fueledbymetal

I'm currently researching my next bike purchase and was wondering how Mavic or Bontrager wheel hubs do in the rain (those are the brands of OEM wheels for the bikes I'm looking at). If the bike I end up buying doesn't have great wheels, I'd likely upgrade in the near future, so I'm also curious how some of the more popular custom hubs are from places like Williams, Odds & Endos, White Mountain, AC etc. My ultimate goal is a set of ~1500 gram wheels that are as durable as possible for all weather conditions.

MIN 

Chris King has the best weather seals in the industry.

Look for cartridge bearings and not cone.

Machka 

Formula hubs will rust and fail.

patentcad

Zipp hubs suck. Zipp rims RULE.

banerjek

Should be easy to achieve. Fred Flintstone had a set of wheels within those specifications that could literally last thousands of years in practically any weather.

curiouskid55

Must have nut crushing quads.

MIN 

What's with the jackass answers to a serious question?

zonatandem

Chris King or Phil Wood.

Machka 

Mine was VERY serious. And believe me, when (not "if") the Formula hub fails on you out in the middle of nowhere, that's also very serious.

toucci

Once water works its way inside the bearing, it will lead to failure. The best course of action is to get a rebuildable and resealable hub and clean and lube it after heavy exposure. Otherwise, you can decimate the bearings' lifespans in just one exposure. Or do as I do and ride a bike you don't really care about messing up in the rain

banerjek

Riding in slop is hard on the entire bike. Grime will tear up the rims, drivetrain, and shorten the life of many of the other components. Putting lots of money in top shelf components that will be abused doesn't make sense to me. I ride ultegra and xt hubs in just about anything and have been pretty satisfied. Cartridge is definitely the way to go.

fueledbymetal

Thanks for the feedback on the Chris King & Phil Wood bearings.

lol, good catch! I corrected my original post

What exaclty should I be cleaning & lubing on the hub after riding in the rain? Should I be disassembling it down to the bearings? As an example, how far along the procudre here should I be going?
https://www.parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=105

To date I've just been giving my bike a thorough wash after riding whenever the road's wet or it rains followed by lubing all of the derailers, brakes & chain.

MichaelW

Midrange shimano hubs (105/deore) have fairly good seals and are fine for wet weather riding. They are better than cheapie cartridge bearing hubs yet not so expensive. The "sealed" part of sealded cartridge units is to prevent loss of grease in high speed use (eg in fans). Bikes require extra seals which are just as effective on cup and cone bearings as on expensive cartridge hubs.

Sometimes the grease in Shimano hubs can be a bit sparse. I like to pack the bearings with grease to eliminate gaps and prevent the ingress of water. I ride my shimano hubs everday (and night) in all weathers and have never had an issue with rain damage.

rower

Buying a new cyclecross bike with Bottom Bracket of True Vativ GXP External Outboard Cartridge with

Front Hub by Ritchey Pro 20H sealed bearing, and Rear sealed bearing hub 24H. How are these for keeping water out while riding on pavement in rain?

Anything I can do to make the system work better?

Cyclist0383

Cartridge bearings will give you much better wet weather protection than loose ball, but not all cartridge bearings are created equal. Phil Wood makes bearings for their hubs(and a few others, but not all PW bearings) which are rated to submersible pump specs.

It rains a lot where I live, and I've tried all kinds of hubs and bearings; so far PW bearings have been the best.

rower

Thanks ZIEMAS, your post gave me a much better perspective on the subject of water entering
hubs and BBs.

BikingGrad80

Shimano hubs are pretty good. My old 105 1055 hubs were ridden in the rain and when I repacked them it was totally unnecessary all the bearing and the grease were in pristine condition.