i always liked xcaliber..........

yep ,,,,i had a good friend that was building his wheels with c records in 78,,,,,,,,i never owned a set till they were in a pair of graphites in 82 and then i had 3 sets,,,,,,campy made a low flange bmx hub ,,,,,,,in about 81 but it was not the same level of stuff that was produced for road bikes,,,,,,,BEST HUB ever for ,,,,,,,,,,,racing for me was phil woods. little heavy ,,,but the smoothest ,,,no miss with it EVER. WHO has a set to sell me? i,ll get randy moore to build the wheels ,,,ok with you randy?

I raced on Suzue BITD. If I could get the colours I needed for the right price, I'd use them on all my builds

I had Sunshines on my PK. They held up fine which says a lot.
Those Campys are dead set sexy. I want those!

Did flange height/size matter back then (1980-85)? Was most everything high-flange?

You saw equal amounts of both.

Mine were the O.M.A.S sealed low flange, would spin forever, still have them and they spin like new

Ryan

you see, you are including basically two different eras there in your year range. I would say 1980-82 was one thing, then around 1983-85 is another thing, really. anybody else on here agree?

Dont forget Cook Bros hubs!

I ran the OMAS Series BPP hubs from late 1983 till I quit around Summer 85'. The locknut for the cones was super brittle. Swap it out with a Campy and problem solved. -
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As far back as the 70's, a lot of top BMX racers were using high flange and low flange Campagnolo, Dura Ace, Sun Tour, and Suzue (10 speed type) road hubs. Then they would swap out the quick release axles with track axles (like standard BMX axles. But much better quality.)
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Campy C Records are incredible. I started seeing them around 84' on BMX bikes. Another high end road hub being used as a BMX hub. I've heard once or twice about a flange cracking..... BUT I've been into BMX for almost 30 years and never have seen a hub flange crack.
Is this an urban legend?
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I recall around 1979, Phil Wood hubs were the ultimate BMX hub PERIOD!
Bullseye were excellent quality BMX hubs. But in the late 70's - 80's had always had the reputation of being second to Phil Wood hubs.

pquinnbmx, please elaborate

This urban legend cracked more than one set of ACS loose ball/large flange hubs laced to Z rims. Early 80's Phil hubs were 3 piece pressed with stainless centers. Suzue low flange sealed hubs laced to chrome 7X's was a hot set up for the cost.

moreyracing has that right. Those Phil Woods pictured above are the newer machined version. I ride 'em, they're awesome. Still, if you want them and find them, grab them -- Phil Wood just recently discontinued production of BMX hubs (sniffle.)

Here's the ones you want to look for to be early-'80s accurate, as moreyracing describes:

And thank you Evan for the picture and your old pair! I still have them on your PR-200.

Right on, Jim, glad to hear they're still in a good home!

The 3 piece Phil hubs (aluminum flanges with stainless center) in the advertisement above were the original design that started in the early 1970s. According to a very knowledgeable historian at Phil Wood Co, this design was discontinued by 1981 but there was still a large stock of the hubs available for some time so most guys probably assumed they were being made until the mid-80s. I bought my set in December 1982. The one piece machined hubs (also above) came about in 1981-ish but there are several variations of this design so don't assume that they are all 80s era hubs if that is what you are looking for.

C-Record campy hubs were introduced in 85 with some of the European peloton using them in 84. A few years ago, I had a talk with Campagnolo's Richard Storino. he mentioned that the fabled "high failure rate" was more of matter of the popularity of aero spokes which needed the slotting of the hub spoke holes (therefore weakening the hub) rather than a qiality control issue.

The hubs we used in the 70s and early 80s were Campagnolo Record (Hi and low flange) The anodized hubs that were sold as "BMX" were lower end Gran-Sport models with track axles. Still Campy, but not anywhere the quality of the Record hubs

If you want to go into the 70s, many of the more road related fathers were setting up their kid's bikes with the relatively unheard of sealed high flange hubs that came on the Lambert/Viscount bikes with quick release and all.

Does anyone have pictures of the first DK hubs from the early eighties?

well, ok i will elaborate, and read mccorkle's post here. in 1980, nobody i knew was running sst or son lite turbo hubs. they probably were not invented till 84 or 85. hence, two different bmx eras. 1979-82 or so, kind of early primitive. 1985 kind of moving into more modern mid school stuff. i was saying too wide a range of years there, hubs can vary from 1980 to 85, even though it's only 5 years, bmx parts evolved, and maybe did not necessarily evolve for the best, in my opinion. I would take a 1980 phil hub over a 1985 shimano or sunshine any day of the week.