Nice choice to be in the position to make, but I want some dream wheels for my dream road bike. Want somethig that is shiny and will last, any comments on any of the above? My instinct is Royce as they're uk, and very shiny indeed.
Goldtec are UK too (the unit is a 5 min easy ride from my house).
They don't have a silver colour option it seems, which is a bit of an oversight! Needs to be polished silver
Royce!
Ok! Probably will then! Are they easy to service?
No no no - Goldtec!!! he he. Call and ask about silver, we did some hubs chrome finish and they look superb.
Royce seem to be a shrine company on here with nothing but praise from people who have never owned them. they are nice I owned a pair for 3 years but they are not fit and forget both front and back went back with problems. Cliff is a super nice fella and the polish is best finish you can get but they are not the best hubs undernigh. Plus they are heavy nowadays.
Ok, now I don't know which to get, any experience of either pw or Goldtec?
I had problems with Royce on the mtb, but that was 10yrs ago. The bearings developed play and there was no adjustment, so new bearings. A mate has had 4 sets of bearings and 2 hub shells on his rear Royce with only light use. They look and sound fantastic, but I couldn't recommend them. Chris King, unless you're running campag
Chris kings here for me too on mavic open pro ceramics.
I run ck's on all my bikes now, but I do not think there is much to choose between the top end manufacturers in honesty. I use kings because, for me, they have been ultra reliable.
Friends have goldtec hubs and they love them too.
I've never run Royce or Phil wood to comment.
If you buy a pair of king classics or r45's from aspire velotech though, they turn out around £300 for the pair, which is great value.
I've got goldtec and phil woods hubs on 2 of my bikes both are lovely, the phil hubs area heavier but a thing of beauty. The new goldtec singlespeed hub is absolutely fantastic and you have the bonus that chaps at goldtec will anodise in whatever colour you want or leave them polished like they did for one of my wheelsets
the goldtech wheelbuilding blokey is rather jolly good as well.
That's a shame, I was sold on Royce. Can anyone defend them? I'll talk to betd about some polished hubs
have phil woods hubs on my fixie (dons flame proof jacket) and they are indeed a thing of beauty and would defo recommend them. would agree that theyre a bit heavy though. i'd buy hope over goldtec any day of the week. never used king or royce but i have heard of reliability probs with some king hubs. royce are lovely looking. ultimately it depends on what your idea of dream is.
I've got one of the newley available disc Royce hubs. Feels really nice and as everyone has mentioned looks great.
I've only had it a couple of months so can't comment on the longevity yet, only to say I have been putting in up to 150 off road miles a week on it - hasn't missed a beat. I'd be surprised if it is anything like the hubs of ten years ago mentioned above but, not taking anything away from the posters, I guess time will tell.
So far I wouldn't hesitate recommending them.
I've got one of the BB's as well, so so smooth I can't describe how much smoother it is than a Shimano. You would only believe it if you rode it! A bit of a faff setting that up and the torque bedding in process too, so I would only recommend the BB if you were really into techy tinkering.
Ok, narrowed down to Royce or Phil wood, cos the wheelbuilder said so. How easy are Phil wood spares to get, and how easy are each to service?
I bought Goldtec hubs and wheels from Goldtec / Jason before the company was sold to BETD - I went to University at Cardiff and used to bump into Jason up in the hills. Later on, I did some bits with Dragon DH. I have to say the Goldtec hubs I bought were basically fit and forget jobs - I'd pop a bit of oil into the rear hub every now and again (it used a total oil loss system) and it just carried on ticking. The wheel builds were also excellent, although I think it was either Jason or Pinky building them at the time.
HTH
Just to let you know the my Royce hubs were not 10 year old models but the current 6 bolt disc hubs.
Like I say Cliff is great but when my rear went back he put a prototype cassette body and pawls to replace the broken one but I was without my hub for over 4 months.
My Royce SS CX wheelset are so smooth even after no TLC and 3,000 miles.
Love them!