# Fun With Antique Fixie Hubs



## Larmo63 (Aug 3, 2012)

*Never mind*

NEVER MIND.....


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## slick (Aug 3, 2012)

Very kool. I think you are thinking of the ND model R. It looks like this and is a fixie also.


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## Larmo63 (Aug 3, 2012)

I'd love to get this sprocket off, I think it will index a Model A.....

Then re-nickel plate it.....?   Sexy......


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## chitown (Aug 3, 2012)

"R" is for Road, not Racing according to this ad:


View attachment 60048


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## bud poe (Aug 3, 2012)

chitown said:


> "R" is for Road, not Racing according to this ad:
> 
> 
> View attachment 60048



*
Thanks for posting this ad. Do you know what year this catalog is from or about when ND started offering these?*


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## slick (Aug 3, 2012)

Good question Bud. I'm qurious also. So he has the facts on the Racing hub? I figured any fixed might be racing? How many regular bikes had a fixed gear pre 1920's?? Lots of accidents i assume? Just like the new fixie guys but the roads were horrible back then!


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## Andrew Gorman (Aug 3, 2012)

Racing this, racing that...  It seems like anyone who has an early diamond frame thinks it's a racing bike.  Anything with a fixed rear hub is a racing bike.  And an early bike with dropped bars HAS to be a racing bike.  And if the headbadge says "Racycle" damn straight and darn tootin', Major Taylor himself  rode it at Madison Square Garden! Sheesh.  Racing bikes are and always have been very specialized machines, and racers have always been picky about what parts they used.  There were  a lot of retro-grouches in the teens who stuck with fixed rear hubs because they were what they were used to for everyday road work.  Where there were serious cyclists, like England  they were available until the 1960's. Look through old catalogs and any serious race machine from the 1930's had European components, usually BSA. Even Emil Wastyn who built the early Schwinn Paramounts used BSA bits because they were the perceived best available, the Campy of their day.  For a high quality bike, New Departure was the OK Taiwan parts of the day.  There are people who like fixies today- ask some kid dressed like a  gas station attendant with a chain drive wallet- but those are not racing bikes, never were and never will be.   I'll stop now.


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## chitown (Aug 4, 2012)

*Ad Taken from 1918 catalog*



slick said:


> I figured any fixed might be racing?




Nope, just an "regular *old style* rear bicycle hub" according to the ad.

I think it's funny when they go on to say how they are "in frequent demand by riders who are unfamiliar with the _modern_ coaster brake rear hub and prefer the ordinary rear hub."

So there you have it. The coveted ND R hub is just a regular, old style, ordinary rear hub. Not to say they aren't cool or anything like that. Because we all know how important the cool factor is.

Thanks for the perspective Andrew. I found it very informative and very humorous.


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## sam (Aug 4, 2012)

I'd love to get this sprocket off, I think it will index a Model A.....

spoke it up one side and use a chain whip--or on that cog use a monkey wrench!


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## ejlwheels (Aug 4, 2012)

I've put hubs in a vise between 2 scraps of wood and used a 2' pipe wrench (with wood scraps again) on the sprocket.
Spray it or soak it in WD40 (or similar) first and leave it overnight.  I done several with no damage.


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