mooder

Hey,

I found little information on the hub choice for novatech. I found a web site (sdeals.com) that sell hubs and spokes (rims are europe only) for a nice price.
Hub selection:
sdeals - Hubs

So far these three seem to be commonly used for wheel building:
F392, SL F482 and Sl F582. For the front hub the selection is not large, only the A291 has the option for 20H (checked most of the front hubs couldn't find another one).
For me it's just numbers... I tried to look for the difference but every time I find thread simply asking if novatech is good or not. Many suggest to replace the stock bearings.

Any way, I thinking going for 20/28 2x. I was tempted to do 3x lacing rear with non drive radial but only 24H comes with the right hole count needed. I want 28H, from what I read it's strongly advised to go with more spokes in the rear than just 24H.

I am wondering where do you get the spoke lengths needed? Is there any build guide for these hubs already? I am planning to get some Sapim Laser for the wheelset. I haven't found any place in north america selling RIM with a good shipping rate. I might end up grabbing some rims from HBS. I guess the rim will influence the spoke length too.

Bob Dopolina 

Those are NOT 11spd hubs. They are lying. In fact those hubs are several years old and 100% 10spd.

Do not buy from this site. Look elsewhere.

rpenmanparker 

No idea what you mean about "the right hole count needed". 14 spokes on the drive sided can easily be laced 2X or possibly 3X. 2X is probably better. On the non-drive side you can lace any number of spokes radially.

Spoke length is calculated using an online spreadsheet and the hub and rim dimensional data provided by the seller. Bike Hubs Store (www.bikehubstore.com) provides this information for all of their products. They will furnish you the spreadsheet if you can't find it and even help you calculate the spoke lengths. Also BDop offers the same information.

mooder

I wonder... 14/3 = 4 + 2/3 so you will end up with a hole not used in the rim?

@bdop, I've looked at your selection. I was quite interested beside the fact that I might get charged quite a bit at the custom. Tried to contact you but your Contact Us option on your web site is broken and will not load any thing!
Also, you offer the 291/482 combo. I would like to know if you replaced the bearings as the stock are said to be badly sealed and will suffer rapidly if they come in contact with water.

rpenmanparker 

That isn't how it works. You are just moving the connection point over a certain number of holes instead of the shortest path to the rim in order to get the spokes to cross over each other. 14 spokes still need 14 holes to attach to. 7 of the spokes are tilted one direction and every other alternating 7 in the opposite direction. But each spoke needs one hole, so it all works out. If you want to build a wheel, you really need to acquire a reference work on the subject or study up Sheldon Brown's internet treatment.

The reason you don't lace 28 spokes 3X (14 on one side) is that the spokes are too far away from each other. You want the spokes to like tangent to the edge of the hub flange. For 14 spokes on a side, 2X gives that better than 3X with most hub flange diameters.

mooder

Rightt I checked a video. It all makes sense now! I thought you had 3 times more spokes on the drive side

bbattle

Mooder, read SheldonBrown.com Specifically, Articles about Bicycle Wheels If you are planning to build your own wheels, I would definitely start here. If you just want to buy some custom wheels, there are a number of sites to help you.

For my singlespeed/fixed gear bikes, I've used Formula hubs with great success. Other wheelsets I've gone with Shimano. Smooth as silk, quiet as a mouse. Not the cheapest, though.

ravenmore

I had some Formula hubs laced to some Kinlin rims a while back. It was actually a pretty light wheelset and they were bombproof while I had them. I will likely build a new set for the new bike.

rpenmanparker 

Formula hubs ARE good, but the other Taiwanese ones that BHS and others sell seem so much more readily available. Similar in many respects.

ravenmore

I ran the RB - 210. I all ears if you know where to get something as light and as good.

Bob Dopolina 

Sorry for the delay. We really aren't posting here anymore.

Regarding customs this shouldn't be an issue. Most countries don't apply tariffs to hubs. Those that do do so usually at around 5%.

There are no seal issues with Novatec hubs. The bearing issues you describe are coming from Chinese trading companies who are ordering the hubs from Novatec with the cheapest Chinese bearings they can find and then dumping them on eBay, Alibaba and the like.

These are destined to fail.

There are also now fake Novatec hubs coming from the Philippines. Like anything else, buy from an authorized source whenever possible.

I'm not sure why you couldn't contact us. I do know that our website and email has been a bit odd lately, due I understand, to issues with our web host but we receive and reply to customer emails everyday without issue.

If you do want to contact us try our sales@bdopcycling.com address.

rpenmanparker 

The Bike Hub Store SL210 should be very similar in performance and identical in weight. Despite having a lower NDS/DS flange to center width ratio than the BHS hub, the Formula hub has equal diameter flanges unlike the BHS one. So the spoke tension ratio NDS/DS comes out exactly the same for the two hubs.

Where do you buy Formula hubs? Are they available online?

ravenmore

I got my last set as part of a group buy here on BF a few years back. We got a crazy good deal on Kinlin rims and Formula hubs.

bbattle

https://www.amazon.com/s?rh=n%3A3494281%2Cp_4%3AFormula

rpenmanparker 

Thanks, but that at all a selection of high performance hubs that compete with the light weight BHS and Novatec products. My experience is that the light Formula hubs are hard to find. Velocity used to rebrand some as did a wheel builder in Florida named Mike Garcia. Other than that, I just haven't found them. Same thing on ebay. Lots of listings, but none of them are the creme de la creme.

ravenmore

Yeah I had the RB 210 rear and corresponding front hub (would have to look up the model). Super light and it had titanium pawls. I raced and road thousands of miles on them. One of the few wheelsets I had zero issues with. They were light too - around 1460 grams I think for the wheelset.