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I'm planning on building up some new wheels myself, I need some wider rims. I'm a bit confused about what hubs to get. My inner tight-fisted Scotsman is saying "Shimano XT" or "Superstar" but life experience is telling me buy cheap, buy twice.
So, the thrifty options are:
Shimano XT. Cheap (£60 a set of the Germans). These will be reliable, a bit heavy and no way to swap from QR is I ever want. Happy with CnC, always nice to be able to service something without a hammer.
Superstar - Look OK, about £110 a set for their new hubs. Swappable axles.
The justifiably expensive options are:
Hope ProII Evos. I have a few other sets, they work. Common spares. Seem pricey for what they are (~£200 a pair) and I have a few niggles with the durability.
DT Swiss 350s - they look alright, but not sure they're an better than the hopes and would need different spares, cost about the same.
The bling options are:
Chris King (~£500 a pair) / Dt Swiss 240s (£~350 a pair)/ Some other exotic hub - I'm not totally against paying for them, but just can't quite see where the benefit is.
Anyone using either the new Superstar hubs, DT Swiss or Chris King have any strong opinions on them?
I've got Superstar, the bearings in one set have been fine, but the other set haven't lasted well. Bearings are cheap to replace and easy to fit.
Most of the expensive hubs will use sealed bearings, which will all need to be replaced at some stage. At least with XT you can service and regrease them easily.
Kings are lovely imo, the only reason I don't have them on all my bikes is that they didn't do an xd free hub at the time, so I went with hope.
No issues at all with hope in a lot of years, the versatile just work solution
I've had a few sets of hope and superstar.
Recently got some SuperStar Tesla Hubs on stans rims for the roadie. Really nice set.
Would happily buy superstar again. Local bearing place does bearings for about £6-7 a pair. Freehubs again are easy to get direct.
Worth considering Novatec -
Had Hope Pro 2's, got Kings, got DT Swiss 240's
Love the Kings and the DT's.
I got the Kings for £240 and £100 rear and front about five years ago, new.
If they weren't reduced, I wouldn't have bothered but thy are lovely, if you can get a deal. There's no way I'd be paying full price.
If you can't get a mad deal, get the DT's. Although not as lovely as King, they are still lovely. They're quiet too with a fast engagement (not as instant as Kings), they don't make a racket like Hopes either.
Cheers for the input guys. I do have a set of Novatech hubs as well, they've been fine but not really considering them as I want to be able to get spares and service them easily. I guess they will use standard bearings but no idea where I'd get a freehub from, unless given they're so cheap I just buy two sets new as donors.
I reckon the best bang-for-buck approach is to find a used wheelset with DT240S hubs in, buy it, and strip the hubs out- they're very reliable and fully servicable so a very small risk as a used buy. Once I sold off the leftover bits and serviced the hubs I'd spent at most £140.
(be careful not to get the really old nonconvertable QR front hub though!)
FYI, I'm pretty sure Superstar are just rebranded Novatec hubs.
I reckon the best bang-for-buck approach is to find a used wheelset with DT240S hubs in, buy it, and strip the hubs out- they're very reliable and fully servicable so a very small risk as a used buy. Once I sold off the leftover bits and serviced the hubs I'd spent at most £140.
I like the way your time is worth nothing! 😉
I've got some American classic 225's very nice and light.
chiefgrooveguru - MemberI like the way your time is worth nothing!
I should count it as a negative cost tbh, since I like fannying around with bikes! But it's a very small investment of time really, takes, what, 10 minutes to strip a pair of wheels? (much less if you cut the spokes but I don't like doing that) Another 10 to change any bearings that need it, maybe a bit longer if the central one in the rear hub needs changed and puts up a fight.
Right, cheers again for input. In the end I couldn't repress the inner tight Scotsman and see past XT Hubs at £50 a pair (reduced on CRC), including very good QR levers. I'll need to man up to haul the extra grams up the hill. Good tip about looking out for some used wheels with DT 240s, woud consider doing that if I see some come up locally.
Tomd,
Would you be interested in a set of CK`s? in Pink? 32h...
It was cheaper to buy a new hub from Aspire than convert the old one to XD with the axel and driveshell. So i ended up buying a pair new.
DT 350s are really nice. They are by far the best option in terms of bang for buck.
Not quite the versatility in axle options compared to Hope, but so much better in every other way.
Got a few pairs of 240s and one of 350s. Would buy 350s next time as they're effectively the same thing for about half the price.
Unless you value the option to be able adjust bearings in a remote campsite or at 10pm the night before a big day out, then cup and cones are a daft idea.
I have had Hope (3 sets - still have 2) , Shimano (had many - now have none), Superstar (had 2, still have both).
My preference would be Hope, the superstar freehubs are a bit crappy to be honest, I managed to shear one in half. But they may have fixed that now with the new version of [s]their[/s] Novatecs Hubs.
You can easily service the Hope freehub which is nice.
Whilst King are lovely I'm not sure they are worth the extra over Hope.
Unless you value the option [s]to be able adjust bearings in a remote campsite or at 10pm the night before a big day out, then cup and cones are a daft idea.[/s] to regrease your hubs occasionally and keep them running for eternity for pennies, or rebuild them entirely should you ever take the fancy, for less than the costs a few bearings off hope.
King are massively over rated IMO. You also can't argue with how beautifully smooth a well maintained cup and come hub is.
Surely you mean "cup and cone" 😯