Tandem Cycling - DT Swiss 540 hubs & Velocity Dyad rims or White Industries Mi6 hubs & Sun ME14A rims?

We are down to the final decisions concerning our new (to us) Co Motion Speedster tandem. It is a lightly used 2007 model and currently has Rolf Prima Vigor wheels. Due to cost and durability concerns, the LBS I am dealing with has offered either a new set of Co Motion Speedster stock hubs and rims (DT Swiss 540 hubs & Velocity Dyad rims) or a new set of Cannondale R2 stock hubs and rims (White Industries Mi6 Disc hubs & Sun ME14A rims ). Both are set for front/rear disc brakes, even though our “new” bike only has a rear disc. Does anyone have any opinions on which set to go with? I don't think I can make a bad decision either way, but I am leaning towards the Cannondale parts after doing a bit of on-line research. Thanks.

We have DT hubs on both of our tandems, plus our spare off road tandem wheels. One is a Mountain tandem the other a road tandem.

I have read some bad things also about the DT's. In fact on our mountain tandem we ruined a set of drive rings on the trail. It was big effort from a standing stop. Luckily a local trail and was a short distance out. With what I know now about these hubs I probably could have fixed it trailside (especially if it was a long walk).

After the failure I had my doubts the hubs were capable. What I troubleshot the problem to be was the drive ring grease. It was not fresh and being a grease can sometimes give a slow response to drive engagement. The viscosity slows the engagement action, and too much would be a disaster (seen that after a shop rebuilt a friends hub).

When I rebuilt our off road DT rear hub, I installed a new set of drive rings, but more importantly, I did not use the DT specified grease (molykote). I opted for Phil Wood tenacious oil. Plenty of lube, for proper operation and solid engagements under some stupid power outputs on short abrupt climbs. The oil is far less viscous than the grease, plus it won't gel or wax over time as what happened in our failure.

The Roadster will get the same treatment of oil. And our spare mtb wheels, which are also DT's, are already oiled.

Before you rule out DT's, have a look at there maintenance manual online. A very simple and strong design with only four parts, two identical springs and two identical drive rings.

I now keep a spare set of new drive rings and springs just in case. Takes about 10 minutes to rebuild a hubs drive side. The cost was reasonable.

I've had older White Industry hubs on a single bike, they were nice, but unless they changed their drive design, I'd think the DT's can handle more abuse.

For now I have no intentions to move away from the DT stuff, and am considering building a set of wheels for my Turner that spin on DT hubs.

Just some thoughts.

PK

PK

Thanks for the comments. I took your advice and went online to look at schematics of the DT hubs and also the White hubs. Too bad this bike wasn't "stock" when I bought it - then no decisions - but that is part of the fun.

We still have a few months before we will be ready to ride anyway (supposed to snow 4" again this evening). I'll let you know what I decide.

FWIW we recently got a set of 36sp White hubbed Velocity rimmed wheels
as an everyday alternative to the Rolfs that came on our bike. We have
a rear disc and the White wheel put the disc right up against the BB7 body,
it could not be adjusted to center the disc. It appears the disc mount
is integral to the hub on the White. Lots of fiddling led to the conclusion the White
hub mounted the disc about 45-50 thousandths further out than the Rolf.
Rolf has a screw on adapter which I understand are available in several
thicknesses. Apparently these are not as standard as I would have
expected, some reasons for the variance include wheel size (650/700c)
chainstay/seatstay length and diameter and rear axle length.

Are they giving you money off the bike in exchange for giving up the Rolf's? Unless they're giving you a big price break, I'd really consider staying with the Rolfs.

We have about 4,000 miles on ours without any issues; our team weight is 340lbs, and we've pushed them pretty hard, including racing, competitive group rides, high speed descents, and even some double track riding.

I think you might find them more durable than you think.

FWIW we recently got a set of 36sp White hubbed Velocity rimmed wheels
as an everyday alternative to the Rolfs that came on our bike. We have
a rear disc and the White wheel put the disc right up against the BB7 body,
it could not be adjusted to center the disc. It appears the disc mount
is integral to the hub on the White. Lots of fiddling led to the conclusion the White
hub mounted the disc about 45-50 thousandths further out than the Rolf.
Rolf has a screw on adapter which I understand are available in several
thicknesses. Apparently these are not as standard as I would have
expected, some reasons for the variance include wheel size (650/700c)
chainstay/seatstay length and diameter and rear axle length.

Did you put a 1 mm washer on the mounting adapter so you could use the wheels? There is a standard but apparently White does not exactly adhere to the standard. I used a 0.3 mm spacer behind the discs on our non-White wheels so that our disc wheel sets are exactly the same.

In deciding to get this bike, we went WAY outside our initial budget. Trading in the Rolf Wheels helped us get the final cost to be a little more reasonable. We did get a nice chunk knocked off by swapping wheels. The durability concern was one way to make me feel better about giving up those sweet wheels.

FYI - I did decide to go with the White Hubs and Sun rims and was able to pick the bike up today. It appears to me that the rotor is centered in the caliper. A little too cold around here to really try it out, but it looks good to me. Thanks to everyone for their input.

Are they giving you money off the bike in exchange for giving up the Rolf's? Unless they're giving you a big price break, I'd really consider staying with the Rolfs.

We have about 4,000 miles on ours without any issues; our team weight is 340lbs, and we've pushed them pretty hard, including racing, competitive group rides, high speed descents, and even some double track riding.

I think you might find them more durable than you think.


You may have missed my post and pix at http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=484244

Rolf repaired at no charge, except shipping.