Let’s say you wanted a 135mm QR disc hub (any mounting) for year-round road use, but it has to be anodized red. What are your options up to about £150, and what’s good? Hope, Novatec… owt else worth having in that price range? Reliability, ease of maintenance and quiet freehubs are all Good Things.

I would definitely go for the hope hubs personally as they make you sound like a demented wasp

Mm, that’s pretty much what I don’t want, though. I like quiet hubs.

Dt 240?

Other than not being anodized red and being £100 over budget, perfect 😉

I definitely wouldn’t go Hope, purely down to the noise they make. The Novatech hub I’ve got seems well made & is pretty quiet. I’ve only ridden it around a carpark so far though so no idea on durability. I don’t really think there’s much else out there. I’d have gone with Shimano if they did something with more than 28 holes.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hinter-Nabe-DT-Swiss-240s-DISC-IS-135-5-32h-NEU-30-off-SUPER-PREISE-OVP-/331316493217?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_77&hash=item4d24007ba1

Have a look at the sellers other items too. There was a thread about them last week.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/dt-350-hubs-75-from-poland-for-a-pair-scam

Novatech covers a huge number of other suppliers too, people like superstar etc. You could look on ebay for something direct from china?

Goldtec hubs would be worth the extra. Hopes in recent forms haven’t been as reliable as their earlier great hubs. Either that or the DT hubs would be a great option. I am in the same quandary , although wont get one until the Formula hub dies on my Dale.

I’ve been impressed by the Halo Spin Doctor 6D on my road disc bike. 290-odd grams and well-made. Got it on the recommendation of an endurance rider they sponsored and haven’t been disappointed. I wore out the bearings in about the same time as my Hope hubs but imo it’s a nicer hub to work on and a very good overall design – the reversed pawl arrangement, axle cap fitting, bearing removal of either side w/o having to take the other out, etc. An under-rated hub. If they made a cassette SS version I’d use it over my Pro2 SS. Runs quietly with a bit of grease on the pawls too – not a fan of noisy hubs personally.

I expect I could get a very similar hub from TW direct but Ison’s support of the hubs, spares, service info etc is good. Worth me paying for imo (admittedly I got the hub at trade price but compared to a cheaper or even FOC TW sample it was still a fair bit more)

Ah, forgot about Halo when I was looking for an 11spd disc hub earlier this week which is why I ended up with Novatec. Think last time I looked there was only a 10spd version. Will remember this for next time, cheers jameso! They come in red and are relatively inexpensive so should meet Bez’s needs 🙂

Which Novatec did you go for simon?

Which Novatec did you go for simon?

One that came up top of the list when I did an Ebay search! Hardly scientific but it was £60, black and available next day 🙂

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Novatec-D711-front-D712-rear-6-bolt-rotor-disc-brake-hubs-QR-skewers-11-speed-/161650577063?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&var=&hash=item25a3200ea7

The Halo ticks the boxes, aye. Thanks.

What’s the deal with running a 10sp Shimano/SRAM road block on an 11sp MTB hub? Is that just a case of adding a spacer? (Sorry, haven’t caught up with 11sp yet…)

Are the quoted weights with the actual QR? (Site seems to imply they are.)

How many miles do you reckon you got from the bearings before replacing them? This is the one thing that makes me wonder whether I should just go with black hubs, ie a Shimano rear: I’ve never had a cup-and-cone hub bearing fail.

What’s the deal with running a 10sp Shimano/SRAM road block on an 11sp MTB hub? Is that just a case of adding a spacer? (Sorry, haven’t caught up with 11sp yet…)

Yup, 1.85mm spacer required on an 11spd freehub to run 10spd

How many miles do you reckon you got from the bearings before replacing them?

I got about 2000 miles, not much. It was only the disc side that had gone tho and it looked like a wipe of grease early on would have helped. Mixed road and dirt track use since last Sept but tbh I don’t get any better from stock hope bearings, as far as I can tell with all the variables etc. Really easy to service them, popped a Katec bearings in as they last well. Prefer Shimanos generally but it’s no issue either way for most stuff.

If you take the freehub off a HOPE hub, and repack it “with a bit more grease” it can be silenced quite substantially………

I wanted anything but Hope on the basis of noise. went with DT Swiss 350. Has a subtle noise and very quiet by comparison, and great quality. Not cheap though.

Hope is overrated. The rave is about durability but people mainly say how easy it is to change the bearings, but my Crank Brothers on one of my bikes is exactly the same with bearing replacement and seems to need it as frequently but gets bad rep (to be honest I agree seeing how little my old Formula OEM hubs needed servicing or my DT vs “easy to service” hubs because they often need servicing).

2000 miles! Jeez, next year I’m planning to do over a fifth of that in one ride.

Maybe I just go with black hubs, then 😐

You could do worse than look at the superstar switches. Had on one the commuter (single speed) for about 16 months and it’s been largely faultless. I did kill the supplied bearings in the first few months but stuck some decent ones in and its been great since. Still comes up cheaper than some of the other options.

I’m not a massive fan of the ring spring design in the freehub, single point of failure and all, but to be fair in three hind of that design I’ve owned the only one that went was due to my cack handedness in servicing.

Go black Bez, red hubs are rubbish anyway.

Mm. Don’t think I’ve yet found an M985 in stock. M785 is an option, another ~60g but £100 cheaper and readily available. Probably wise, really.

Slight thread ressurection, does anyone know what bearings are needed to replace the rear spin doctor 6D ones? Mine are graunchy.