Hubs

Second basket is full of premium quality cartridge based hubs, designed by companies like Chris King (actually high quality ball bearings made by Chris King pressed into to outer and inner rings to look like cartridge and more importantly replaceable bearings), and the rest of players in that team like Royce, Hope, Tune, Zipp, Phil Wood,Whithe Industries etc. run their hubs on sealed high quality cartridge bearings, ususally 4 to sometimes 6 bearings in total (hub and freehub body).The list goes on and on which is good thing to have such wide range of options from our cyclist point of view.

Examples of that group of hubs in pictures below. On left Chris King R45 with cartridge bearings and also (ratchet mechanism), DT Swiss 240’s in the middle and georgeous White Industries T11 on right:

That is advantage of living in beatifull 21 century very reach in great quality bicycle components oposed to 50 years back where there were just few brands and their products at very early engineering stage. We all should be happy and benefit very easilly from that fact.

“Which hub design is better?”

Over the years I’ve been asked that one main question probably milion times that it turns out as very quick answer.

Simply all of them are equally good from engineering and end user perspective.

I think that most important question is “Which one is better for my need?”

Implementation of particular system is key factor to have lovely set of wheels running for years.

Generally cartridge based hubs I recommend for havier duty bikes, so even if one of the bearings is worn you can easilly knock it out and put new one in using few tools.

Ball bearings/cone based hubs are bit more delicate I would say and key to keep them rolling for long time is regular service, sometimes they require replacing cones and seals, sometimes axle (very rarelly now days). After that they require quite precise tightenning procedure to make sure that bearings are not overtighten or not to loose. I can recommend this type of hubs for classic road wheels or performance racing wheels ie: climbing light and strong wheels.

All of these hubs which I described above are fantastically engineered and more importantly they are fairly simply built.

Having said that now we are going to another very important element of the hub which is freehub body.

I can divide freehubs in to three main types:

1. First one is classic pawls/spring based system which you can find in most of hub brand: Shimano, Campagnolo, Hope, ZIPP, White Industries, Tune, Phill Wood, Royce, Paul Components etc..

2. Second is called star rachet system which was mainly introduced by DT Swiss where instead of pawls there are 2 springs and 2 grooved rings engaging against each other. You can obviously find that system in  DT Swiss hubs but also similar system in Chris King.

3. Third group – hubs with magnetic star ratchet mechanism where you have no traditional pawls and standard ratchet mechanism (with spring pushing two rings against each other to engage). Magnetich star ratchet mechanism is based on magnets with different polarity. Whenever rider is about to start pedaling ratchet rings stick together puched by magnets. Additionally to that with ZIPP cognition system  you can dismantle whole hub for regular maintenance without tools! Genius! Very expensive though. There are few brands they have hubs like that in offer. It is quite new idea implemented ih very sophisticated way by ZIPP about year or two ago so it will take some time to have some real test reviews. In principle it is very simple and should be very effective system with as less moving parts as possible inside. If you can afford that hub  it is worth getting one. ZIPP Cognition, Rotor Revolver, Absolute Black.

You can find some pictures below. On the left there is ZIPP hub with pawl system, in the middle DT Swiss hub with ratchet system and on the right ZIPP Cognition hub with magnetic engaging system and Rotor Revolver hub:

 Most of the freehubs we have on market are compatible with various gear systems:

1. Shimano and Sram 8,9,10,11 and 12 speed road which you can see on Chris King, Tune, Hope, Royce, White Industries, ZIPP etc

2. Campagnolo 8,9,10,11 and 12 speed road

3. Sram X-Drive MTB system for 10,11,12 speed off-road which you can see on Chris King, Hope and few other brands they have hubs with that freehub body as well

4. Shimano 8,9,10,11 and 12 speed off-road (the same freehub body type as road specific – see above) except of new 12 speed XTR freehub body called Micro Spline which is completely redisigned with DT SWISS cooperation to accomodate 10T sprocket. It is some sort revolution in bicycle world because Shimano decided to abandon pawl system for star base mechanism called Scylence!

