What are the best "Money-No-Object" hubs around

Oh yes, forgot Royce – superb quality, and they're British…

: P

I've got a Rohloff at the back and a Son at the front. I think they're probably the best available at doing what they do and at over a grand for the pair certainly meet the money no object criteria as well.

“maintenance” consists of throwing your bike at the LBS spanner man and saying “Make it all worky again!”

God no – can't think of anything worse. I hate handing my bike over to someone else to try and fix. That does concern me a little with the ringdrive – specific tools etc etc.

hmmm

tune hubs are lovely as are industry nine and I have to say that my phil woods hubs are fantastic as well.

DT 190s. Might not be the poshest looking, but they are silly light, unbelievably hard wearing and very simple to service with a screwdriver, a hammer and some of the proper grease (seriously).

Tune – Ha! Great if you don't actually ride your bike. The bearings are just shite.

GB

fbk, you don't need the CK service tool for general maintainance and lubrication of a King hub. It's for removing the bearings from the hub.

I love my King hubs, and appreciate the work that has gone into making them. Never had to replace bearings in 5 years, just grease twice a year.

I've got Tune Prince/Princess 😆 Very nice. 1200g 32spoke wheelset.

I have nothing against CK hubs 😳 sorry 🙂

If I had the cash it'd be the Royce for me, along with a BB for my Middleburn cranks.

Middleburn have some new hubs coming this year according to their site and Royce have some titanium flange hubs coming too…

unbelievably hard wearing

Disappointingly, the only set of 190s we've sold, to a 50-something woman who weighs about 50kg, came back incredibly gritty and rough within a couple of months. Hideously overpriced IMO. Which is a shame!

190s aren't even that light once you take into account the centre lock gubbins etc.

I like my Industry Nine classic hubs a lot. More pickups than CK hubs and simpler freehub system. I also really like the American Classic hubs. Very light but well built and with some good design meaning very good wheels once built up.

i love my dt hubs but i wouldnt mind a shot on these bad boys http://www.industrynine.net/Enduro
my hopes are pretty dam good too.

If we're talking about actually living with the hubs and using them a lot I reckon DT 240s would get my vote. But then I do have access to the tool kit (only used it twice in 8 years of having multiple sets of the hubs mind).

I reckon DT hubs are a bit overrated – used my toolkit rather more than that until my DT hubbed wheel became my part of my spare set – replaced with some wheels with King/Kong. Still yet to do any maintenance on the Tunes in 4 years (though to be fair I've not done a lot of mileage the last couple of years). Don't get me wrong, it's a nice hub, but they seem to get all this hype about not needing maintenance, whilst I've found the front hub on the same set of wheels has needed less, and that's an American Classic which have a reputation for being high maintenance!

Whilst we're at it, can somebody explain to me the concept of "tool free servicing" which DT claim, when in fact you need more specialist tools for routine maintenance than other hubs?

I think my vote would go to the Tunes I have, or maybe a Prince/Princess. Not all that loud – quieter than Hope or CK IMHO, and definitely quieter than my Campag Record. Anyway you should only be freewheeling on bits where you're having to concentrate on lines or the wind noise drowns your hub out, so I don't see the problem!

Specialist tools? Since when has a screwdriver and a hammer been specialist?

I was guessing on the 190s – I have a pair of 240s with aftermarket ceramic bearings fitted all round and they're spot on. I guess this is the way to go?

GB

I've got 3 sets of kings. They can stick in very cold conditions, but if you take the 5 or so minutes to give it a quick lube before the winter its not a problem. No worse than other hubs in my opinion. In the 12yrs i've ran them, i've only had one failure, a snapped rear axle.
Royce – i hope they've improved. They looked fantastic, sounded even better, but the axle wouldn't stay tight. It wasn't just me, my mate had numerous bearings and 2 cracked hubshells.

Since when has a screwdriver and a hammer been specialist?

You use those to remove and install the bearings and the ring nut (where the star ratchet sits in) in a £200+ hub? 😯 Personally I've always found the ring nut takes enough force to remove using the proper tools.

having used most big brand and boutique hubs on the market

I would always go with Hope – I've found the Pro II to be a very, very good hub, regardless of the fact its more affordable than many fancy hubs

yes, I have broken the Pro II's freehub pawl springs – doing tiretaps on a 10 foot high, steep flatbank in the skatepark on my mountain bike (I have a BMX for the skatepark…) – Hope sent me replacement springs FOC within 24 hours 🙂

in terms of maintenance, spares, post-sale backup, strength to weight ratio and reliability, I have found the Pro II to be an excellent hub set, I run Pro II on both my mountain bikes with Stan's ZTR Flow rims and DT Swiss competition D/B spokes with brass nipples

excellent wheels, make the bikes feel SO crisp / quick and fast rolling

I've ridden in mud, snow, rain, sunshine, the freehub has never missed a beat…

love the fact that Hope are UK manufactured, any issues? call Hope, you speak to the guys who actually make them (refreshing, compared to speaking to a guy who "imports" a hub from Taiwan), they are 100% behind their products at Hope

when people say Pro II have poor engagement – I've ridden them in pouring rain on Vancouver's North Shore trails in Canada, balancing on a slippery, rotten log skinny going into a steep drop, no issues with "engagement" to comment on 😉

One of the great things about this country is the number of quality bicycle component manufacturers.

The only way they let themselves down is that they don't do American speak when they advertise, so they don't sound as absolutely amazingly brilliant or offer to improve your love life and have the neighbours looking at you with increased respect.

But they are just as good/better, and they're here, and they all have good backup.

Hope, Middleburn, Goldtec, Royce etc

Buy British.