Since the ‘Posty-Bike’ Honda C90 hubs are almost non-existent this side of the pond, I decided to make a move today and get me some Simson S51 hubs to get me started. Picked up all four, nicely bead blasted and ready to fit out for a princely €47 including Postage! Now all I have to do is to sort out spindle-size, bearings (I want to use Timken taper-rollers if possible) and also sort out which rims and tyres I want to fit. Mulling using 185 x 17s for the rims with 3.0″/80mm tyres with an appropriate tread (nothing too modern, nothing too knobbly!)
Already decided upon is a straight tubular front axle, underslung transverse leaf and ‘dampers’ and long track-rods in a ‘V’ mounted well back to the chassis to avoid the ‘anti-roll-bar’ effect and resultant understeer associated with this setup. Will have to design and have cast (to my patterns) all the bits and pieces apart from the tubes. Let’s see how that goes!
This is sort of the look I am aiming at (apart from the track-rods shown here):
These are the hubs that I bought for €10 each!
Already bead blasted for my pleasure! They will eventually be, with the spokes and rim, all ‘painted’ black. What I have also done is to cut some disks to weld in, so that they are stronger and look ‘cleaner’, as below:
I’m still not sure that I won’t reduce the length of the long spigot in pictures 1 and 4 to enable the king-pin etc. to wander a little inside the hub, so that I don’t need to design in quite so much camber to make the steering lighter… I aim with the steering setup at neutral characteristics, leading to light oversteer if pushed hard. All a question of balance – not to mention trying out in anger!
Still looking to fit Timken taper rollers if I can find a set with the right dimensions…