On Monday I took a quick trip down to the USA to pick up some of the hardware I'll need. The whole importing commercial goods thing was easier than I thought it would be. I've now got a big box of 6902 bearings from Wheels Manufacturing, and some nice stainless German Torx+ bolts from Acument in stock. The bearings are ultra smooth, and the bolts look super classy.
The stainless M8 and M10 axle hardware is on its way as well, but those bolts are being custom made back East, so there's a few weeks lead time left.
I had ordered the bearings and the Torx bolts so early on because I knew I'd need them for testing. I will be pressing these bearings into some anodized sample pucks to ensure the proper fit. I'll also be doing destructive testing on the bolts to determine the max acceptable torque. Just some of the fun things I get to engineer along the way I suppose =]
In machining news, I dropped in on Dennis recently, and the chips are indeed flying. All of the hub blanks have been end milled so they're square, and now they're ready for the lathe. Here you can see one sitting in a nice 3" round clamp on the mill table:
Spring is here and the chips are flying! I can't wait to have these things rolling this summer!
I was looking into other fixed freestyle hubs lately, and found these. It looks like they've got a similar collar as mine, and take 6902 bearings as well. Now, I'm not going to say I invented the fixed freestyle hub, but I'm pretty sure my prototypes caught enough attention that they might have inspired other people to make similar stuff. I guess the main difference here with mine is the ISO mounted cogs, solid flanges, and that mine are being machined in North America. I'm stoked that All City is putting these out really. The bolts are reminiscent of Odyssey BMX hardwware too.
I'm going to wrap this post up with a really interesting link. Its got nothing to do with hubs, but EVERYTHING to do with what's right about bikes. I don't read Swedish, so you don't have to either.. but have a scroll through this thread. It appears that this fellow is making his own porteur bike FROM SCRATCH. I love his rear end alignment jig, wheel truing stand, and general level of creativity. Truly inspiring!
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