Singlespeed hubs worth it or not……

For any upcoming build I will need a new wheel and hub. Budget isn’t a huge issue as it’s a long term build on a custom frame (still on waiting list). Obviously, I know I can just space out a standard 9spd cassette wheel, but having seen the screw-on sprocket hubs of Phil Wood and the like – any advantage of this system? Will a single sprocket chew into the free-hub body of a standard hub?

I think the only real advantage of a single speed hub is that the spoke spacing is wider, so there is less dish and the wheel is theoretically stronger.
That, and it shows commitment to the cause, of course.

A spaced sprocket will chew in a bit after time, but probably not enough to notice. My Hope XC (steel freehub) looks a bit manky but still works just fine.

I think the salient point is you’ve a custom single speed frame on the way.. be a shame to ‘compromise’ on a few quid in getting a nice rear wheel built, but then I align tyre graphics with rim graphics 🙂

Cassette hubs like Hope’s have several bearings to service, including the fiddly ones inside the freehub body. Screw-on hubs generally have only two (like normal front hubs) which makes servicing much easier and cheaper. And when you replace the freewheel you get fresh bearings and engagement mechanism with your new driving teeth for about £15 (Shimano) which is similar to the cost of a splined cog.

I have a singlespeed hub for my genesis io and have always wished it was a standard freehub so I could use it as a spare wheel for when the one on my main bile was out of action and for that reason I would always use a standard freehub and conversion kit in the future.

I’ve also found that there is quite a large difference in cost between single speed hubs/sprockets with the really expensive ones apparently being good but the affordable just being really awful and lasting a matter of months if not weeks.

That said, I do kind of agree with the thing about if your getting a custom frame made particularly for singlespeed use it would be good to have a really nice singlespeed specific hub on it.

No help at all was it.

screw on SS hub,then you can enjoy the benefits of a White Ind. freewheel !

saladodger of this parish went to a spaced freehub from a ss specific and despite using quite nice bits found the combination actually heavier.
TBH i’m a bit torn. can see the advantage of using parts common to the other mtb, but have been using WI freewheels on on-one ss hubs for 6 years or so, and the combination does work very well. bearings are easy to change on both. only just retired one ss wheel as i’d been riding it for so long with rather baggy spokes, that when i did eventually get around to tightening everything up, i found they’d been fretting at each other for so long the spokes were now ~ half their original thickness at the crossover. 😳

You want a flip/flop hub with freewheel on one side and fixie on the other. Makes running disc brakes a challenge but no-one, ever, can diss your commitment to the cause!

Keef – Member
screw on SS hub,then you can enjoy the benefits of a White Ind. freewheel !

^This

Extra cost, including optional bling like WI freewheel vs. std shimano hub + £4 cog.

Waste of money in practical terms.

You want a flip/flop hub with freewheel on one side and fixie on the other. Makes running disc brakes a challenge but no-one, ever, can diss your commitment to the cause!

I’m thinking one way to do this is to have a front fork built so that you can run a fixie on the front and a free on the back – and swap the wheels over when you want… but what we really need is a hub builder to build a hub which has a fixed/free mechanism inside, or a fixed sprocket next to the free sprocket, so all you have to do is loosen the rear wheel and pop the chain across to go fixie/free – I can’t see the chainline being a few mm off being a big issue?

For me… I like to keep my stuff compatable with my other bikes, but for a custom build I probably wouldn’t… I would probably buy something like the Hope SS hub so I can change the sprocket size easier and cheaper than changing a WI freewheel.

messiah – Member
I’m thinking one way to do this is to have a front fork built so that you can run a fixie on the front and a free on the back – and swap the wheels over when you wan

135mm fat fork will do that already.

If you never want to change your gearing, a screw on is good and with a White Industries freewheel, pretty well trouble free.

Otherwise it/s hard to go past the Hope Pro II SS hub.

If it’s a custom bling build then an SS hub is a must. You’ll hate yourself every time you look at it if you don’t.

