Vintage Steel Bob Jackson Road Bike With Incredible CINELLI BIVALENT HUBS!

[@ArthurD]

I came here because I had the very same idea, rear wheels with detachable cassettes... But I had NO IDEA that the idea was SO OLD! 1966! And the execution is BRILLIANT. Oh, and the other innovations in this bike, this is mind boggling! Long derailleur cage! Clipless pedals! Adjustable handlebar stem! Thru axles! MY GOD! 1960s were the times with maybe the SMARTEST people of the 20th century! Thanks a lot for showing this! I hope this idea will resurface again.

[@JimLangley1]

You're very welcome Arthur, thanks so much for watching. I'm very happy you enjoyed the video and all the amazing 1960's bike technology - they really were as smart or smarter than some of the things we see today.

[@davealexander7561]

Thanks for sharing this wonderful old bike. I remember lots of Bob Jackson bikes in the 70's growing up very close to Cupertino Bike shop. I would drool at all the bikes and Spence would give young boys tips and sell us parts and tires for our bikes. I had a Raleigh International. I rode on Clement Paris Robaix tires. Spence showed me how to tie and solder my spokes which I still have and they are straight 60 years later.He was kind to us and we hung around his shop asking all kinda of questions. I was 13 or 14 in 1972. Back then we all lived in and around the cherry orchards and train in the Santa Cruz mountains. Great times we had. I always admired Bob Jackson bikes.

[@JimLangley1]

I'm so happy the video brought back some great memories Dave and I appreciate you sharing them. What a wonderful thing for you to live so close to CBS and Spence and be able to hang out there and learn from him. Thank you for watching and for the awesome comment!🙏

[@richardbuchanan5497]

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Back in '83 when I was fabricating my custom on-off, I had talked with many builders and innovators (Harlan Meyer of Hi-E Engineering, Gary Klein, Angel Rodriguez, Walt Matthauser....). One person I talked with was Robert Barrett Side, (New York) re-inventor of the Side-by-Side tandem. His greatest invention was the Side, Q.R. rear hub. The spline from a Phil Wood bottom bracket was fitted to a rear hub, and freewheel. The freewheel bolted to the right drop-out, the spline helped attach the hub to the freewheel, and (with my contribution) the Q.R. skewer slid through the hollow axel, and quarter turn locked (Dzus type) into the freewheel. The skewer was threaded, pre-tensioned so the skewer slid through the axel, quarter-turn locked into the freewheel, and the (standard type) eccentric lever locked the wheel in place. Back then the conversion was $200... a price I didnt mind paying, but the Hi-E hub was already laced (32, 3x Alpina) to the almost impossible to source rims. I couldn't bring myself to discard a new rim, and spokes so I decided against the conversion. A decision I regret to this day.

[@JimLangley1]

Thanks for watching Richard and thanks for the fascinating reply. We had a Barrett Side-by-Side tandem at our shop. The shop owner Roger Sands knew Robert and loved the bike. It was for sale but never did sell so Roger rode it with his wife. I had no idea it had such a sophisticated hub on it! Thanks so much for sharing this!

[@mpetry912]

Great video Jim - that bike is a "full house" example of mid 60s bike "technology" and Spence Wolf's craftsmanship and attention to detail

[@JimLangley1]

Thanks a lot for watching and commenting, Mark! The bike sold to a guy who has been looking for the right Bob Jackson for many years - and he immediately took it over to Vance and Greg at Cupertino Bike Shop to show it off. So it’s with the perfect new owner.

[@Bikeops2021]

Fantastic video, inventions before their time, make us look like we've gone backwards slightly!

[@JimLangley1]

I agree, Graham 😋

[@WillyDahm]

Great video and a amazing hub away ahead of it's time.

[@JimLangley1]

Happy you like the video, Willy. Thanks a lot for watching and commenting!

[@michaelbattin6717]

Great to learn once again professor Jim

[@JimLangley1]

Thanks for watching the show, Michael!

