# New Departure Model _ question



## Rus Tea (Aug 5, 2009)

Does anyone know when the various rear hubs were mfg. by New Departure?  Can you get an approximate date of a bicycle from the hub model?


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## JRE (Aug 5, 2009)

Morrow hubs yes. Not sure about the other hubs.


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## Andrew Gorman (Aug 5, 2009)

It's a murky history with some overlapping.  Someday I'll have a couple of days to spend in a big library and try to puzzle something out. From my limited experience, Corbin hubs were made until  roughly World War 1.  At some time they started making the Corbin "New Departure" brake.  New Departure Model A hubs seem to show up on 28 inch singletube 1920's bikes.  I've never seen a New Departure Model B, and the Model C is almost identical to the Model D, and according to the 1938 Island Cycle Supply Catalog, my guide and comfort through this vale of tears, parts are interchangeable.  1933 sticks in my mind for the introduction of the Model D, which remained in production  until the end of the 1950's when New Departure got out of the hub business.  The tooling was bought by Mattatuck who made a slightly modified model D as a Mattatuck until 1961 or 1962 when they in turn got out of the business.
Dating a bike from the hub can be hard, since original hubs wore out and were replaced, usually with the ubiquitous model D, or whatever hub was laced into a use-able wheel.  . Or older hubs could end up replacing those on later bikes.  Morrow hubs have a date code, but those are the only American hubs that I know of that do.  I'm sure others have better information- I've just been thinking about this for a while.


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## sensor (Aug 5, 2009)

there may be more than i know of but heres what ive seen so far.......
model A,model C,model D,and model DD(2 speed)


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## AntonyR (Aug 5, 2009)

Model D hubs can be dated within a few years by the brake arm, assuming it's original to the hub. It was like the C arm at first with a finished edge in chrome, reading New Departure Model D, then a few years later it was the same arm reading New Departure Brake, Prewar '40s came the unfinished flat edge arm with the previous script in chrome, Wartime it was this arm/script, painted black, then postwar the same flat edge arm read NEW DEPARTURE, all block letters, non chromed. The D shell is definitely different for '30s and '40s+, as seen in the flange length. A postwar driver wont fit a '30s shell, but the older will fit the newer. The sprocket locking nut also changed, but the chances of it being original is a lot less.


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