I’m going to build a new front wheel for my road bike; non-disc, nothing fancy.

From a quick review of fleabay and Amazon it looks like I can get a basic front hub for about £10-£15 (mostly direct from the far east), normal flanges, 18/20/24h, QR axle and with cartridge bearings it’s a pretty basic component with very little scope to get wrong (IMO)… Is there any real reason to pay more for a branded version?
I’d rather spend more on the spokes and rim TBH…

So has Anyone built up one of these cheapo hubs?
will it explode my face off to Death or be completely fine?

Is there any real reason to pay more for a branded version

Not really, the shells themselves are normally sound and it’s a front hub, not under massive stress, the only real risk is that the bearings are awful, but if its a cheap cartridge hub they’re also cheap to replace…

I’ve used various Novatec one’s in the past, all been reliable, always < £20, one was a tenner I think…

Excellent,

All I wanted was a bit of positive reinforcement, Cheers!

I shall click buy later…

I would avoid going too-cheap on low-spoke count hubs and stick with a known brand like Novatec. The reason being that cheap hubs are often machined from billet, not forged. Low number of spokes, particularly radial built mean higher stresses that can result in catastrophic failure. My mate’s Chris King front hub failed recently

I was toying with a radial build, but 2x might be more sensible, 20 or 24 spokes, it all depends on rim choices really…

Cheers for the input.