In my own experience (and that of few friends):

Chris King, sweet but not that light and will need a strip and lube twice a year.
Hope, designed to take six cogs for trials legality so doesn’t actually look very SS, pawl assembly needs regular cleaning and lube.
On-One/DMR, essentially the same hub, cheap and easy to change bearings.
Surly, uses unnecessarily complicated and expensive bearings.
Superstar/Woodman, essentially the same design and similarly short lived.

WI on a Surly Hub here.
Freewheel is brilliant.
Hub is heavy. And the bearings have gone rough pretty quickly.
Will be swapping for Pro2’s when I can.

In addition to what I wrote above, the DMR/On-One hubs have very wide set flanges which can cause the spokes to hit the brake caliper on a 29er build with 160mm disc.
Also, the Halo Clickster freewheel gives a faster pick up than a Shimano item and will run 8 speed chains.

On the road I wouldn’t use anything other than the a WI freewheel cause I know roughly the gradients I’m dealing with. Off road, with different conditions, terrain, mud etc I’m changing between 17, 18 and even 19 so cassette hub and cog works better for me. If I didn’t have an eccentric bottom bracket insert I’d probably go freewheel though.

I bought a wheel with a DMR singlespeed hub off the classifieds 5+ years ago, it’s still going strong without any maintenance at all. Same with a new white industries freewheel bought around the same time, only just had to give it its first service. Also it’s nicer from an engineering/aesthetics point of view to use a s/s specific combo. If you expect to be into the singlespeed thing in the long term, definitely worth it IMHO.

There’s a noticeable difference in stiffness, plus you’re less likely to break the driveside spokes as they don’t have to be wound up so tight.
I’ve got an on-one hub. Nice and simple, but it’s a heavy lump.

Discovered at the weekend that filling a DX freewheel with marine grease makes it not work when it’s so cold that the mud freezes to your bike!

been considering an SS wheel for a while, if your going for screw on then WI seems the way to go shimano are closer to £20 now and bearings don’t last very long on road so dunno what they’ll be like xc. You can strip/regrease shimano but it’s a right faff (96 tiny bearings iirc)
WI plus a light hub will cost, dunno if they will be very light either, no dish tho.
AC and stans do SS hubs, should be light, dunno how easy to service tho, bearings/pawls/drive rings etc could be as pricey as a WI freehub tho.

Hmm maybe I’ll stick with the old hope xc for now.

edit

filling a DX freewheel with marine grease makes it not work

too much normal grease can make it a bit iffy for a while too

It splurges out what it doesn’t need! I find them a doddle to service though.. Just leave all the balls in place, and only put grease in the outside.. It’ll work its way through as you tighten it back up.

Was deffo the cold.. Was fine earlier in the afternoon, but engagement got more and more sluggish as the temp dropped.

Sorry for he hijack but I have a hope pro 2 ss hub built with black dr comp spokes and a nukeproof generator rim only had 1 outing in great condition hub is the gun smoke colour £115 posted or if you want to email to discuss more it’s in my profile.

Ash

Wow! I half expected it to bias against the ss specific hubs. I’m almost sold, one other question; I take it that it’s not possible to adjust the spacing on a screw on sprocket? I have wonky legs and prefer to run a wide Q-factor – ss is a generally narrower chainline so I’d be running a shorter BB axle, whereas spaced cassette hub I can run it out nearer the end of the hub and get a wide BB…

Grateful of the replies!

The truth Del tells

saladodger of this parish went to a spaced freehub from a ss specific and despite using quite nice bits found the combination actually heavier.

The wheel I built was XC717 rim on a Hope s/s hub with a Surly sprocket

With hindsight I would of stuck to the WI freewheel on a DMR hub it worked trouble free for years

i am selling a w.i. hub an freewheel on the bay at the mo’. while it looks and sounds nice, it works no better than a pro2 standard with velo solo spacer kit an king sprocket (at around the same money). in fact, the plus on the cassette option is the ease of gear change.

