LlamaBikes

Hello!

I'm planning a long distance bike build for randonneuring and credit card touring. My touring bike has a Phil Wood Cassette hub that I am not really impressed with and I don't want to spend quite as much this time, also looking for a little lighter weight.

My top contenders at the moment are White Industries T11, DT Swiss 350, or Ultegra. I have my own list of pros and cons for each in my head but thought I'd see what ya'll think. Cheers

dim

Chris King R45

LlamaBikes

I haven't heard great things about their reliability and they cost $450+. I'm a little sceptical I need to throw half a grand on a boutique rear hub to get reliability... They sure do look nice though! How many miles have you put on yours and how often do you service it?

nealcollins

My previous road bike had Ultegra hubs - they was trouble free and the bike still going strong after 7 years (I passed it on to a relative). According to Strava I put 16,500 kms on it, but that's not including my commute to work, so the real figure would be a fair bit higher.

dim

I have them on my best bike and I have the ceramic bearings upgrade and have only recently had them laced to Belgium Plus rims with sapiem spokes.

So far I have cycled 918km (570 miles).... after the 1st week of riding, my LBS checked them and they were fine

my LBS said they need to be serviced every 6 months

I've seen them used on ebay for as little as £350 for a set ... Here is a recent auction where they were sold for £335 laced to a pair of Pacenti SL23 rims

OneIsAllYouNeed

What's your tolerance to adjusting or replacing hub bearings? I haven't personally seen any bicycle hubs last more than 35,000 miles, so consider that an upper bound for hub durabilty.

The cartridges in the White Industries and DT Swiss hubs will have to be replaced every 4,000mi (for year round abuse) to 10,000mi (for fair weather use). WI makes it easy to swap the bearings, however.

Shimano hubs can be cleaned, lubed, and adjusted without special tools or spare parts. I'd plan for at least 20,000mi from a Shimano Tiagra/105/Ultegra/Dura-Ace hub. It might need a few adjustments and a new freehub body along the way if you ride in all weather.

siebengang

I have had a DT rear hub from 1998 in use since 17 years ago. It has gone more than 50000km, in all weather. The original bearings are still going well. For the corresponding front hub I had to change the bearings some years ago, probably around 25000 km. What I like about DT hubs (apart from the reliability) is the freewheel mechanism with their star ratchet. Very simple and tough technology, very reliable and very easy to maintain (you can grease the ratchet without any tools).

I have no experience myself with newer DT hubs, but I would certainly try them. If the reliability is at least close to what it was before, especially the 350 may be great value for the money.

LlamaBikes

Thanks for the thoughts, I may go for the 350 if the colors of the T11 don't entice me over... 50,000km is pretty good for one set of bearings! I also like the idea that replacing the star ratchet requires no special tools. I'm planning for a dynamo front hub.

I don't have much experience replacing cartridge bearings (I had Phil replace the bearings on my hub when I was passing through the area on my touring bike) but I wouldn't mind investing in the tools required to replace them. I have spent quite a few hours volunteering at the local bike co-ops overhauling old cup and cone hubs as well as some newer shimano hubs, so I am familiar and comfortable with that process,

siebengang

No need to replace the star ratchet, as the parts are very hard wearing and tough. But you can take off the cassette plus freewheel body without tools if you should need to replace a spoke or for greasing the ratchet (that needs to be done a few times a year if you ride a lot).

OneIsAllYouNeed

Thanks for sharing that. I learned something new today. My next loaded touring rear hub might be a DT Swiss due to the ease of replacing drive-side spokes.

MNBikeCommuter

I've been running on 9 spd XTR hubs (Shimano FH-M950 XTR rear hub) for 78,000 miles. They were on clearance when a newer 9/10 spd version came out. :-) The non-drive side cone on the rear is the original; the drive side has been replaced two or three times. Shimano cones are getting pretty hard to find for it. It'd probably help if I didn't put 10-12k miles on between servicing... The Ti freehub is still the original too.

The front hub has needed one cone replaced over all those miles.

prathmann

Until recently I would have recommended the Shimano option without reservation. But then my Shimano 600 (now called Ultegra) rear hub finally failed after having gone through a few rim replacements over 25 years and 140,000 miles. The bearing balls had been replaced previously but the cones and hub races were still original at that point. Still not sure that going with more expensive options would provide any better durability though.

pdlamb

I don't know about anyone else, but I'd think a rear hub that lasted 140,000 miles was a selling point! Only 115,000 or so miles left until I need to replace my high-mileage hubs.

fietsbob

I got long faithful service from the Phil Wood Freewheel hub I built my touring bike rear wheel around..



Now in a place with Hundreds of touring cyclists every year, there is some wisdom in not having something exotic for wheels on touring bikes..


Because in a small town , you wont get a custom wheel rebuild done in a day should you trash a rim.. but be sold a common, midline cassette wheel

and the fancy hub cut out of the wheel to be shipped home..




...

LlamaBikes

I don't doubt you got good life out of your Phil freewheel hub, for their cassette hub though, folks don't seem to have been having as good luck with Phil, including myself.

Your other point though is worth considering for sure, My partner has been running LX 9 speed hubs, we noticed a pitted cone while touring through Mexico, none of the local bike shops had the right cone, so we had to order from Amazon and wait for it to be shipped... Probably easier to source than some fancy swiss stuff though...

unterhausen

hopefully a rando/credit card touring bike isn't going to break any spokes. I find that on a properly tensioned wheel, the spokes outlast the rim, and then I just replace the spokes when I replace the rim. However, I really like the DT freehub design. I wanted to put one on my new rando wheels (SON SL dyno on the front), but vanity prevailed and I got a silver Hope hub. They seem to have a decent reputation and they are inexpensive relative to similar hubs. WI was the next choice. I know dumping that kind of money is not that much fun, but it really is going to last a long time.

kingston 

I got a set of the VO Grand Cru touring hubs last year that I have been happy with. Still low miles relative to some of the hubs that have been around a long time, but field serviceable with no tools and common 6902 bearings. I expect they will last a long time.

LlamaBikes

I've been keeping an eye on the user reports for those hubs ever since they were released. Still haven't heard much. Seems like a decent price point I suppose. Cheers

kingston 

No news is good news for touring hubs as far as I'm concerned. They've been out for a few years now, and if theses things were failing we would have heard about it.

I was in basically the same market for hubs as you last year, replacing a set of shimano's for no other reason than aesthetics if I'm being honest with myself. Had it narrowed down to WI, Royce and VO before a VO 20% off flash sale convinced me to pull the trigger on the Grand Cru's. I've since met one other guy who is a very discerning high-mileage randonneur who has also been very happy with the hubs.

Tourist in MSN

I have been touring on older design XT rear hubs with steel axles, but they are 135mm dropout spacing. Have been very happy with them. But I can only recommend the steel axle variety, not the newer Aluminum axle ones. I think the M760 was the last steel version, a number that is 770 or larger I believe represents the Aluminum axle version.

I bought my most recent one this past spring, this is the one I got.
https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/hubs-cas...black/?geoc=US

I have heard that if you want a 36 hole rim brake version of the hub, they are no longer made and are very hard to find.

shelbyfv

You don't get any more reliable than Ultegra for a road hub and the new adjustment makes service easy. Plus they are inexpensive and quiet.