[@WARDANT1]

Thank you for sharing. I have only ever seen a drawing of the Cinelli hubs. It makes me think of early motor scooters that sometimes carry a spare wheel that can be used both front & rear.

[@JimLangley1]

You're welcome and thanks for watching and commenting, Anthony. I didn't know that about early motor scooters. They could have inspired Cinelli, perhaps - makes sense with so many scooters in Italy. Thanks for telling me about them!

[@rfreitas1949]

@@JimLangley1 of course Autos have used the interchangable wheel for 100 plus years. I think Cinellis hubs might be the only ones to transmit power...

[@jeffbrunton3291]

Amazinging technology. I think a niche market with drawbacks in the mass market. Thanks for posting

[@JimLangley1]

Thanks for watching and commenting, J B!

[@ducatimale]

Great video again Jim!

[@JimLangley1]

I'm very happy you liked it, ducatimale! I appreciate you watching and commenting, too!

[@ericgustafson7253]

Thanks Jim, that was delightful and informative. Keep em coming !

[@JimLangley1]

Glad you enjoyed it, Eric! Thanks for watching and commenting!

[@chrisbliss2034]

Brilliant innovation from cinneli. I'm also a lover of veteran machines ( V C. C member ), and you may be interested to know that BSA under licence from Sturmer Archer made a three speed quick release hub decades before this ; and Sunbeam had a very special ( Professor Sharp's!) Split axle enabling tyre and tube change without ever removing the rear wheel! Patented perhaps over 100 years ago. Brilliant show, please keep it going .... 😳

[@JimLangley1]

Thanks for watching and the fascinating comment, Chris! Appreciate you telling me about the BSA 3-speed quick release hub and Sunbeam split axle.. I haven't seen either of those and will try to find them in Tony Hadland's S-A history book or maybe Bartleet's will cover them. Very interesting innovations. Thank you for sharing!

[@chrisbliss2034]

@@JimLangley1 You're welcome. Also : your wheelbuilding tutorial is about the best I've seen on the ' net ---- we've travelled so far since this was something of a " black art " back in the ' 70s!

[@JimLangley1]

@@chrisbliss2034 thanks a lot, I'm glad you liked that video, too, Chris. That was a fun project and the best thing is that so many people have watched it and are building wheels. I hope people share the video and it gets a lot more viewers so that even more everyday folks who have an interest realize that they can indeed build their own wheels. Thanks again!

[@rpiereck74]

Looks similar to what Honda designed on the original Honda Cub, where you can remove the rear axle and remove the wheel, without touching the rear sprocket or chain. Rear tire repair is much easier on them than on most other motorcycles.

[@JimLangley1]

Thanks a lot for watching and for telling me about the Honda Cub. I’ll look for that online to see if I can learn more. Appreciate it!🙏

[@Yonok2009]

Awesome bike Thanks for sharing Jim

[@JimLangley1]

You're welcome, Mike, I'm glad you liked it! Thank you for watching!!

[@robdogracing]

Fascinating! Thanks for sharing

[@JimLangley1]

Glad you liked it, Robdogracing. Thank you for watching!

[@UnivegaSuperSport]

I imagine you could run across quite a few interesting classic bikes that would make great videos.

[@JimLangley1]

Thanks! I have a few more lined up to show UnivegaSuperSport. In case you missed them and want to watch, I made a video of a Peugeot PX-10 circa 1974 kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y3_Rg6yijZqGY5I and a very classic - as in antique, 1886 Victor highwheel - maybe my best bike: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bGiUdKeneMmmaLs This JRJ was a bike that a friend's dad owned and she asked me to sell it for her. I've helped a lot of people sell their vintage bikes that way so I will probably help with some more that I will share. Thanks for watching and commenting!

[@rfreitas1949]

That CBS long arm is the very first version ,he produced a couple more versions into the 1970s. They took up a lot of chain allowing people to take advantage of the TA cranks with as small as a 24t inner ring.

