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Having sum wheels built for my road bike. The options are 6 bolt or centre lock? I notice shimano top of the range rotors are centre lock.
Given the choice I'd go for centre lock. Easier to fit, no bolts to seize or strip.
Having aquired some centrelocks on a new bike, given the choice I would never buy 6 bolt hubs again
Personally not a fan as I travel a lot, don't need to be carrying extra tools. A decent t25 tool and some common sense works fine.
I started with centre-locks.
Recently used 6 bolt.
Would use centre-locks again in future as most of my bikes have these so I can switch around.
Fit and forget. Also noticed my 6 bolts alsways needed aligning, something I've never had to do with CL. Maybe the spider helps?
Centre Lock here too.
Shimano only make their smallest diameter top end rotors in centre lock, best choice for road cycling to manage heat loads
i have 2 pairs of wheels...using both styles of rotor fitments. i cnt say that i've noticed nay performance difference between them. the only real advantage the centrelock ones have is that they are really easy to remove/fit
Centrelock gives the widest choice of rotor as most* six bolt rotors will fit with adaptors.
*not Hope Floating rotors or 6-bolt Shimano with spiders IIRC
I have both. Centre lock is much easier if faffing at home, but I once had an off that put a big crease in my rear rotor that prevented the rear wheel from spinning . Luckily it was six bolt so could remove the rotor with my multi tool.
If I had have been on the other wheels then I would have either had to remove the caliper and try and bend the rotor enough so the wheel would spin, or carry the bike home.
(but given the choice I would have centrelock as the caliper bending incident is unlikely to happen regularly)
I'd go Centrelock, you can always adapt a CL hub to take a 6-bolt rotor, you can't do it the other way round.
the only exception is if you're a mega-gnarr Enduro dude and want to run a 20 mm front axle, as they don't play that nicely with Centrelock.
Much prefer centre lock because they are quicker to fit and remove
Thanks everyone for your help. Ct it is.
Prefer 6 bolt tbh- more choice, better interchangability, you're guaranteed to find them in any bike shop and you can fit them with most multitools. Yes you can fit 6-bolt to a CL hub with an adaptor, if you have one, but that's not always very helpful.
But my new fatbike hubs are centrelock and I'm not stressed about it. CL's a really good system ime, it just lacks the ubiquity of 6 bolt.
the only exception is if you're a mega-gnarr Enduro dude and want to run a 20 mm front axle, as they don't play that nicely with Centrelock.
eh?? i have a front zee hub on a 20mm axle and an XT icetech C/L rotor....all works fine
Centrelock every time for me.
Is it too late to add a vote for Centrelock? I did think WTF at the time they came out, but when faffing with wheels it does save so much time to undo one lockring than 6 bolts (currently 1 centrelock wheel and several on 6 bolt), providing all else is equal.
(If I bent a rotor, which I have never done beyond anything that creates an annoying pinging, I would imagine I could force it back into shape enough to get me home)