When I was a kid, I REALLY wanted a set of Bullseye hubs... well, I still do. Is there any way to distinguish the older early 80's hubs from the newer ones? I'd like to get a set for my upcoming build, but I don't want to shell out the $$$ for hubs that do not match the era of the bike.

Thanks, Vince

I'm selling an original set on ebay right now, with the original 7c Araya rims. They have bolt-through axles and oval decals and all original.

I saw those, they look great. Unfortunately, I need them in blue.

There is virtually no difference from old vs. newer Bullseyes. You can easily switch from a through bolt to the allen bolts and you can change the newer decals to the oval ones.

old school Bullseye's came with red sealed bearings and the newer Bulls have black bearings and the early Bulls have different spacers on the rear hub.

Old ones have nylon red bearing SEALS, the bearings are all the same....they are replaceable, just get under the edge with a blunt knife or something similiar and pull it off, you can repack them this way as well. You could swap the newer black seals for some older type red seals..actually they are more of a burnt orange color, like old skateboard sealed bearings.

don't the current hubs use chinese bearings while the older hubs used japanese?

A lot of the old ones have black bearings too. Both orange and black were used on the early ones but only black on the later ones. You can replace those bearings with orange, black, or even blue seals.

I have a set of bullseyes, blue silver blue from no later than 1981 and they have the original bearings and they are black. Im just in the process of cleaning them up after sitting in the shed for the last 17 years. But I am confident the bearings have never been changed.