Please have a look at different freehub bodies below, from the  left dura ace freehub, campagnolo record, sram xd drive freehub for dt swiss hub, Shimano XTR 9100 Micro spline type freehub and DT Swiss Micro spline compatible freehub body for DT Swiss hubs:

 Freehubs made out of different materials:

1. Steel – for havy duty use ie. off-road bikes, gravel road bikes

2. Alloy – performance road wheels and racing off-road wheels where weight is important

3. Titanium – pricey and all benefits as alloy ones

Another very important factor describing need for particular hub is brake compatibility:

1. DISC specific, for IS standard which has been in cycling industry for decades and CENTER LOCK designed by Shimano wich is very popular now days and also very easy to fit on. You can see that system on offroad and road (gravel) bikes.

2. RIM BRAKE compatible with V-Brake (older MTB bikes and city bikes) and Road caliper (road and cyclocross bikes)

Most of brands on market have their products in many different axle lenght and diameter specifications:

1. Through axle 10mm, 12mm, 15mm and 20mm.

2. Different lenght for particular frame dropout spacing front or rear 100mm, 130mm, 135mm, 142mm, boost 148mm, 150mm

Last but not least very important factor which needs to be taken into consideration when comes to bespoke wheels is drilling option:

1. 16H, 18H, 20H, 24H – rather performance road racing wheels where weight is key to performance

2. 24H, 28H, 32H and rather less often used now days – general cycling, trainning road and off road havier duty wheels

 Photos below showing from left: non disc hub, center lock hub (also throug axle) and IS (6 bolt and through axle) hub

Few lines on the end of hub tech section about single speed, track hubs and front hubs.

Single speed and track hubs have the same flange diameter on both sides which creates the same spoke tension on left and right side of the hub which lead to well balanced wheel running true for longer. Also in some hubs radial lacing can be applied (only when that lacing patern is allowed by manufacturer) on front hubs to minimise weight and inrease stiffness and performance of the wheel.

Rear track/single speed hubs can be fitted with both freewheel and single fixed sprocket (for track racing for example).

Front hubs can also come with dynamo built inside to generate enough power to keep your lights on and charge other devices like your mobile phone. You can also use external power bank to store unused energy from hub and use later whenever needed.

I’m very big fun of this functional form of dyhamo hub as I do lots of touring with my familly where we have dynamo hubs on 2 front wheels so we have enough power to feel comfortable wherever we are without looking for main socket 🙂 They are also very good for every day comuting so you don’t have to worry about batteries any more. They come in classic option for road caliper brakes but more popular is disc version either for IS standard (6 bolts) or Center Lock (very popular with shimano Di2 disc groupsets on many gravel bikes).

I have two main  brands which I like the most and own few (tested on many trips and proven to be very efficent and durable – no issues!) SON Schmidt and SP Shutter Precison. I also build wheels for touring, gravel and comuting using very good Shimano dynamo hubs but because they are based on ball bearings I preffer to use SP Shutter Precision hubs and top one SON Schmidt hubs because they run on high end cartridge bearings very well sealed against wheather elements. SON Schmidt also comes with 5 years warranty! I did not have to use it on my one so far (over 5 years of abuse on my bikes). Super happy with them.

Please have look below on some examples of hubs described above:

I hope that hubs tech section explained above will help you to understand how they are designed and how they work from different brands. Obviously they are lots of variations and options for the hubs choice on market, but main principles are the same. It will help you to fairly quickly choose you favourite hubs for particular implentation.

I love simplicity and functionality.

Over the years of being in bicycle industry building, riding and servicing wheels I’ve come to list of my favourite brands I do believe and I love building wheels with. It has not been just about product itself only, it is also about customer service. These brands offer solid customer service before sale and after sale whenever something goes not so smooth. If you are intersted in something different you like please let me know via contact page, I’m happy to hear from you.

Here is the list