trashbiker

There are the typical suspects like dt swiss, white industries, and hope because they have replaceable endcaps/axles. I'm looking for something more interesting than dt swiss and lighter than WI or Hope. Nice QR disc is tough to find now so interested in used options perhaps. Anything from back in the day a teenager might not know?

shelbyfv

If you don't get the info you want after a few days you might have this moved to MTB. They would have had a longer run of QR disc than Cross bikes.

base2 

Extralite, Tune, Enve, Chris King, Bitex, Carbon-Ti There is no shortage of nice hubs out there.

I like Extralite. I have several. Massively cheaper than DT and their heaviest hubs are lighter than the lightest DT. The caveat though is the road hubs have a 1:1 drive ratio restriction. Their mountain and gravel hubs have no restriction. In either case, they require more frequent maintenance than you probably expect. It's not hard. Remove freehub, clean & apply a few drops of oil. Just something to keep in mind.

As with all premium hubs I recommend monoblock cassettes so as to avoid biting the free hub. But, if you absolutely must use cassettes with individual cogs, White Industries with their standard issue titanium free hub is the way to go.

Koyote

No recommendations for you, but a comment: hub weight is virtually irrelevant to any performance metric, but an unreliable hub can ruin your day. You may find DT Swiss uninteresting (whatever that means, in this context), but they are light enough for all but the most serious weight weenie and very reliable. Ditto White Industries.

mstateglfr 

What does 'more interesting' mean?

Anyways, bitex hubs are light, reliable, affordable, and come in many colors if that is what you are looking for. They come in a 135mm QR option.
https://www.bikehubstore.com/product-p/bx106f.htm
https://www.bikehubstore.com/product-p/bx106r.htm

masi61

Interesting link. I notice they list the Bitex QR disc front hubs in various colors but the rear QR disc hub option only appears to be available in black.

mstateglfr 

there are end caps to swap the front hubs and axle swaps for the read hu.
https://www.bikehubstore.com/product...n-cld-axle.htm
https://www.modernbike.com/product-2...xoCCoYQAvD_BwE
https://www.universalcycles.com/shop...RoCg7QQAvD_BwE

Buying from bikehubstore, you could request that the hubs be set up that way. The store reportedly does a lot of 1off things like that.

trashbiker

More interesting just means something not everyone has. I see so many dt 240s.
I must be blind because I didn't see they had the rear hub for that set as well. Love bitex. thanks for the link

Polaris OBark

Chris King no longer makes QR disc hubs, sadly.

Industry 9 Torch hubs have optional QR endcaps.

You mentioned WI and DT Swiss, and those are good options. (Not sure what is uninteresting about the latter.)

Onyx Vesper has all options, but it is not considered light. (There are better places to save weight.)

Koyote

I never thought of using bike hubs to express my individuality. When it comes to hubs, I'm looking for smoothness and reliability -- and you see so many DTS 240 hubs because they offer those traits.

shelbyfv

The suspense is building! What's the bike that rates "interesting" and extra light hubs?

RocThrower

Last summer I relaced my wheels to the same Bitex hubs that mstateglfr posted, and I'm very pleased after a couple thousand miles. I ordered them for QR, but also purchased the front end caps and rear axle in case I want to run them on my thru-axle bike (that has DT 240s). I also built up a pair of 29 plus wheels with their fat bike hubs, and those have been holding up in all sorts of crap.

trashbiker

Got my eye on a Poprad frame a friend is selling and I'm building it on paper to see if I'll be happy with it before I get it. As for the weight thing, I'm justa bit of a weight weenie. Finally making enough money to buy carbon rims so I want a light hub to go with it.

base2 

I built a 950-something gram tubeless disc wheel set using Stan's Grail CB7's, Extralite HyperSmart3 front & rear hubs and Berd Spokes. $1200 for rims, $600 for hubs, & $750 for the spokes and the build service.

You aren't going to find a lighter tubeless-disc wheel set at any price. But, you may find a lighter if you can live with tubular and double your budget.

For cassettes, I use Edco Monoblock because I like Shimano compatible free hubs. But you can get XDR if that's your jam.

To save a little dough ($350) over the above wheel set and run 38-60mm tires and add a 90 gram weight penalty you can use We Are One Revive Rims. They come in as many as 32 hole drilling if you'd like an even more robust wheel. I have a 28/32 set made with White Industries XMR hubs (& Berd spokes, again) that clocked in at 1200 grams.

PromptCritical 

This noob doesn't understand the how/why of a drive ratio restriction. Can you enlighten me, please?

PromptCritical 

The Exalite website has some interesting stuff. Thanks for the link. They have a "coming soon" vintage section. Can't wait.

base2 

It has to do with transferring the torque from the free hub through the freewheel mechanism to the hub shell whereby the torque tensions the trailing spokes causing wheel rotation.

Under a ratchet/pawl system the torque puts the pawls under compression. Components under compression can withstand a lot of load.

The DT Swiss style mechanism uses 2 toothed faces spring loaded to press against each other (one in the free hub, the other in the hub shell) and while there is as many points of engagement as you'd like, each ratchet ring is keyed into it's respective part of the hub with splines. The torque is transferred via sheer force on the face of the splines instead of compression like the pawl system. Eventually the splines (usually those on the softer aluminium hub shell) gather wear, and that wear is especially accelerated with high forces and if debris/grit is present. Hence the frequency and ease of maintenance requirements, and at least for the road version of the Extralite hub, the drive ratio restriction.

1:1 is still a 50/34 mated to an 11/34 cassette, so it's probably not a big deal on road. But, for gravel, 40 or 42 cassettes mated to much smaller than 34 chainrings are common & would generate much, much more torque. Hence the gravel/mountain specific version with additional splines and multiple ratchet ring assembly clocking options so that the shell can be "worn out" multiple times over and the rings easily and readily replaced with new if maintenance is neglected.

PromptCritical 

Dang, there is a lot of knowledge on this forum. I thought it might be torque related. So, an old guy like me need not worry about it, OTOH, probably not a good choice of hubs for a tandem.

base2 

Yeah! Definitely not a good style of mechanism for a tandem...At least in theory. Though many have been used to good effect in tandems for a long time with out issue. I would have zero reservation about a DT Swiss Hub on a tandem. We had a member on here that had a DT "Hügi" on a tandem and used 10's of thousands of miles for almost 2 decades until the hub shell crumbled.

I've always of the mind that if a company puts in a warning limiting a product and potentially limiting is use case (and limiting it's customer base or sell-ability) I tend to think it's for good reason. Hence the mention of the limitations on that one particular hub designed for that one particular (road) use.

Anything can be abused, I guess. The question is always how far, for how long?

PromptCritical 

Wow, what were the specs of the rest of the bike?

base2 

https://www.bikeforums.net/22604309-post23.html

R&E custom frame. Steel. Mostly Tange Prestige, &/or Velo-Spec tubing I think.
The wheels were already mentioned.
Darimo seatpost manufactured for me.
Ax-Lightness saddle & handlebars.
Extralite stem, headset spacers, headset, QR skewers, chainrings & chainring and other misc bolts.
THM Clavicula SE crankset with power meter.
Dura-Ace 9100 shifters & derailleurs.
XTR hydraulic post mount brakes with Carbon-Ti 160/140 rotors.
Whiskey 7 fork.
Connex 11SX stainless steel chain.
GP5000 tires.
Carbon Works bottle cages.

PromptCritical 

Read that thread. Beautiful bike!

tFUnK

The old school in me thinks an old XT or XTR disc hub would be fun to build around.

Where are you finding carbon rims for the build, though? Even on AliExpress carbon rims are pretty pricey.