Viewing 24 posts - 1 through 24 (of 24 total)
  • ..recommend me a hub
  • scotbike
    Free Member

    I’m looking to build up a rear wheel for my Enduro. The use is all day mountain riding, Scotland and French Alps. I’m not sure on rim yet, but I’m leaning towards a DT Swiss hoop at the moment, feel free to chip in with good and bad experiences on that.. but the main question is which hub?

    I’m new to building up wheels for off-road, so I don’t have experience of much other than Shimano hubs, which I quite like because they’re cup and cone. Having said that, I’m considering something like Hope II – they seem ubiquitous, so I think that must mean they are good? Or maybe they’re not all that? Others I’ve looked at are DT Swiss – although they do seem pricey. Superstar – who seem to get good and very not good ratings here then there’s Nukeproof – a totally unknown quantity to me – any opinions on these? Halo? seem cheap, but are they any good? I’m budgeting up to £150. Again feel free to share your good and bad real world experiences on these, my riding will be the same as most of you on here – British mud n’ British rain.

    Anyway, they should be standard qr, 6 bolt, 32 spoke and available in Red if possible (is red still fast? I’m not really sure anymore). I’d like a steel freehub body, but if the freehub body is aluminium, it.’s not the end of the world. So, opinions please and thanks!

    Suggsey
    Free Member

    Had a Nukeproof Generator rear hub and to be honest very disappointed with it didnt live anywhere near as long as a Hope Pro 2. The freehub on the Nukeproof is its weakpoint due to the flat spings that are used for the pawls, when they get tired they devlop a spring memory and thus the freehub fails to engage properly.
    I have as a result of having to replace shimano ball bearings in cup and cone hubs resorted to all Hope Pro 2’s on both MTB’s. Dont get me wrong I did have one ‘explode’ the whole hub body split in a big way just on a XC ride but believe that was one of a weaker batch and they have now added extra material to the hub flange where alot of them failed.
    What I cannot overstate is the back up service/warranty of Hope they are truly the best company I have dealt with bar none for service (and that includes cars/washing machines etc etc etc).
    To conclude Hope Pro 2!

    scotbike
    Free Member

    Suggsey, thanks for shedding some light on the (not so very) nukeproof hub.

    I had thought that Hope would be the hubs to beat, just thought it would be good to hear about the competition, and if it really is competition – I like the Hope warranty performance as well – sure, you could say, ‘well if it’s any good it wouldn’t break’, but I reckon you can judge a company (or people for that matter) with how they handle a problem. Being a small-ish company, they do seem to respond to manufacturing issues well. As you say, a lot of companies could learn from their approach.

    fivespot
    Free Member

    You can’t go wrong with a Hope Hoop/Stans Flow rim combo for what you intend to ride. Its not worth building your own when you can get one built for £150ish. They also work great tubeless.

    ryan_c
    Full Member

    I’m not gonna give my opinion, but i will casually slide this link into the post http://www.pinkbike.com/buysell/723824/
    😉

    scotbike
    Free Member

    cheers fivespot – I was just looking at the Hope Hoop/Stan’s flow combo – you’re right, they’re well priced. And yep, this year, is the year I go tubeless.

    thomthumb
    Free Member

    if you like cup and cone shimano hubs are good. keep an eye o them when new as they (like any cup and cone) might loosen – keep them greased and they will last almost forever.

    otherwise hopes are the ones to beat. steel freehubs available as an upgrade. bearings easily replaceable. back up first class.

    toys19
    Free Member

    Yawn I cannot see why hope is any better than superstar, thats where I would send my wedge.. Easily as good , in my experience better. and loads cheaper.

    joolsburger
    Free Member

    Will let you know about superstar when I see 15 year old ones with thousands of miles on them. For now, Hope.

    IA
    Full Member

    IMO the main reason to go Hope over shimano is not the bearings (like yourself I’m not adverse to maintaining cup n cone, and it’s cheap and easy to do so.) but the freehub. Shimanos are one piece and therefore more expensive to replace (and cannot as a rule be repaired).

    Having said that, you save money in bearings on shimanos, so maybe that pays for the freehub?

