Profile Racing’s Legacy: Week 15, 1982. Part #2.
With Shimano, ACS, Suzue, Suntour and Bullseye creating hubs for the market, 1982 saw Profile Racing jump in the game with the iconic Gyrolite Hubs.
The prototypes were done on a manual lathe. And although the job could be done, it was very time consuming and not at all cost effective. The Gyrolites ended up being the catalyst for Profile investing in their first automated CNC Lathe: A Mori-Seiki with a 4 by 3 foot computer cabinet that ran paper tape for programming (picture the old paper tape with punch holes in early computer systems).
The first Profile Racing Hubs on the market were the standard Aluminum Gyrolites pictured above.
6 months later, Jim Alley sourced magnesium out of Philadelphia and began the race for the lightest hubs on the market.
In this era, Profile was concentrating heavy on the Junior race demographic. With that in mind, the Mini Gyrolites were produced soon after.
And a magnesium version followed suit. Above is one of few sets left conjured from The Dungeon.