Hitchcocks Forum

Some of you may know I'm rebuilding a 1955 350 Bullet that was bought from a well known online auction site. It had no rear wheel when bought but I've managed to find all the parts needed. I'm now ready to lace up the wheel (or rather my pal Neil is!) and we could do with a measurement for the rear wheel offset. (I have a figure for the 500 but it's a different hub.) I have a swinging arm which we can use to centralise it but an actual measurement would be better still! Thanks and REgards, Mark

Hi Mark

Not sure if this is any help but if there is no one else and you can get to near Cardiff happy for you to measure off my 1957 350cc Bullet. Sure others will respond and did hesitate to put message up but to give you a back up more than happy to help if I can. Just renewed rims on a BSA A65L but here the supplier gave the measurements and maybe your rim supplier could help. Regards, Hugh

Hugh, thanks for the offer but the wheels are different, the 1955 is a half width non-qd hub whereas you have a full width qd type I think. What makes it even harder is that most of the 1955 bikes had different rear wheels! The wheel is being built from bits so no rim supplier, in my experience they usually don't know the offset either. But you have given me an idea, I know a very good old school wheel builder (not the one who is doing the work though,) who always keeps records of wheels he's done, I could ask him! Thanks and REgards, Mark

No problem and good luck. As you know they are all a challenge. I found mine to be a bit of a dog's breakfast as the previous owner didn't know what he was doing and although it was my first rebuild tried to do everything properly. There's a picture on this web site page 21 no.3. regards, Hugh

Hi Mark. I have rebuilt and built quite a lot of wheels for older bikes and it is my experience that it is best to fit the wheel to the bike and set it up in place more often than not the wheel will have been messed with in the past and measuring another one is no guarantee it is correct.

True Dennis, and if that's what we have to do, we will! It does help that with a half width hub the spokes are very different so the build is approximately right. REgards, Mark

Mark, there is no offset ie. the bare hub (no drum or cushdrive) is laced central to the wheel rim. I have laced a few and some do require minimal adjustment when fitted to the bike to ensure the centre of the rim is central to the frame. Richard

Thanks Richard. REgards, Mark

Another way is if the swinging arm is out of the bike bolt the drum into the arm and true it to be centre at the front of the arm