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Any STWers have experience of these?
Looking at them as a cheap and cheerful hub for a spare wheelset. £50 is the cheapest I've seen a QR/XD hub but it's £50 down the drain if they're made of queso, or the seals fail on the first splash of mud. Planet-X and quality control...
I've just de-laced an OEM wheel that had a knackered hub not worth fixing but a half-decent TLR rim, and found by happy coincidence that the spokes are the correct length to rebuild it with the Guapo. So I'll soon find out for myself whether it's junk or not. 🙂
Have you tried a search of this forum mate?
I'm fairly sure they have come up before on here?
Yes mate.
And they didn't. Just a bloke in the classifieds trying to flog a wheelset containing one.
I've tried a search before, it seems no one has ever said anything bad about them.
Probably fine then.
I'm guessing they are probably Novatec hubs rebranded?
Yeah, and not just nothing on STW but I couldn't find anything either for or against anywhere on the WWW. Well not that wasn't published by Planet-X/On-One anyway.
I think you're probably right. If not a budget Novatec then from the cheaper end of Chosen, Bitex or Joytech's catalogue.
I'm now running them after that chat on here with Brant about hubs, all i can say so far is FREAKIN AWESUMZ! (For the dosh)
Pawl engagement is near instant, pedals turn about 10 degrees or so before pawls start engaging, which was my biggest gripe with my old freehub when doing low speed techy stuff.
I had a deeks inside before fitting and it looks a doddle to rebuild too, so a bonus there
Cheers, ulysse. That's really good to know.
I cant find fault with em for the money, my finger was hovering over "buy" on a set of Hopes, but im glad i didn't now
Not El Guapo hubs, but I just got a pair of Novatec 771sb/772sb from Australia (cyclingdeal.au) for £62 posted, arrived in 6 days and are ~450g. Likely to be similar to the El Guapo hubs and I'm fairly sure they are the same as Superstar Switches. Convertible between QR and bolt thru front and rear, a bargain I reckon, might be a reasonable alternative?
Edit: https://www.cyclingdeal.com.au/shop/parts/hubs/1116
I have done about 250 miles on a set so far, all ok.
The only criticism is the front spacers are a little loose, this means the axle can be tricky to push through.
I don't think El guapo are novatech, they look subtly different and I can't see the 11spd spacer ring on any pic of a novatech
No defo not novatech,they are the same as stans neo hubs.
Well it's arrived and just handling it I'm starting to see what the fuss about 72 points of engagement is. Wow, that's going to feel instant after the 18 I'm used to!
Popped it on the scales as I had them out. 280g, so 30g more than the 772 I have, but that's not material for this application.
I'll lace it up in the next few days. If it self destructs in use I'll come back and update. But your posts has given me confidence it won't. Thanks for the help, everyone.