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Has anyone had any experience of these? Do they have reasonable longevity? Easy to maintain? Not too heavy?....they seem to be a reasonable price.
You will get divided opinions. me - I would not have cup and cone bearing wheels due to the poor sealing and difficulty in replacing worn bearing races.
tend to be on the heavy side as well
I think the sealing on the newer Shimano hubs seems really good. My 2010 Deore & SLX were completely clean inside after 6 months hard use. My older Deore hub didn't seem to keep the dirt out so well. I just bought some new wheels with SLX hubs, couldn't justify the extra cost of hope hubs when the Shimano's did so well. They're no fashionable, but work and last and won't die if the cones are serviced properly.
Good price and only a bit heavier than than the competition. They're easy to maintain, replacement bearings are cheap. If packed with grease regularly will last a long time. mine are five years old with regular use and still working fine.
If you maintain them they last well.
They are a little heavier than pro 2s but they are a fraction of the price.
IME they don't last but I haven't had any in a few years. They are fine if you regularly maintain them but if you wait until you notice a problem then I have found it is too late. Having said that the LX hubs on my commuting bike are going strong as I stripped them and put extra grease in before the first ride.
They are heavier than many but what you do get is a steal freehub body that you can use lower end cassettes or singlespeed cogs on without having to worry. MY hope with a steal body on my singlespeed isn't massively lighter.
Personally I wish I'd bought some hope hubs way back as it would have worked out cheaper than the three sets of shimano hubs that died in about 5 years of riding (more than one bike).
Would never again get a Shimano rear hub. The 'pick up' or engagement is too sloppy. But they are nice and quiet tho.
I recently 'upgraded' from an xt rear hub to a pro 2 evo when I bought a new wheelset. The xt has 36 points of engagement compared to the hopes 24 and its noticeable, it also spins a lot more freely. Apart from having to adjust the cup and cones a couple of weeks after getting it I had no problems although I only ran it for about 10 months.
I was after a lighter, tubeless wheelset anyway so I'm not disapointed with the evo/crest hoops I bought but the evo hub just isn't really that much better than the xt IMO.