1958 Hawkstone rear brake plate -WANTED

[David Muir]

Need the above for my Hawkstone-currently got a cable type brake plate in place(bike not running/mobile at present). Thanks

[johnrunnacles]

Why change the brake plate, David? How is your present brake plate any different from the standard one for a rod operated system?

[David Muir]

The brake plate torque arm doesn't ,currently, reach the bracket on the swinging arm. Would be interested just to look at another but don't know anyone with a Greeves 'up here' (rural Perthshire). Will be posting photos soon (hopefully!).

[David Muir]

Clearance between both sides of wheel and swinging arm is marginal-maybe this is normal. Photo showing swinging arm width is deceptive-measurement is about 7 and 1/8" . Is that normal? [ clearly I've removed the torque arm in meantime]

[johnrunnacles]

I see the root of your problem now, thanks David. What you have there is a DOT brake plate. DOT and Greeves both used a similar size British Hub but DOT opted for cable operation whereas Greeves was rod operated, hence needed a different pattern of brake plate. Swinging arm is correct width for the Greeves Hawkstone at c 7&1/8". Clearance for the hub you have is indeed minimal in the swinging arm. The (flat) torque arm for the brake was welded to the periphery of the brake plate so needed no more space from the s/arm than was taken up by the brake plate itself. Also, it does look to me like you may have the pie-crust rear hub which was produced for the later Hawkstone than that of 1958, which may have "thrown" the chain-wheel further out than did the earlier finned Hawkstone hub (?)
Hope all this is clear? PM me if I can help further.

[David Muir]

Thanks John for all that info. Reckon I'll make up a torque arm and weld it to the brake plate and just go with the cable operation which I think is superior.(won't be using standard footrests). Not really clear on difference between paddle and pie-crust......were the fronts all the same?

[johnrunnacles]

Fronts were all cable operated (obviously!) and with similar pattern brake plates, David, except that the anchorage point may have varied as time went on.

[David Muir]

Hi John, was meaning-did the fronts also have paddle & pie-crust options?

[johnrunnacles]

No, David. Pie-crust was to give improved stability and stiffness to the chainwheel with the increased output from the more-highly-tuned scrambles engines. Pie-crust still had the paddle fins, as does yours, so the two descriptions are not mutually exclusive when referring to the Hawkstone rear hub.