I’m wondering about re-purposing an old Kinesis Pro6 frame as a spare single speed CX bike.

Has anyone any experience of the White Industries ENO Eccentric disc hub? Anecdotes from the non-disc version welcome too, but it is the disc one I’m particularly interested in.

I had the non disc one for a while and worked just nicely.

But not sure what it will do to disc – pad alignment and if you’d get a lip on the pads

But not sure what it will do to disc – pad alignment and if you’d get a lip on the pads

I believe the idea of the disc one is that the disc is attached to the hub in such a way that it doesn’t move when you tension the chain.

I thought they used to sell eccentric disc post mount adapters that you screw your discs into?

I used one great bit of kit just a shame the bearings were so open to dirt and crap

[url=https://flic.kr/p/4zoR4P]DSC00171[/url] by Richard Munro, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/4z6n11]DSC00166[/url] by Richard Munro, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/4D46cN]DSC00249[/url] by Richard Munro, on Flickr

Yep you need an eccentric mount to keep the brake lined up… works pretty well imo.

Overall it’s a very nice hub, takes a bit of time to get used to tensioning the chain while keeping it lined up as you might expect.

Been running a regular ENO Eccentric hub in fixed / SS form for many years. Bearing sealing isn’t brilliant – could do with an external seal – but bearing replacement is pretty easy / cheap. The rest of the parts are well made. Haven’t tried the disc mount – expect you could rig a mount up from spacers etc as once you’ve adjusted for chain tension, everything stays pretty static, particularly if you run a 1/8″ transmission as it takes years to wear.

I’ve got one, and yes you are supposed to use the eccentric disc mount adaptor too but I never have even though I have it.

on one frame I bodged a normal mount with some spacers and that worked adequately. On another frame I used a different sized disc and by chance it all lined up perfectly at correct tension.

Thanks guys – some useful pics and info there.

Needing a disc mount too sounds like an extra layer of faff. I’d heard that the bearing wear quickly – not ideal for a SS CX bike!

Looking at the disc adaptor (I see it is on the White Industries site too) it won’t help with my post-mount frame, so I’d need to bodge something to move the caliper.

I’ve had a few years use out of one without issue and I very much like how quick and easy it is to drop a wheel in and tension it, even with an oval chainring. For my singlespeed, I think it’s a very ‘fit and forget’ solution. I love it.

I find that having positioned the brake caliper with some spacers it takes the full wear of a chain without needing to be moved, so although it’s not such an attractive solution as an Eccentric caliper mount, it works perfectly well for me and I only needed to do it once. That may be because my axle position is, by luck, just slightly forwards of centre, so movement is quite horizontal through chain wear, but then the shift in position through chain wear is small anyway.

What sort of BB does the frame have?

I ran one (non disc) for a while 10 years ago.

I had mixed success with mine. The inner face of the dropouts needs to have a good section of “flat” so that the oval surface of the hub end cap doesn’t slip.

I had good success using it on a frame like the Ti airborne above (lovely bike BTW) but much less success with a frame with Ritchey cowled dropouts – it kept slipping.

If your frame has flat inner faces to the dropouts you should be fine.

I never experienced any issue with the bearings.

I went the other way and got a Philcentric EBB.  Nice piece of kit, fit and forget, well built, with replaceable bearings.  arguably nicer to have that litel bit of extra weight at the BB rather than the rear hub.

What sort of BB does the frame have?

It’s a good old fashioned threaded BB (which I still prefer!) so I thought an eccentric BB wouldn’t be an option. I hadn’t seen the Philcentric option before – looks quite elegant. Does the size of the cups affect crank options at all?

A BB option would allow me to keep my existing wheel and certainly save a bit of disc brake bodging.

Not cheap, but it is elegant!  doesn’t give a huge adjustment range, I have to use a half link as well to keep the ratio I want.

It is a chunkier unit, I had to grind off the granny ring tabs on my old Hone triple for it to fit.  Wouldn’t imagine you’d have a problem with most cranks you’d want to use.

I’ll take some pics when I’m home.  I’d offer you a look and an offer up if you were local (Surrey Hills) but you’re not even a tiny bit local are you?

I’ll take some pics when I’m home.  I’d offer you a look and an offer up if you were local (Surrey Hills) but you’re not even a tiny bit local are you?

That’s very kind, thanks. Yes, Surrey is a fair way from Perthshire unfortunately!

I’m currently running a Shimano double crankset, and presumably could pop on a 1/8 or 3/32 chainring and half link chain, and get a SS cog for my existing wheel. This is definitely sounding a bit less faff than the eccentric hub.

Do the bearings last okay in the BB?

sorry for delay, bit dark in the garage, but here’s some from this morning’s ride:

KMC X8 chain, gusset half link.  You might not need a half link with your combo.

And you might even get lucky with a magic ratio – that’s definitely worth trying before you spend any money on tensioning!

I’ve got an XT double waiting to go on something else, I’ll offer it up if I get some time later.  Shame you’re so far away, I’ve got the shop fitting tool as well, could have saved you a bit of shop faff if you go this way.  Slightly funny/annoying co-incidence, I bought mine s/h from scotroutes off here with the tool, he can’t be far from you?

i’d suggest a bb mounted chain device. one that mounts in place of a spacer would be even easier to adjust than the iscg one i used to use.

Thanks for the photos. It certainly looks pretty neat. Fair point about getting a magic ratio, although from experience it never lasts long when its muddy.

Yes, I knew scotroutes back when I worked in Edinburgh and he was still at the bike chain. Small world.

A tidy BB device could work, but I want something completely mud proof – a good Scottish CX race ruins many a drivetrain! I’m intending to use this Pro6 singlespeed when it is too muddy for my geared cross bike.

I ran the non-disc version of the hub many moons ago. Nice bit of kit, but I found it about finickety to set up.

I’d never had any luck with tensioners over the years, but I ended up acquiring a Paul’s Melvin tensioner and its genuinely amazing 😋 makes setting up SS on a non-ss frame so easy, allohws a degree of adjustment with cog and chainring sizes, and will even allow you to set up the bike as a dingle speed (one rear cog, two front). This means I can run an emergency 22t granny on the SS, just in case like.