Any love for silent hubs? Tairin Silent Shogun

Been running this for a few months now, kind of forgot about it after the initial wow factor, but yesterday’s ride reminded me of it. Descending some grassy tracks in southern Scotland, completely silent, listening to birdsong. So I think more people should enjoy the joy of a silent hub.

My previous hub was a Hope Pro 4. I didn’t choose it for the noise and I put up with it for a long time, but I always thought that silence would be better. Looked at things like Onyx which I remember being expensive, heavy, complex, and a different engagement feeling.

Found out about the Tairin Silent Shogun when it was very early days for it as a product. The non-silent version had been in production for years, and they’d already had a ratchet-based silent hub (S1) out for a while, which this pawl-based one was to supersede. The operating principle is a cam plate to retract the pawls, so a pretty simple but clever development of a standard pawl hub. Decided to take a bit of a chance on it after a chat with the designer. I figured if it doesn’t work well, it can be reverted to a tried and tested non-silent hub just by removing a couple of parts. I had Ryan Builds Wheels import the hub and build the wheel for me, as he was already doing a couple for other customers.

The hub has been flawless in operation. As I was warned about, it did make the occasional clicking sound during the first couple of rides, but since then that’s been very rare. From my perspective it performs just as good as a Pro 4 except that it’s completely silent, even when you backpedal a bit to adjust your crank placement. It has some other clever things about floating engagement to help with pedal kickback but honestly I couldn’t feel any difference and never had this issue before anyway.

The peace and quiet when riding leisurely is nice, but for me it also feels beneficial in fast technical riding. Everything feels more calm and relaxed, like everything is happening slower and you have more time to think. You can hear everything your tyres are doing too. I swapped tyres at the same time as the hub, so unfortunately don’t have Strava times to compare. If you’re a racer, I reckon it’s worth some amount of time.

You do need to be mindful of what the lack of noise means for other trail users. My new theory is that while a bell alerts people to a bike nearby, they rely on other constant bike noises to figure out which direction the bike is coming from. So with a silent hub you need to keep ringing it a few times until they’ve turned their heads. Similarly with sheep, unless you’re on a noisy surface you need to keep making noise. I’ve also startled a few pheasants at close range as they couldn’t hear me and I couldn’t see them.

So, yes, get a silent hub, you won’t regret it.

I had DTSwiss hubs on my Roval Wheels and did enjoy the silence. It was just a shame that we couldn’t get the bearings out of them…

Oh god yes!  I hate noisy freehubs, and generally find Shimano ones the quietest mainstream ones, but the lack of cartridge bearings means I’ve written several off due to poor/lack of maintenance…..

I’ve settled on mavics now, for ease of serviceability, and they’re not too bad.  Though the ratchet ones have a completely different tone to the pawl hubs which freaks me out sometimes when I switch bikes!

If only Shimano had continued Developing their silent clutch from the late 90’s, silent hubs may have become the norm rather than exception!!

Yep, I’m a silent hub aficionado. It’s why all my bikes have Shimano wheels on them. Plus I prefer cup/cone bearings for maintainability.

I’m not aware of any DT or current generation Shimano (not the old Scylence) hubs that are actually silent. Only that some of them might be quiet enough that you could barely hear them over tyre/ground noise.

I’m sure the Shimano silent clutch hub is still in the classifieds

Rd beat me to it.

I’m guessing pricey. My other half bought a new bike (Liv Lurra) recently. I came home last weekend to her asking how best to sell it. For why, I enquired? “The wheel is so noisy!”. And it is, I just don’t think she realised a wheel can be swapped out.

(Ps noisy 27.5 wheel for sale)

I’m not aware of any DT or current generation Shimano (not the old Scylence) hubs that are actually silent.

No, you’re right. But Shimano are markedly quieter than most hubs.

I do very much like my Onyx Vesper

I like the idea of near instant engagement from some of the roller clutch hubs, but also like a noisy hub for gently alerting walkers (I run an Alfine on my commuter and you have to be careful not to spook people). These look interesting:

https://nsmb.com/articles/true-precision-stealth-roller-clutch-hubs/

I’m guessing pricey.

465 CAD$ in is £267.

Hope Pro 5 RRP is £220 although can be found for around £200.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that CAD isn’t nearly the same as USD. I didn’t import it myself so I’ve no idea how the price I paid broke down, but I believe there’d be no duty, only VAT.

Its a weird fettish.

Sallying forth with my my bumble hordes is where its at.

DT Swiss 1900 wheels are as near to silent as you will get. The stock Giant AM wheels that came on me Trance X were almost silent too, I think they were Shimano hubs on those. Once you get used to the joy of hearing nature… there’s no going back….

