Been trying to build up my first mtb into a single speed commuter, but just found that the rear hub is totally goosed. Now I could attempt to service it, but the noise its making I reckon its beyond repair.

Thought it would be an excellent opportunity to test my wheel building skills and try to replace the hub given the rim is fine. Given I’m trying to keep the costs down to basically nothing i’m keen to reuse all the old spokes. (i imagine having to buy new spokes isn’t particularly cost effective and I might as well buy a new wheel.

I’ve found the cheapest 36 hole hub going,

Hub

How would I know if this would just swap in with the existing generic 36 hole shimano hub that is there?

compare measurements – but you really need the replacement hub in your hand unless you can find online measurements anywhere.

Guides on how to measure all over the place – dt swiss, wheel pro, good old sheldon brown

You need to measure the PCD of the spoke holes – basically if the holes for the spokes are the same distance from the centre of the axle then you can reuse the spokes.

So measure across the hub between two opposite spoke holes and make sure the two hubs have the same distance.

BE CAREFUL – that RSX hub you link to has a 7 speed freehub. So 8,9,10 speed cassettes wont fit.

EDIT – oh, you’re going singlespeed. OK, but you still need to be careful – that RSX hub will have road 130mm OLN spacing

assuming that the bearing races (or if it’s cartridge based) in the hub body itself aren’t pitted I’d look at buying an identical hub and transferring hub, bearings and axle into the existign shell and avoid a wheel build. Often with shimano it’s cheaper to buy a whole hub than just the freehub!