    I don’t think you can ever go wrong with high end shimano kit (of any form), generally very reliable. Hope on both my bikes though.

    toys19
    Free Member

    Will let you know about superstar when I see 15 year old ones with thousands of miles on them. For now, Hope

    I guess this might be true for you but my hopes have had their bearings replaced 4 times in two years. SS ones are a year old and are still going strong on their original bearings.

    scotbike
    Free Member

    nice one ryan_c, now if they were 32h, red and qr, they’d be perfect 🙂

    thomthumb – yep, kind of wondering if I can be persuaded away from Shimano c&c is a pretty good system – just weighing up options.

    toys19 – I can see your point – Superstar are included in my search, as far as I’m concerned as long as a hub does a good job of holding bearings square that’s them done their job. And yeah ubiquitous can equal boring. But can I ask how they are, in your experience better than Hope? Same performance for less money – is that what you mean?
    edit: sounds grim toys19, that’s a lot of bearings – no wonder you’re keener on superstar

    oh and good point on the shimano freehub replacement requirements, I hadn’t thought of that – but that’s why I came on here isn’t it?

    mboy
    Free Member

    Others I’ve looked at are DT Swiss – although they do seem pricey.

    DT are pricey, but when you take it apart next to a Hope you’ll realise why… The quality is awesome!

    Of course, that’s not to say a Hope Pro 2 is of bad quality, just IMO DT are better… Of course the question to ask is are they worth more than twice the price? And 99.99% of the time, the answer is going to be no… The only reason I even own a pair of DT hubs at all was that I got them for a silly price, if that had not been the case I would have just bought Hopes.

    Oh, and on the rim front, stay away from DT funnily enough… As much as their hubs quality could be likened to a Swiss Watch, their rims quality could be likened to Swiss Cheese IMO. They’re soft as sh*te and very overpriced. Mavic (or Stans) all the way for rims…

    scotbike
    Free Member

    mboy – thanks, as you say is the extra worth it? Probably not. I have the awesomeness that is dt swiss precision on a set of factory DT road wheels – light and strong.. and no, not cheap. I had heard bad things about their mtb rims, I reckon Stans are the winner there. Swiss cheese 🙂

    Militant_biker
    Full Member

    Don’t make the mistake I did and buy a rear DMR Revolver to save cash. Utterly poo! I bought 2 in one go and built an XC and a DH set of wheels. Was constantly replacing bearings, but didn’t really have the cash to reinvest in something better. Once a tiny bit of play developed in the freehub, they tore themselves to pieces due to only having 2 bearings.

    I used Hope XCs for years, rebuilt into several wheels, before their bike was stolen. Loved them to bits.

    thomthumb
    Free Member

    Yawn I cannot see why hope is any better than superstar.

    hope are renowned for their excellent after sales, superstar are known for er, their unique aftersales.

    RealMan
    Free Member

    hope pro II on whatever stans rim best suits your riding.

    scotbike
    Free Member

    M_b:Jeez, I hadn’t even thought of DMR. Just as well!

    I’m getting the ‘Hope and Stans’ vibe big time here. Good to know.

    joolsburger
    Free Member

    Why are mavic rims taking a back seat to stans these days? I have some 521 cds that seem to be indestructible.?

    scotbike
    Free Member

    good question jb – I’ve got Mavic (road) rims that I’ve used and abused for 18 years – they just won’t die. When I was on v-brakes all my rims were Mavic. Is it because Stans are so reliably good with tubeless?

    martymac
    Full Member

    +1 for hope here, used my xc hub for 12 months, still looks/feels like new.
    however, i used a pair of shimano lx hubs for 6 years and have recently given them to a mate, and tbh, i couldnt fault them.
    need servicing now and then, but no actual faults at all.
    they just dont have the bling factor.

    RealMan
    Free Member

    I think it might be because stans rims can be run tubeless or tubed, they’re strong and light, not too expensive, and are very reliable.

    And plus, the range is so easy to understand. Does anyone understand mavics range? I’m still not 100% on what all the numbers mean.

    scotbike
    Free Member

    Hope Hoops are still looking good. Don’t anyone would deny that Shimano are bullet proof, but yeah, I admit it, a bit of Barnoldswick glam(!) would be good to have. Just looks ‘right’, and it’s great to get something made in this country. I’ve got a Hope qr seat clamp on my ht, and the thing of wonder is that it’s so good at doing such a basic task so well and with no bother ever.

    That’s a good point there about Mavics naming and numbering – it’s a huge range of (great) rims, but Stans are easy to understand and do the tubeless thing really well I hear, Stans invented no flats right? No fuss. Strong, Light and (failry) inexpensive ticks a the right boxes.

    Wasn’t there a lawsuit when Specialized (through Roval) tried to rip-off Stan’s strip and sealant idea?

    thomthumb
    Free Member

    And plus, the range is so easy to understand. Does anyone understand mavics range? I’m still not 100% on what all the numbers mean.

    first number is the level of the rim. 1 – 8 with 1 being low 7 being high 8 being tubeless. next 2 numbers is the rim width.

    eg. 719 is a 19mm highend rim, 819 is the tubeless version.

    Mavics seem a little outdated, they don’t really have any wide light rims which is what the current trend of trail rims seem to be.

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