Tuesday, September 16, 2008

FB hubs



Here we have a couple of FB hubs. I got them in from a customer that wanted them swapped to bolt on axles rather than the quick release set up they had. There were some beautiful vintage Campagnolo quick releases equipped and the customer thought they were Campy hubs.

Being of inquisitive inclination, I had to look them up. Turns out "FB" is not part of Campy but another company, Fratelli Brivio. Still Italian(Never guess from the name), these are some very cool vintage track hubs. They used a three piece setup with alloy flanges and a steel hub. These hubs probably date to around the mid thirties(Pretty cool).

I beleive these had been converted to QR at some point using old slotted axles, cut down(judging from the hacksaw marks) and a mish-mosh of cones and spacers. Altho it is possible they came with Campy butterfly QRs. I am redoing them for use in a track frame. I will be using stainless axles and replacing cones with modern parts as needed. The rear axle is 9.5x26 and I went thru Wheels Man. for the cones(and the axles). I will also need to set up the spacing but I need to get the frame, BB, and crank for that.

It is really great when this vintage stuff comes thru. Here are a couple more pics at Classic Rondezvous

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi, those FB hubs date from post 1953, 1953 was their first year of manufacture and FB manufactured Campagnolo hubs with identical design but a different logo on the barrels. The Campag hubs were generally QR supplied but the FB hubs normally came with a very good quality solid and slotted axle, identified by the letters FB on the axle and a small drilling in the end of the axle. Also the cones had the year and the letters FB stamped into them, -very high quality pieces. The FB track version has a Campagnolo thread lock ring as does the Campagnolo one.

NICE!

Anonymous said...

Hi, those FB hubs date from post 1953, 1953 was their first year of manufacture and FB manufactured Campagnolo hubs with identical design but a different logo on the barrels. The Campag hubs were generally QR supplied but the FB hubs normally came with a very good quality solid and slotted axle, identified by the letters FB on the axle and a small drilling in the end of the axle. Also the cones had the year and the letters FB stamped into them, -very high quality pieces. The FB track version has a Campagnolo thread lock ring as does the Campagnolo one.

NICE!