Arrangement of spacers etc for my Hawkstone wheels

[iansoady]

Lacking anything better to do at the moment I decided I would have a look at the wheels on the Hawkstone (1958) rolling chassis I will be fitting a Triumph engine to. The wheels have an assortment of spacers and washers but I am far from confident that these are the original setup. For instance, there is a clear circlip groove on the drive side of the rear wheel hub - I assume for bearing retention - and a similar one on the front wheel brake side but neither have a circlip fitted. The hubs are the steel type without paddles.

What would be really useful would be a diagram showing the spacers etc especially if these had dimensions attached.

Living in hope.......

[John Wakefield]

There is a thread on hubs with drawings https://www.greeves-riders.org.uk/fo...s-hub-drawings

[iansoady]

Many thanks John, that'll give me something to go on.

[tony]

You might consider putting a more powerful brake on the front, Silverstone- Triumph or Norton twin leading shoe. Honda ones have been fitted as well.

[iansoady]

I do have a full width hub from Liam of this parish but for the initial build am going to stick with what I have. The 3TA engine is pretty weedy and I have no plans to explore the further eaches of its performance - just to meander gently around the local lanes.

[tony]

I never worry about me going too fast it is the unexpected vehicle that comes around a blind bend or the car that overtakes and then jams on their brakes. That is why I like decent brake on the front. My Grumph is considerably heavier than my 250 Ranger and even that has a 7 inch brake.

[iansoady]

I do take the point Tony but being used to an early 1950s Norton with a fairly pathetic 7" front brake and considerably more weight I'll see how it goes. I have heard that the eraly type forks like mine aren't really up to a much more effective brake.

[IanCordes]

I have a 1965 Triumph Tiger 90 (which is up for sale btw!), which performs quite well with it's 27bhp, but the front brake is typical of the day, a bit feeble, rather like a tin hub on a Greeves! However the back brakes always seemed to work better, and used in conjunction with each other, can retard one's progress well enough I find, both on the Triumph and my Greeves.

As they say in the IAM 'ride at a speed from which you can stop within the distance you can see to be clear'. A good adage to remember!

[iansoady]

Yes, the back brake on the Norton is significantly more effective than the front - as you'd expect with a pedal a foot or so long! I think riders of the time were much more cautious about using front brakes given tyres which were like wood and road surfaces probably even worse than today's!

[IanCordes]

True! The old bikes need to be ridden very differently from modern ones, for sure.