I used to run WI’s but they don’t take neglect anywhere near as well as a Shimano freehub. Eventually switched to an XT hub which other than a couple of dead freehubs is far better and cheaper to run as WI spares aren’t cheap either.
You can use your hub of choice then and have a spare wheel for other bikes.
The other option is a SS hub from hope or chris king which takes a cassette cog rather than a freewheel.

i have a ss specific dmr revolver.the hub is fine, but the boring shimano freewheel is arse and rough. would rather have a hope ss hub in retrospect i think.

tomlevell – Member
I used to run WI’s but they don’t take neglect anywhere near as well as a Shimano freehub….

You must do pretty aggressive neglect 🙂

Winter riding + not washing after ride and the bearings don’t like being left and are hard to resurrect from that point and expensive to replace.
Also the wear rate on the cog is nowhere near as long as say a Surly cassette one and you can flip the surly one over.
I wouldn’t go screw on again.
But yes WI is the only choice for screw on freewheel and are very good. Just not as long lasting as your normal favourite hub.
i think I have 4 complete ones in the garage somewhere. Mostly in bits and mostly with seized bearings. I’ll have to resurrect one soon for a work/town bike.

i got a wtb laser disc single duty off CRC for my pompetamine, for an absolute bargainous price. flawless so far, though i’d think twice about paying full whack for one!

Keef – Member
screw on SS hub,then you can enjoy the benefits of a White Ind. freewheel !

^^^

For a custom build go with a proper hub, never mind saving a few quid on a botch job. In 15 years I’ve only once needed to put a singlespeed wheel into a “proper” MTB as a spare, and that was just to take photos of a bike that I got given that just had a front wheel.

No problems with Hope SS hubs (the “proper” ones that take a BMX freewheel, Spot, Phil, or White Industries. Can recommend any of those. On-One s/s hubs weigh a ton.

White Industries freewheels do work better/last longer than standard Shimano ones IME. And Tim at Sideways is a lovely man to buy one from.

the other thing is that if it’s a custom build, singlespeed specific undoubtedly look better than an adapted cassette hub. which has to be at least a partial consideration.

whereas spaced cassette hub I can run it out nearer the end of the hub and get a wide BB…

Does not compute. On all my SS hubs the sprocket is nearer the dropout than any spaced out freehub I’ve ever seen, and the problem has been getting a wide enough BB to get a good chainline. So a SS hub actually gets you what you want unless I’ve misunderstood something.

No not misunderstood anything nick3216 – exactly what I mean. Thinking of perhaps a Phil Wood with a WI sprocket on my fave 819’s (that’s probably more controversial than the hub :wink:)

Great, just the sort of info I’m looking for!

Another numpty question; will the WI sprockets run ok with an 8spd chain or do I need a chunky PC1 type chain?

Cheers

fine with 8 speed.. but you really want to be running a proper 3/32 singlespeed chain. KMC 610 ones do the job.

I’ve been using one of these (modified with an MTB axle and some spacers) for years:

if you’re worried about gear ratios on a screw-on freehub, then go for a W.I. duo – 2 tooth difference between the 2 sprockets.

they’re lovely!

(sold mine last year, semi regret it)

fine with 8 speed.. but you really want to be running a proper 3/32 singlespeed chain. KMC 610 ones do the job.

A what?
A bike chain, any bike chain that fits on the teeth which IIRC a 9speed will work on a WI. Certainly does on Surly sprockets. I tend to use 1/8 BMX chains but currently using a 9 speed as it’s lighter ;0)

SS hubs ( screw on ones. ss cassette type ones work well but there’s even less point in them ) are pointless IMO.

– no real world advantages
– freewheels are less reliable than cassette hubs including the supposed bombproof WI ones that ime aren’t
– you can’t use a ss hub on your other bikes or visa versa if/when it breaks.

they do look neat and niche though which is reason enough for many 😉