Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - campy. phil. campy. phil. hmmm...

this is a very important question. (ok, so i kind of feel stupid for posting this, but i'm wasting a lot of time thinking about it, so i might as well get it out in the open...)

i'm trying to decide on a hubset for my new bike.

i'm tempted to just get phils because they are widely regarded as the total shiz

but..... everything else on the bike is campy and the appeal of a full campy group is just so strong.

there are the reports of campy breakage on street wheels, but others (ceya) have pounded them for a dozen years with no problems. on the bike, i'll probably never notice a difference.

what would you do, were you faced with such a life and death kind of decision?

which campy's, record or c-record?

also, how much do you weigh, and what kind of riding do you do?

**** phil, **** campy. i hope that this has been helpful

IRO.

Phil, man. Forget about breakage, the prospect of maintaining loose-ball, unsealed bearings ought to make this really easy for you.

track or street?

out of all the hubs which ones have sealed bearings?

sealed bearings is an important consideration.

most of my riding is street riding. commuting to work every day and just riding everywhere. the occasional alleycat, the occasional trip to the track. i weigh around 175 and i'm hard on wheels.

phils.

Phil ... SLR option ... joy.

Phil

maintaining loose bearing hubs isn't that big of a deal. if you really pack in the grease, that will repel water pretty well and if you wipe down your bike after nasty rides, you should be 100% golden. believe it or not, cartridge bearings, even phil, aren't totally "sealed."

phil

Suzue Jr's
wait, no...

the people have spoken (though i was kind of expecting that answer).

anyway, i've maintained plenty of unsealed, free-ball bearing assemblies in my days, i know it's not a big deal, but it is one less thing to worry about.

I'd say Phil's.

If you have the money, with the SLR option. I didn't have enough money so I bought the standard but they still look hot.

phil it and forget it

and to flesh out that comment some: unless you are actually racing and worrying about fractions of a second, you will probably never notice the difference in performance (speed) between phils and properly maintained campys (if the campys are poorly-maintained, on the other hand, you'll definitely notice.) The phils will give you across the board high-performance regardless of conditions, will require very little maintenance, and if anything ever breaks (it won't) PW will take care of you and you'll have nice new or repaired hubs in no time at all.

Campy Record. Never had Phils, but never had an issue with the Campy's,
and I like the old school bling.
I now think the sealed/loose bearing debate is a tad overrated. My Surly
sealed bearing hub is rolling like garbage right now.

Go check out the pics of the black phils in the "Vanilla Porn" thread.

I feel like they look nice, and as we all know things are less likely to get stolen if they aren't shiny. But don't radially lace, that is dumb.

This is totally ridiculous. Most of you guys are too young to even know Campy. The undying idolotry of Phil is bunk. Good stuff, but certainly not the best. For BBs maybe Phil, but not hubs. No way.

For BBs, you could make a strong argument for Phil over Campy. Good stuff here from Phil. As good a BB seal mechanism for keeping out the dirt, water than any. Better even than headset seal mechanism from Chris King (overrated), but I digress. That is comaring apples to oranges.

So yeah, for BBs yeah maybe Phil. But for hubs..dudes! Get off the pot. . Campy totally. Campy, hands down. Hands down.

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/harris/images/record-rear-hub-500.jpg

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/harris/record-track.html

Campy Record. Never had Phils, but never had an issue with the Campy's,
and I like the old school bling.
I now think the sealed/loose bearing debate is a tad overrated. My Surly
sealed bearing hub is rolling like garbage right now.

Time for some Phil spec'd replacement bearings. filled with Phil Waterproof Grease!


So yeah, for BBs yeah maybe Phil. But for hubs..dudes! Get off the pot. . Campy totally. Campy, hands down. Hands down.

Oh, right, I forgot, too much pot. Campys must be the way to go.


http://www.sheldonbrown.com/harris/record-track.html

The takeaway from this is that Campy even STATES that they don't want these track hubs used on the streets (Sheldon disagrees). So, if there's still a tie in your mind: Phil will probably fix/replace, no matter what. Campy may tell you that you abused the parts and decline to replace them.

man am i sick of that ONE picture. i'm sure if we all look hard enough we could find pictures of a broken ANYTHING. I wouldn't worry about breaking a hub. go with the campy, get the group. but not because of any one thing. honestly, I think the campy's are better looking (i think phils are ugly as hell, though i did just invest in a set of low flange ones) you may have to maintain them a bit more, but such is life. and don't ride them in winter...

Read the accompanying text ... then consider how Campy vs. Phil will fare on the street and how those two companies will respond if the hub fails. I think Campy hubs are gorgeous, but I wouldn't ride them year-round on the street. On the track, sure.

Edit: I know ****-all, so feel free to tear me apart. It's right there to read on your own though if you care to make the effort. I could be 10 years old having never ridden a bike and Campagnolo's policy on street-used hubs vs. Phil Wood's should still raise some red flags under these circumstances.

i didn't say that it doesn't suck, i just said i wouldn't worry about it. doesn't riding dura ace hubs on the street void that warrantee as well? as well as radial lacing most hubs? i know a bunch of people that do both with no problems.

What campy hubs are we talking about here? C-Records? I have a couple pairs of those that I've ridden for a while(street and track, but mostly street) with no problems, though everytime I see that photo I worry... The other thing about these hubs is that if you can find them they are stupid expensive, quite a bit more than phils if they are NOS. I picked up the campys several years ago, and they were quite a bit cheaper than phils.

Time for some Phil spec'd replacement bearings. filled with Phil Waterproof Grease!

I know I need to do this, but damn they went to pot fast!
I've only had the hub for a couple of months, but then again they've been in a
lot of rain and snow and salt in a couple of months.

I know I need to do this, but damn they went to pot fast!
I've only had the hub for a couple of months, but then again they've been in a
lot of rain and snow and salt in a couple of months.

That is fast. Mine's only a couple of months old, as well, so I can't swear that it's out of the ordinary.

That said, I'm kind of excited for it to happen so I can get the Phil bearings for it.

Currently on eBay:

http://i15.ebayimg.com/03/i/05/cc/8d/03_1.JPG