Skip to main content
English French German Italian Spanish

Norton rear hub

Trying to find out where this hub originated from its fitted to a Valante 18x2.15 S40 alloy rim with stainless spokes

Its in my surplus to requirements box but have no idea what it’s off. 
cheers

Steve

Permalink

It looks like the standard late 1930s / wartime  hub...Interchangeable front / rear (and sidecar !) on some models, just rear on others.

The 18" rim will not be original spec.

Permalink

Hi Steve, 

The hub fits postwar rigid frames,  prefeatherbed single downtube swinging arm frames and early Model 88's as the milled section for the rear wheel driven speedo drive can be seen in the photo. Most models had 19" rims fitted but some Big 4's of this period had 18" rims. 

Permalink

I'm  fairly certain that there were two types of this hub, usually refered to as the cotton reel hub. While looking similar the design of the two was different.  The early version of the hub had the brake drum/sprocket attached with three heavy gauge rivets, and a one piece axle.  On the later hub the drum was attached using three studs and extended nuts and a two piece axle,  access to these was gained through three holes in the o/side spoke flange.  My friends plunger framed 1950 Model 7 employs the early hub,  whilst my1951 Featherbed has the later hub.   The difference between the two being that my rear wheel is QD and that of my friend's Model 7 isn't..

Permalink

... rear end didn't have a QD wheel as it wouldn't have been rigid enough - the spindle is an essential part of keeping the whole thing (nearly!) aligned. The hub for the plunger wheel has deeper flanges than the rigid QD wheel. The brake drum / sprocket is attached by 3 dowels and 3 studs but is not intended to be removed on a regular basis.

 



© 2024 Norton Owners Club Website by 2Toucans