These are pictures of a Super Rare set of BMX hubs. They were made by a company called Speed Scura Tech (SST).
I looked around the internet for some more imformation to make sure I have my facts straight, and for some reason all the vintage/old school sites I visit don't feature components, or I'm looking to hard. So I'm going to have to go this off 25+ year old memory.
They were called Race-Lace hubs. SST made two generations, the ones pictured are the first and most unique as I think they only produced 40 sets around 1984, 85ish. The idea was to create a lace patern with minimal energy lose. Plus I think they advertised other advantages, but I don't really remember.
The production was so intensive that they cost $450+ in 1984 . . . (and I thought my Philwood's were expensive at $100) . . . Obviously they didn't sell many. So they simplified the design, hence the 2nd generation, which were also expensive, but not as bad.
They also must have used ceramic bearings, because they were the smoothest spinning bearing I ever felt. You could hold the rim and spin the axel and wait for it to spin down. Imagine if we had the technolgy to replace bearings with really strong magnets . . . yea a lot like that.
The hubs were popularized by the Pro Greg Hill and he obviously had great results. However it seemed not enough to justify the $450 cost. They seemed to be popular in Texas for some reason.
I looked around the internet for some more imformation to make sure I have my facts straight, and for some reason all the vintage/old school sites I visit don't feature components, or I'm looking to hard. So I'm going to have to go this off 25+ year old memory.
They were called Race-Lace hubs. SST made two generations, the ones pictured are the first and most unique as I think they only produced 40 sets around 1984, 85ish. The idea was to create a lace patern with minimal energy lose. Plus I think they advertised other advantages, but I don't really remember.
The production was so intensive that they cost $450+ in 1984 . . . (and I thought my Philwood's were expensive at $100) . . . Obviously they didn't sell many. So they simplified the design, hence the 2nd generation, which were also expensive, but not as bad.
They also must have used ceramic bearings, because they were the smoothest spinning bearing I ever felt. You could hold the rim and spin the axel and wait for it to spin down. Imagine if we had the technolgy to replace bearings with really strong magnets . . . yea a lot like that.
The hubs were popularized by the Pro Greg Hill and he obviously had great results. However it seemed not enough to justify the $450 cost. They seemed to be popular in Texas for some reason.
4 comments:
I worked for Brian Scura back in the late 70's early 80's when he was developing the race lace. I had the first set of 26" wheels that were race laced on my GT crusier. Back then we used Campy high flange hubs with a track axle.
Freestyler Woody Itson also used similar hubs - Brian at SST made the Woody Itson race lace hubs for the signature Woody Itson Hutch Trick Star which was produced in 1985. Gold plated versions of these hubs were included on the gold-plated Trick Star Richard Hutchins presented to Woody in 1986 as a "thank you" for not signing to Diamond Back (who made him an offer in 1985). Woody actually designed the Trick Star frame, forks and bars for Hutch. See Woody talking about these SST race lace hubs here: http://vimeo.com/4406474
I could really do with these hubs for my Pro II build!
If you are interested in selling please contact me:
bmx73pro@hotmail.com
Thanks
Rich
Those hubs are not mine. I was just using the picture to show people what they look like since there were only about 40 sets made..if that. I think they were around $300 bucks in the 80's, but now $3200 is a little out of my league. you might ask this Martin guy.
http://martin-bike.com/BikeShop/slides/36fa_3.html
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