Symox

I built up a wheel with a hub and spokes from https://www.bikehubstore.com/ (Brandon is a great guy to do business with). Been riding it for a few days and I'm very impressed with the Bitex RAR12 in particular. I took it apart to inspect and am quite surprised at the high level of build quality for a ~$100 hub. Their freewheel design, ease of service (I didn't remove the bearings as I know that isn't trivial with cartridge bearings) along with choice of Enduro cartridge bearings made me feel very good about my choice.

One question though. There is some drag on the bearings - nothing terrible but I'm hoping this diminishes with time. Do cartridge bearings wear in like loose bearings and spin more freely over time? Once the wheel starts spinning it seems to spin quite well, more of a "grease drag" feeling.

Thanks

BTW, I built up my old Mavic Open Pro rim (its in great shape) with Sapim leader spokes, Sapim brass nipples, Bitex RAR12 and Velox rim tape. I chose a three cross lacing pattern for my first wheel build - its a rear rim brake wheel. Nothing fancy but I'm kinda proud of the accomplishment

mstateglfr 

One of my rim road bikes has RA12 hubs and they spin longer than anything I've owned, even perfectly adjusted high end Shimano looseball hubs.
My gravel bike has Bitex disc hubs(ra12 equal I forget the model) and thry don't roll nearly as long.


Either way though, I dont think how long a wheel spins on a stand matters much when rolling on pavement with dynamic weight over the wheels.

smashndash

Contact seals tend to loosen up over time. No complaints about my rar12 on that front. If you are a road rider and don't have a dinner plate cassette, try removing half the pawls (one set of 3). It makes the hub a lot less draggy and noisy when coasting, if that matters to you.

Psimet2001 

Contact seals will loosen up over time. We have used Bitex as a house brand in the past and still build with Bitex depending on the build and configuration. There are some long term issues that can pop up for riders that pile on the miles in all conditions but it's all relative and for the price the value represented is substantial.

When it comes time to put new bearings in it simply up them to Enduro ABEC 5's that are available retail for ~$9-$10/ea. If you pop the driver bearing from the freehub then be aware that the springs for the pawls back up to it so pull those first.

mstateglfr 

Curious what you guys use for your house branded wheels now?

Psimet2001 

Always a mix and as a general rule I don't discuss it. I learned long ago in this business that if I do then everything becomes a race to the bottom in terms of price.

mstateglfr 

Fair enough, I can definitely understand that reasoning. I asked just because I happened to be on your site a few days ago and wondered, then saw you mention having used bitex in the past.
One more prying question- do you not list weights because it then becomes something that some customers hyperfocus on and they then miss build quality, materials, etc? That was my best guess.

Psimet2001 

Only one real reason I don't list weights - My plugins I use on wordpress to allow for building the wheels on the site don't really offer the ability to do the weights. I have thought of putting the weights of common builds in the descriptions but honestly haven't gotten around to it.

...that said - I have watched weight become a non-issue for buyers. It used to be the absolute most important thing to almost every buyer I had. Now I seldom get asked about it and when it does come up I find customer have a much larger acceptence of higher weight in exchange for durability, etc than they used to have. The move to disc brakes and popularity of gravel/endurance/all road kind of stuff just seems to have shifted that need.

I have put out there that I do believe the hyper focus on light weight will come back. It will happen when the market is finally flooded with enough electronic, hydraulic, road disc bikes that everyone has had one for a while and they really start looking for ways to buy incremental upgrades. For the last 3-5 years people have just been buying new bikes because so much ha changed that was kind of the only option. That will slow down to change once tech starts to stabilize. Then weight will be an issue again.