I like the idea, they’re just missing a selection of pretty colours.

Seriously though, I’d definitely consider these for my next wheels. Especially if a pro wheel builder can do the faff of importing them.

Got both extremes on my bikes. Shimano Dura ace hubs on my summer bike. Hope on my TT bike and scribe on the winter bike (I thought the Hope were loud but these are on another level) Give me the DA hubs anytime, in fact the scribe’s are a bit embarrassing tbh

I’m one of the other Ryan builds wheels customers that got a set of the Tairin hubs back in September last year. My experience hasn’t been perfectly smooth, particularly when I cased very heavily and broke the cam plate. I did also total an alloy DT rim though so I don’t know that you’d consider it fair use.

Tairin were amazing about getting me up and running again though and now the hub comes with a steel cam plate rather than the alloy that I broke.

I’ve since built another set of wheels (myself this time) with Pro 5 hubs for a different bike and they’re great but I wish I’d picked Tairins again. The silence really is addictive and I can’t fault the customer service.

I too have been sent the improved cam plate, although I haven’t fitted it yet. That was on Tairin’s initiative (credit to them), and they distributed them through Ryan.

Seriously though, I’d definitely consider these for my next wheels. Especially if a pro wheel builder can do the faff of importing them.

Last I heard Tairin was working on getting more established with some UK builders, so by now there may well be a couple of options which can provide a smoother supply than self-import or a builder who’s never dealt with them before.

I bought a set of Fulcrum wheels for my Diverge and was totally unprepared for the rear hub silence! Had to refit my bell 😂

nope love a loud hub

got these HASSNS PRO7 hubs for Sophie’s bike.

I love quiet hubs and really wanted the new (ish) Shimano XT M8100 hubs for my next wheelbuild, but I got put off by too many internet posts on their unreliability.

I ended up going with noisy Pro 5s instead – shame they’ve got two less ‘pros’ than HASSNS Ali specials, those must be amazing…

I have Onyx hubs planned for my next major upgrade. Perhaps next year if I’m lucky.
Got one used rear hub for sons bike and have been wanting one ever since. Unfortunately there aren’t any used ones available for silly Superboost hub standard.

@finbar I would say you can’t go wrong with those Hassns but they are pretty shit. No sealing on the adaptors and the resistance from the freehub is shocking. But they were only £50 for the pair.

We’ve got the full spectrum on this thread, from innovators and solid local SMEs, to the Chinese knockoffs of their products – and those who buy them.

I’ve got an Onyx classic on my main mtb and I love it.  It picks up instantly and is completely silent so it’s just the general rattling of bike and the noise from the tyres.

It’s a good job I don’t believe in pedal kickback or I’d have to sell it . . . or buy an O-Chain, and I’m not doing that.

Pedal kickback isn’t a belief, it’s a mechanical phenomenon 😉

Either it’s not an issue on my bike, or I’m not sensitive enough to notice it.

With the Tairin it’s always the same few degrees from engagement, so it’s meant to be better than a traditional hub where it could be anywhere from 0.1 to say 8 degrees from engagement. So should help avoid kickback and have a consistent engagement pedal stroke.

For maximum geekery it would be interesting to try these different hubs and OChain on a bike that does exhibit kickback.

I loved my Alivio silent hub. It allowed me to sneak up on people on the canal path and time it exactly to hit the big puddle, just as they walked alongside it.

Many a happy summers day was spent on the path with YA F^%@$#.B£%*&”@#D!!! being shouted at me as a peddled off grinning.

Like coconut I have DT swiss 1900s. I recently replaced the freehub with a steel one and the difference is remarkable. Despite being apparently identical apart from material , the steel one is incredibly clicky compared to the near silent alloy freehub. Strange.

My Dura Ace 7400 are virtually silent, as are my XT HB M737’s.  The MAvic road wheels are a bit noisier but within reason.

I’ve some noisy Superstar V6’s on my FS, and they do come in handy warning walkers.

@poah I’ve got two Hassns freehubs now they’re so dirt cheap I sort of had to buy them.

But yes my gravel bike is lovely and silent while I pedal, but the second I stop turning the cranks a swarm of angry Hornets starts chasing me… I actually often feel the need to soft pedal past Peds out of sheer embarrassment.

bikesandboots
Pedal kickback isn’t a belief, it’s a mechanical phenomenon

It’s the latest neck brace or vibration sticker phenomenon but that is a separate subject.

Quiet hubs are classy hubs and Silent hubs are the best of them.  Noisy hubs are just crass, attention seekers or cheap. That belief stems from BMX days when the Shimano freewheels were quiet and expensive and anything else was noisy and therefore s***.