[@JimLangley1]

Thanks for watching and for sharing the history on the derailleur adapter Bob. Great information. Appreciate it!

[@tombolo22]

Thanks Jim! Great stuff

[@JimLangley1]

You're welcome, Rob! Appreciate you watching!

[@bikesncoffee2216]

Great video, Jim! Very interesting to learn about the technical history of the thing we love! Greetings from Germany!

[@JimLangley1]

Thanks Bikesncoffee (love your name!)! Yes, bicycles are truly fascinating. I appreciate you watching and commenting.

[@m.talley1660]

For all my years around bikes (over three decades) I had heard descriptions and read about and seen still images.. Thanks for SHOWING us. Even recently read an old interview with Mr. Cinelli where he mentions selling most of the Bivalent production into the US market in the 60s. My musings go - were there ever any durability issues? And iif proven might the design concept be used integrating disc brakes into a fixed system on the frame? The wheel would engage/disengage in the same fashion and eliminate the obvious disc-brake-wheel-change problems.

[@JimLangley1]

Thanks for watching and commenting, M! I have only known a couple of people who owned and rode on the Bivalent hubs but they treated them as collectible items and didn't log many miles on them. Still, these hubs were made by Campagnolo so I would expect they would hold up as well as their hubs did, which is to say for a long time. I agree that a system like Cinelli's might be the perfect solution for easier wheel removal on disc brake bicycles. I don't know if anything is working on such a design or not. Thanks again!

[@maxx-er3fj]

Great video, this tech is amazing, this could have changed thecycling if teams adapted new technology

[@JimLangley1]

Thanks for watching and commenting, Tozo. I agree.

[@benc8386]

Very interesting wheel design! But doesn't the rear wheel need to be dished? Or are you supposed to have an asymmetric frame that offsets both rear dropouts to the right? Actually a better design might be to dish both front and rear wheels and have an asymmetric fork. That way the chainline and crank spacing can stay the same.

[@JimLangley1]

Great question, Ben and thanks for watching! That's part of the genius of Cinelli's design. The wheels are definitely dished. You might have seen that I put the front wheel in the opposite of how I put the rear wheel in. If you put the front in the other way it will not center in the fork. I only had the bike for a couple of days before I handed it off to the happy new owner. So I didn't think to take measurements. I know the Bob Jackson had standard for 1966 120mm rear and 100mm front frame spacing. Based on that, I think Cinelli's over locknut distance must be something like 80mm, maybe a little less. I believe the way Cinelli accounted for the asymmetry was with the pieces that mount to the dropouts to hold the axle and thread into. The one that holds the axle extends quite a ways from the dropout. I have a good still of those dropout pieces at this timestamp in the video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bIvKeHV5fdWbqa8 I'm hoping some Cinelli Bivalent hub experts see the video and weigh in and educate me ;-)

[@benc8386]

@@JimLangley1 Yes that makes sense with those nuts, and means you can use a standard frame and fork. Well apart from the 4mm extra spacing (which could easily be applied to that Bob Jackson frame permanently). It seems like a better design than what we're all using although perhaps for a modern 12-speed cassette or whatever excessive number of gears we're up to now the dish would be too much. Whenever I get a flat I'd always rather it was the front wheel as I don't have to worry about dealing with the chain. But with this design both wheels just come straight out. You could also switch your wheels to even out the brake track and tyre wear.

[@JimLangley1]

@@benc8386 good points, Ben! Being able to keep the chain on would be a wonderful feature.

[@rychartz]

Thru axles with rim brakes, that's a first and maybe nobody did that ever again. Today's thru axles are exclusively with disc brakes.

[@JimLangley1]

That's a fascinating point I hadn't thought of, rychartz! Thanks a lot for watching and for that great insight!

[@rychartz]

@@JimLangley1 thank you Jim for the fabulous videos!

[@JimLangley1]

@@rychartz you're most welcome!