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Was reading a piece on upside down forks recently, I think it was Push. There was the usual talk of torsional stiffness and there was a comment about hubs making a noticeable difference if they have one piece axles rather than push in caps.
I can't think of a single 110x15 hub with a one piece axles. Anyone know of any, ideally I bend 6 bolt?
Chris King?
Proprietary discs, and straight pull, but KOMs Xeno will help. Run a 20mm axle on mine with a 150mm Intend USD fork, no issues with stiffness on trail.
Yeah, 20mm makes sense, just as a long time Hope user, I'm just so used to their design, I wasn't sure who was doing it differently.
They could take it a step further, integrate the 15mm fork axle with the 20mm tube in the hub and make it a 20mm axle so that all forks were stiffer and lighter ............
I wonder if anyone's thought of that before?
Why, when Foes had gone all the way to 30mm, Maverick had gone 24mm, Specialized had gone 25mm, did Fox ever let shimano convince them that 15mm was a solution?
Now that "compliance" is a hotter buzzword than "stiffness", I'm not sure anyone's particularly chasing it?
Unless they have a flexy USD fork to compensate for, of course.
Talking of Push... they were pushing the idea of swapping between normal 15mm end caps and Torque Caps to tune stiffness on their inverted fork. All bobbings if you ask me... this is one area where any play/flex is always unwelcome (in my opinion). Fox's new upside down fork should have gone 20mm minimum... even if that admitted a misstep and made hub choice a bit more limited.
Now that "compliance" is a hotter buzzword than "stiffness", I'm not sure anyone's particularly chasing it?
Unless they have a flexy USD fork to compensate for, of course.
I think what you want is a level of lateral compliance, and nothing else. Fore-aft or twisting isn't beneficial.
And lateral movement is going to be easier to achieve as twisting in the frame / headtube area.
Fox'snew upside down fork should have gone 20mm minimum... even if that admitted a misstep and made hub choice a bit more limited.
I'm not sure why they couldn't just go crazy and make a 30mm or even bigger hub and some matching 220mm disk rotors and be done with it. The kind of people spending £1k+ on a fork aren't going to be querying the cost of a wheel build.
Anodize them (and the brake centers) in Kashima and people would probably have paid a premium for them 😂.
I don't understand the assertion that a larger thru-axle diameter makes the system stiffer. The thru-axle itself doesn't provide meaningful stiffness to the system - it is effectively a pinch bolt to squish the legs of the fork against the axle (or end cups) on the hub. (If you don't believe this, loosen the thru-axle by half a turn or so and you will get a lot of play in the wheel.) The thing you stick through the wheel when installing it isn't the axle, that is built into the hub.
The stiffness of the system, in my mind, is a function of the diameter of the actual axle/end caps and the clamping force provided by the pinch bolts. A larger thru axle has the benefit that it increases the diameter of the interface of the axle. However, it will reduce the clamping force for a given torque due to increased friction on the threads.
So, the best solution should be to have a relatively small diameter thru-axle with a wide diameter for the axle to interface with the fork. Which I think is what rockshox were trying to achieve with torque caps, but as far as I can tell no-one ever made a wheel to take advantage of the extra axle diameter it affords.
Meanwhile someone at push is laughing over a cuppa coffee that that got published
I like new and different stuff but I'm starting to think right way up is actually best on a bicycle ☹️
With the new Podium fork Fox have demonstrated that for a hefty weight and price penalty you can have a fork that rivals the.....38
So, the best solution should be to have a relatively small diameter thru-axle with a wide diameter for the axle to interface with the fork. Which I think is what rockshox were trying to achieve with torque caps, but as far as I can tell no-one ever made a wheel to take advantage of the extra axle diameter it affords.
SRAM called it “Torque Tube”, and used it in their “predictive steering” hub. A few other brands announced they were using it as well (DT Swiss) were one, but I can’t recall if any ever made it to market.
[ I don’t agree that it offers anything over a 20mm axle though, especial something like Manitou’s Hex Lock ]