Originally Posted by
3speed
Wouldn't it make sense...
It would be nice if only one length spoke was required for a bike but it's not that big a deal to carry spares in 2 or 3 lengths. More important would be to design rear hub spacing/diameter to minimize dish, to increase wheel longevity for loaded touring use. AFAIK the only cassette hub that offers zero dish is the
145mm DT Swiss 540, used by CoMotion for touring singles, which is a $310 hub on sale. Phil Wood used to make the FSA hub with very little dish (in the 7s freewheel version), a custom version sold by
Rivendell, which has been discontinued.
The only advantage of the VO GC hub over a Shimano XT is it's replaceable sealed bearings with no possibility of bearing cup wear, so potentially a longevity advantage - but also consider that the VO hub costs as much as 3-4 XT hubs.
Originally Posted by
fietsbob
Dish still is required to get the cluster of all those cogs in, and so an IGH, Dishless, still makes a stronger wheel...
AFAIK the only truly dishless IGH is Rohloff Speedhub (29mm flange spacing/100mm PCD both L&R). IGHs generally do reduce dish over cassette hubs but the only one that has symmetric flange spacing and diameter is Speedhub.
You can build with asymmetrically-drilled rims to reduce dish, Velocity sells a couple models (A23 and Synergy, discontinued).