Bling o' the Day - Spidel Maillard 700 Professional High Flange Hubs

Been clearing out the parts lockers some more, really getting down to all the stuff that is hard to part with (I'm robatsu on ebay too, ya know, just sayin...).  And despite putting up all sorts of Campy C-Record treasures, I still can't bring myself to sell these:

These are from the last gasp of the French component industry when a bunch of French manufacturers tried to join forces against the Japanese onslaught under the virtual brand of Spidel.

It didn't work, but some nice stuff came out under the Spidel name, the guys were fighting for their lives...

So everyone knows about Maillard 700 Pro hubs, but just the ones with a big decal on the axle housing and with an (ugly) black plastic quick release nut.

These Spidel/Maillard beauties are a later generation with a very fragile silk screening on the axle housinge:

Plus, a far more otaku-worthy quick release than the functionally vulgar black plastic of yore:

Finally, the finish is not to be believed, considering that these have been sitting around for 30 years or so:

Beyond that, the bearings are sealed (not cartridge, though) and buttery smooth.  I did have a low flange set of these as well, but they disappeared in some ebay frenzy a while back.  They were definitely nice, but didn't quite have the panache of the high-flange version.

I know I'll never see another set of these again.  I'm debating whether to keep them around for show and tell or build a nice set of wheels for my Mondia with these.

In case anyone is wondering, 126mm/british/36h, which is as it ever was...