Rear axle taper bearing to sealed conversion

If you took out taper bearings from a rear wheel it must be early rigid pre unit. Probably easier to just get a unit rear wheel, then converting is easy.

I'm curious about this too. I took a set of the tapered ones to a bearing place to see if they could match them up. After about 1/2 hour in the books, the only tapered ones the guy could come up with were special order $300 each. I did not check with any British bike parts suppliers, but I'm sure at least one of them has a better line on them.

But, since I'm not after a 100 point restoration, I'd rather convert to sealed bearings. I'm sure I could figure it out with micrometers, bearing catalogs and maybe the help of a machinist friend, but it would be nice to hear from someone who has actually done it.

I do know that the later hubs use a slightly larger diameter axle, so to use a later hub on a stock rigid, you need to enlarge the slots in the axle drop outs. (or machine a special axle.) I have a hardtail section that's been modified to fit a pre unit swingarm front loop which has the drop outs enlarged like that. But I would prefer not to modify the stock rigid frame.