[Closed] Best Sealed Hubs

There are a pair of dt swiss 240 road hubs on the classifieds right now.

I finally killed one of the freehub bearings on mine - took two years and an awful lot of slop. The inside one was still pristine. Not sure I'd be powerwashing any hub though.

For something a bit different you could try Erase Components....I’ve got the mtb hubs and they’re pretty light, have sealed bearings and a ti freewheel

https://www.erasecomponents.com/roaddischubs

Otherwise DT 240’s are light and reliable.

Disclaimer: Haven't used the road versions (my road bike has mtb versions in it!) but DT240S is very well sealed. Not to mention light, stupendously reliable, and so expensive that they must be made out of souls or something

Shame, those in the classifieds aren't disc. So it looks like DT are getting a lot of love...

DT 240 are reliable and really easy to find parts for.

People rave about Hope but I don't have any evidence. Mine are fine but so they should be they are only just over a year old. But have heard tales of 10,000 trouble free km on the new stainless bearings

I’d say hope or dt swiss- no strong preference from me, but my opinion on the differences are:

Hope, slightly easier to work on, slightly easier to get spares.

Dt, slightly less likely to need it!

The one bearing that always seems to go from contamination first for me is the outside freehub bearing- I’m going to try one of those solid oil bearings in that position next if I can find one to fit.

A singular example but last year I moved on from using a 20 year old Chris King ISO disk front hub. I've no idea how many 10k's worth of off road miles it has on it, but it'll be a fair bit. It's never been serviced, lubed or maintained in any way (a part from the odd new rim) and is still running tight and smooth. Most impressed.

I like Hope as they're reasonable value and have lasted well on the MTB's. They're a bit heavy tho. The DT stuff looks OK, never had a DT anything so no reference point for me.

This is for my winter/gravel bike and the hubs I have now I think are Novatec somethings on Kinesis Crosslight CX'S - so cheapish and probly not well sealed. I want to move to something I can build into a 1500g wheelset that requires a lot less periodic (actually quite frequent) fettling.

I have just been through a similar journey...

Was on a set of erase hubs, but the sealing is poor and the bearings not so great (enduro)

Now on a DT 240 rear/ hope rs4 front, I do have fairly extreme usage though (3 miles of wet sandy seafront to contend with before hitting the exe estuary)

Also have a set of DT 350 which have survived trouble free for a couple years.

Shimano 105 😁

Chris King R45 Disc. My latest wheelset is 1.4kg. My oldest set have just been sold after having done just under 30000km. The bearings were still smooth and grit free when I opened them for servicing just before I sold them. Flushed and filled with the correct grease, they should be good to go for another multi-0000kms. Once serviced they felt identical to the brand new hub I have here on my desk. They above set of hubs were on my Commuter/Tourer/Winter bike and were ridden in everything and then hosed down repeatedly after rides.

In 15 years of using CK hubs, covering hundred of thousand of km, I've never had to replace a part due to wear and tear. I can't say the same for either Hope, DT, Industry 9, Whyte or Shimano and over much smaller timescales.

Those CK hubs look delicious but holy moly, £££'s 😲

@daffy what rims/spokes are using for a 1400g wheelset pls?

@boblo:

Nextie CRX30 rims and CX-Ray Spokes:

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105s Miles, last just as long with the odd service at a fraction of the price! You'll feel weight at the rim, not at the hub. There'll be cheaper places to save weight on your bike.

I'm delivering a wheel I built for Pete to him tomorrow BTW, we'll toast your broken tourer (did like that bike!).

@daffy They look ace. Did you buy the bits and build them up or get the ready to roll? Where from pls?

Another DT-Swiss 240 owner here. Great hubs. Don't pay RRP though, you can get them much cheaper if you shop around online, although with Brexit causing issues with orders from the EU that might not necessarily be an option any more.

@boblo - bought the bits and built them myself. Hubs from the US, rims from China, spokes from Belgium.

@cynical-al Aye I like Shimano hubs and have a couple of pairs of Shimano hub based wheels. They're pretty well sealed and seem to go on forever. Don't think they do 105 in disk tho? This is not predominantly about weight, more about very well sealed but still lightish (if that makes sense?).

The Crosslight's I have seem to need constant fettling. I have been doing lots of miles over the winter and keep them clean so the NDS bearing seems to get a lot of unwelcome attention. It's only sealed with a 1mm O ring which is clearly not enough. Sadly I have two pairs of them, one set up for gravel the other road. To be fair, they've both got many many miles on them and have done OK for cheap wheels.

I don't have any issues with weight, or a bit of seal friction and with those two caveats, im of the opinion that if you've not bought hope hubs you've bought the wrong ones.

Ive got 4 rears, (Pro4, Pro2, Pro2SS and Bulb) and two front hubs and have never had any issues with any of them. Ive got a Hope Bulb-TiGlide on my tourer which i bought second hand from a mate around 2004, who was retiring it off his downhill bike. Ive had it on a dirt jump bike, XC bike, Single speed and now its on my Disk trucker tourer. I think i've changed the bearings on it once?
Pro2 is hung up in the shed because the bike it was on died. Boost Pro4 on my current bike has never seen any maintenance at all in the past 5 years and is still perfectly smooth.
Had a second hand HopeXC off here too, which was trouble free. was on a bike that got nicked iirc.

Aye Hopes are ace. I've a pair of Bulb's on the tandem that have north of 50k miles with only one set of replacement bearings. Absolutely no issues at all.

I have a spare set of Pro 2's but IIRC, they're not 11 speed compatible?

Hope have confirmed road 11 speed doesn't work on Pro 2's though MTB 11 speed does. I use 11-28 on this bike which is definitely not MTB!

Looks like I'll be placing an order for RS4's. Thanks for everyone's suggestions. 👍

Ultegra R8000 11-34 cassette will work on a standard MTB 9/10/11sp freehub.