Re: [CR] dating Normandy hubs

(Example: Framebuilders:Dario Pegoretti)

Date: Sat, 7 Nov 2009 00:19:27 -0800
From: "verktyg" <verktyg@aol.com>
To: donald gillies <gillies@ece.ubc.ca>, <Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
References: <20091107011053.E4D3619D8D@ug6.ece.ubc.ca>
In-Reply-To: <20091107011053.E4D3619D8D@ug6.ece.ubc.ca>
Subject: Re: [CR] dating Normandy hubs


I don't think that the plastic portion of the M.M. Atom screwed on QR nuts were made of Delrin. I always thought that they were some kind of harder thermoset plastics (not remeltable).

We sold a lot of bikes with Normandy hubs and I don't recall seeing the plastic ended nuts until at least 1975. Also the only ones that I saw that broke looked like they had been severely abused.

All of the Normandy Luxe Competition hubs that I remember that had non-removable dust caps also had the conical chrome plated nuts. These usually had the gold foil labels too.

By the time the plastic tipped nuts came along, Normandy hubs had removable red or black plastic dust seals (most often red).

I've seen about 4-5 different shapes of plastic caps on those QRs (including Maillard and Spidel marques).

I've never had any problems with them and those QRs certainly grip better in the rear than a lot of Shimano QRs.

I have some late 60s early, 70s French bikes with these hubs. They are still as smooth running as the best Campy hubs. The problem with the Normandy Luxe Competition hubs was that the cups were hard to clean because you couldn't remove the dust seals plus even back in the day cones and axles were hard to get.

Chas. Colerich Oakland, CA USA


> Here's a Normandy question for the whole list:
>
> Normandy 'Sport' hubs (the ones with the small sub-lima-bean-sized
> holes and flat flanges, sold on low-end raleighs, peugeots, daweses,
> motobecanes, and schwinns) came with an M.M. Atom QR skewer that had a
> gigantic fat chromed QR nut.
>
> Normandy 'Competition' (or 'Luxe Competition') hubs (the ones that
> were campagnolo-like but smaller in diameter, with the larger
> lima-bean sized holes, red or gold foil labels, and the relief around
> the lima-bean holes but beefier spoke area, like campagnolo) most
> often came with an M.M. Atom QR skewer but a delrin nut (which often
> broke after many years.)
>
> Carlton, however, shipped normandy competition hubs with the gigantic
> fat chromed QR nuts.
>
> ====> Did Carlton realize the delrin nuts were bad and special-order
> the low-end QRs with the steel nuts to solve this problem?
>
> ====> Did any other company ship normandy competition hubs with the
> gigantic fat chromed QR nuts??
>
> To the best of my knowledge Peugeot and Motobecane always shipped
> normandy competition hubs with the plastic (breaks-a-lot) QR nuts.
>
> - Don Gillies
> San Diego, CA, USA