New Departure Hub

[MazdaFlyer]

I have an “old” New Departure “W” front hub. I’m curious to find out how old it might be. Cleaned it up some, going to use it with a triple step rim for a ‘21 Columbia bike. I want to keep the patina look though.

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[MazdaFlyer]

Guess I found my answer on the CABE.

Introduced in 1935.


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[us56456712]

I have a lot of these on bikes. The cones wear in from years of improper adjustment but they still work as good as new. I think the problem is that they have no jam nuts to hold the cones. The jam nut is the fork and they tightened up or loosened when the wheel was installed. Kids who predominantly had these bikes had no cone wrenches and just ran them loose or tight. With cone wrenches you can install the wheel and keep perfect play in the cones. Early Schwinn front hubs were the same, probably others too. I put Penetrol or boiled linseed oil on these parts before building the wheel to keep rust from further developing. I had a perfect shiny hub with no guts. I found new old stock axles and cones on eBay.