H: Hubs, Wheels and Tyres Wheel bearings.

[Vincent Brake]

The nylos rings are a bugger to mount. Distort very easy..
Specially with "Loose brake plates".

But a brass one, sealing by 0.1 mm play on the INNER bearing closes it nicely.
The wheel rotates the grease to the bigger diameter, closed there.

Felt is good for a bolar hat.

 

[Stephen Rothera]

An innocent question for you, I know the taper roller wheel bearings are the original fitment but what with the shimming up, greasing etc is there any real benefit these days in keeping them when everyone else in the world uses sealed ball races with no problems. Assembly would certainly be far simpler and cleaner.
Chris.

Out of interest, my Rapide has a frame number suffix "E", which means that it was originally fitted with hubs that contained "a ball bearing in conjunction with a roller bearing, retained by a screwed and split pinned lock ring". These hubs are no longer fitted, but I have never seen any reference, or pictures of, this type of hub either. I wondered if they were only made in small numbers and perhaps replaced with "conventional" hubs in due course? All related to shortages of bearings etc due to the Korean War, I understand. Perhaps other members can enlighten me?

 

[timetraveller]

A member if the Kent and Sussex section has a hub like that but he is not a forum user. I will give him a call and see what information he has.
Just gave him a call but it is only a hub and he has no idea where it came from. Like many of us over the last few decades he has collected stuff 'just in case it comes in useful' and this is such an item. No engine numbers with a suffix 'E' in his stable so no help there.

 

[Marcus Bowden]

I've come across two such wheels, both front and 19" rims, with ball race on R.H.S. and roller LH. Also no "E" suffix on any of my bikes or spare engines.
bananaman.

 

[greg brillus]

Getting back to Chris's question, then yes if making up a special front hub to suit a disc brake, then changing to sealed ball bearings would be a better way.........I cant remember exactly what we did, I think it is difficult to find bearings with the right ID and OD.....I think the OD had to have some thin walled sleeves made and then we made up a new hollow axle with the correct spacer distance in the center and then pressed the 2 bearings into the hub and over the hollow axle that is then trapped between these bearings........It was a one off, so my memory is a little vague, and regrettably I don't have that race bike anymore.

 

[Chris Launders]

I haven't made up a special hub, everything bolts on the standard one, having the taper rollers just made doing it a lot harder and greasier, even after cleaning as much off as possible.
I have previously made several hubs for other projects and it's so much easier working with sealed ball races.

 

[greg brillus]

I used a stock 10 bolt hub on the one I did, but did all the mods required before any assembly of the other wheel components.........I'm pretty sure we machined out the bearing pockets slightly larger, or something to match the available bearing sizes, or sleeve them down to suit.......can't quite remember.

 

[davidd]

I had the bearing pockets machined for the Metric bearing. That would be the 6204, which is just a little narrower than the taper roller of the same diameter and ID, 30204. That is the stock bearing. Both have a 20 mm ID and a 47 mm OD. I planned to use the metric hollow axle as the basis for the spacer.

David

 

[vibrac]

The sidecar axle I mentioned was of course fixed at one end to the chassis and was just the size to slide the inner bearing on then the Vincent hub then a spacer between the bearings a few shims then the second bearing and then washer gubbins and a nut.
At some point I have to fit some roller or Taper bearings into my 52 Triumph Trophy ridged rear end. Not for an engineering reason but for the astronomical cost of a standard taper roller that should go there.

 

[Black Flash]

When I started building my 8 inch brakes, I thought about fitting sealed ball bearings. I was talking to members during the last internal rally and the thought was I was taking it to far away from standard.
As my hubs use 30204 taper rollers and Nilos rings, I could use ball bearings in the future if this did not upset members too much

Bernd