Slotted rear hub a la Maxi-car

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Bendo
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Slotted rear hub a la Maxi-car

Postby Bendo » Mon Sep 24, 2018 3:24 pm

I came close to forking out the $$$ for a NOS Maxi-car touring hub but the dealbreaker in the end wasn't the price (which is really quite reasonable compared to what some people pay for new high end gear) but the French thread.

So when this NOS Suzue hub came up I thought it could be an alternative. The hub itself is beautiful, and lighter than the Specialised sealed-bearing LF hub I was already running. But I couldn't work out how to imitate the keyholes. Because it wasn't until I had the Suzue hub in my hand that I realised the Maxi-car has half as many drive-side holes for spokes as normal: each 'keyhole' services two spokes. The Suzue has the normal number of holes.

I was speaking with Jesse Geisler about it and he took it on as a challenge. He devised a way to achieve a similar outcome, i.e. a hub that allows the rider to remove a broken spoke from the drive side without removing the freewheel first, by creating a v-shaped path for removing the spoke head. Of course it meant creating tooling to safely cradle the hub while it was being machined, but now here it is! It has a NOS Suntour 888, 5-speed freewheel (14-30t) driving it and it's a bloody beauty.

I'm still yet to take it on a journey that might test this new functionality, but one day... :) b

Image20180923_112852 by 弁慶, on Flickr
Last edited by Bendo on Mon Sep 24, 2018 5:43 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Bendo
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Re: Slotted rear hub a la Maxi-car

Postby Bendo » Mon Sep 24, 2018 3:26 pm

Image20180923_112355 by 弁慶, on Flickr
It kind of matches the flange profile of the Son dynamo on the front.

New tyres are on order...

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ldrcycles
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Re: Slotted rear hub a la Maxi-car

Postby ldrcycles » Mon Sep 24, 2018 6:05 pm

Very nice, what derailleur have you got on it?
"I must be rather keen on cycling"- Sir Hubert Opperman.

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Bendo
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Re: Slotted rear hub a la Maxi-car

Postby Bendo » Mon Sep 24, 2018 9:35 pm

ldrcycles wrote:Very nice, what derailleur have you got on it?
http://www.disraeligears.co.uk/Site/Sun ... style.html

Image20180923_112444 by 弁慶, on Flickr

Image20180923_112438 by 弁慶, on Flickr

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ldrcycles
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Re: Slotted rear hub a la Maxi-car

Postby ldrcycles » Tue Sep 25, 2018 7:02 am

I thought the cage looked familiar, I had a short cage Cyclone on a few different bikes until the tension spring snapped, they are lovely derailleurs.
"I must be rather keen on cycling"- Sir Hubert Opperman.

Road Record Association of Australia

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find_bruce
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Re: Slotted rear hub a la Maxi-car

Postby find_bruce » Tue Sep 25, 2018 12:05 pm

Bendo wrote:Image20180923_112852 by 弁慶, on Flickr
I am wary of putting holes in aluminium due to introducing stress points & its property of tearing under tension ... but in this case it looks like a good design where the larger hole to get the spoke head out should help minimise any stress points there
It doesn't get easier, you just get slower

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Bendo
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Re: Slotted rear hub a la Maxi-car

Postby Bendo » Tue Sep 25, 2018 2:06 pm

You're right that it's an untested design and so could be prone to failure. OTOH this is not a DIY job and the guy who did it is highly, highly knowledgeable about bikes and engineering. One of the very few I would have trusted to take a drill to this hub! b

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Thoglette
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Re: Slotted rear hub a la Maxi-car

Postby Thoglette » Tue Sep 25, 2018 3:11 pm

All in all a very nice bike. Did you build it up or is that "off the shelf" somewhere?
Stop handing them the stick! - Dave Moulton
"People are worthy of respect, ideas are not." Peter Ellerton, UQ

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Bendo
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Re: Slotted rear hub a la Maxi-car

Postby Bendo » Tue Sep 25, 2018 10:03 pm

Thoglette wrote:All in all a very nice bike. Did you build it up or is that "off the shelf" somewhere?
Thanks Thoglette. There was a lot of planning in this bike. The headlight and dynamo hub were built up for its predecessor (a mid-level Jo Routens randonneur that was too small for me). Most of the parts were collected over about a 6 or 7 year period. Some were new, some NOS and some in good used condition.

ImageDSCF3874 by 弁慶, on Flickr

The frame itself was ordered direct from the workshop. I think the usual way to order a Toei in Japan, or at least your first one, is via a specialist bike shop. But I knew of people who had visited the workshop and I had rung Yamada san to let him know I wanted to visit and order a frameset. As a first-time customer he would probably not have taken my order over the phone or via email anyway. So I went to Tokyo and sat down with him to draw up the order sheet. I paid my deposit of around a hundred bucks, then he said, "Come back in two years." So I did and here we are! b

ImageDSCF3897 by 弁慶, on Flickr

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rifraf
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Re: Slotted rear hub a la Maxi-car

Postby rifraf » Thu Sep 27, 2018 1:57 am

Nice looking ride :!:

Where you going to take it :?: :)
Surly Ogre, Extrawheel trailer.

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Thoglette
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Re: Slotted rear hub a la Maxi-car

Postby Thoglette » Fri Sep 28, 2018 2:15 pm

Bendo wrote:So I went to Tokyo and sat down with him to draw up the order sheet. I paid my deposit of around a hundred bucks, then he said, "Come back in two years." So I did and here we are!
That's commitment. :D

But a great experience as well. And clearly a great outcome.
Stop handing them the stick! - Dave Moulton
"People are worthy of respect, ideas are not." Peter Ellerton, UQ

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Bendo
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Re: Slotted rear hub a la Maxi-car

Postby Bendo » Sun Sep 30, 2018 11:28 pm

rifraf wrote:Nice looking ride :!:

Where you going to take it :?: :)
Well at the moment it does faithful service as my main commuter. So currently it lives a very urban life.

When I get more time I'm looking to take it on camping trips within riding or train-ing distance of Melbourne. Perhaps one day I'll take it 'back' to Japan. I love the idea of rinko-ing it to an onsen area and spending the days riding and the evenings drinking sake or shochu in old ryokan, soaking in volcanically-heated water... b

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