Vintage Middleweight Bicycle Hubs

Video Transcript

"The hubs on a middleweight bicycle are not that different than today’s bicycles. The front hubs are very simple, they have ball bearings, generally the bearings are in a race, which means you take apart the hub and the bearings are not going to spill all over the place, because they’re in like a little cage. They generally will not have any kind of oil servicing port on the front hubs, and on the rear hubs, you don't generally find an oil servicing port either. On this bike, it happens to have a Comet rear hub. It's a single speed coaster. This does have the rear oil port, which is a little unique of bikes of this era. The brand of the hub on a middleweight bicycle will generally be, well this is a Comet, which is not that common. Most likely it's going to be a Bendix, possibly New Departure, New Departure was still building hubs when middleweight bicycles were produced, and sometimes the hubs will be a Perry. This bicycle as I said, it's a single speed, has a coaster brake and in a moment we'll go into details about how coaster brakes work. Thirty six holes in the front, thirty six holes in the hub and the front, and in the rear are standard for cycles of this era."