westyat7000

Hello,

I have an older set of Zeus high flange hubs that have a flange that is out of true. It's the rear hub, drive side. Judging from the marks on the flange, I'm guessing that at some point a chain found it's way up inbetween the cassette and the flange maybe damaging it.

When I spin the hub by hand, the flange is out of true by about 1.25mm.

Is it a big deal or can the hub still be used and built into a true wheel?

Thanks for your help, and sorry if this is a silly question.

cny-bikeman

Not a big deal if only a mm or so out. Much more than that on the drive side could make truing difficult, as there will be even less bracing angle. Nominally weaker laterally as well.

Chris_W

The hub trueness should not affect the rim trueness. Play around with a spoke length calculator web-site - you'll see that 1 or 2 mm difference in flange spacing barely affects the recommended length of spokes. The deviation will therefore be taken up by a slightly different number of turns on the nipples of the affected spokes than you would use if the hub was more true - you probably won't even notice the compensation needed when building the wheel.

Remember that there's no point hand-building a wheel if the components aren't in decent condition, but as long as you're confident that the hub is worth building into a wheel then you should go for it!

gyozadude

If it were caused by a chain, I'd inspect to see if the metal has been worn around the base near the ding, and then check the flange "spokes" (i.e. the metal stems from inner flange to outer part) for cracks. Typically, it should be okay to build and ride. I road a set of sanshin large flange hubs dropped down a stairwell that smacked concrete that dinged the flange. Put it on a cross bike and eventually sold that bike foolishly. Wheels held up fine as a commuter and never had issues. I recall lacing the spokes such that the pulling (i.e. trailing spokes) were on the inside of the flange, and the leading spokes (which slacken a bit when you stomp on the pedals) I put pulling from the outside, with the apex of the ding having a leading spoke. I didn't really think it would make any difference, but psychologically, I figured if the spokes were all angled into the center, I'd minimize inward pull on the flange near the ding by lacing trailing spokes so they all pull from the inside face of that flange.

But really, I didn't change anything in the build. The exception for you might be if you are using spokes that are already just barely too long for the drive side and just reach the tops of nipples when the wheel is tensioned. Shouldn't have too much effect for 1.5mm inward ding on the flange, but that could get the spoke to poke just a tiny bit above the nipple and poke the tube. If you measure ERD correctly or have spokes that are still slightly recessed when built, you're probably good to go.

westyat7000

Thank you for the help.

Kimmo

I came across a nice old high flange front hub a few weeks ago that had an out of whack flange, and just tweaked it straight with an adjustable wrench.

Bending ally isn't considered a great idea for good reason, but IME it's usually fine if you don't have to bend it far. 1.25mm at the edge of a high flange should be no big deal.