted for preload thanks to the Dura Ace spindle.
The weight is not Earth shatteringly light at 120gr, but I think it will be a more durable alternative to the Novatecs that I have been using. The original weight for the hub was 178gr.
I have built this into a Kinlin XR200 with CX Rays and brass nipples (tropical island
) for a finished weight of 614gr.As an added bonus to my inner scrooge, I was able to use the original spindles in building some bike storage.
- Original shell
- Paired holes.
- Finished hub. The dust caps only add 2gr.
- Finished Wheel
- Fork mount for security rack.
G'night all,
Monkeyburger
