Santaria

We discuss a lot of hubs, so it got me wondering what the second, third and so forth (best) are.

I'm assuming Phil Woods/Dura Ace/Campy are in the top echelon, but I've never ridden them.

I'm pretty loyal to my Surly NEWs and OLDs, in general. I keep hearing that Formula are middle of the road, and some research is telling me that my Surly hubs are really just rebranded Formulas....

Origin8 hubs are the bottom?

All that nonsense aside, list your top 5 and absolute worst (1) for a random list of 6.

Kayce

Surley and formula are different hubs.

Sherblock

I'd be interested to hear where people placed novatec

Leukybear 

Errr Origin 8 hubs = rebranded formulas; surly hubs are in - house I believe.

Top 5 IMO:
philwood
dura ace
campy
suntour (superbe)
*The above are literally equals nonetheless*
formula [less bling factor but the workhorse of SS/FG; durability literally rivals the above but at a price everybody can afford]

Absolute worst:
Kilo tt stock hubs rear
Kilo tt stock hubs front

nightfly

Best set of wheels I've had used Suzue Pro Max "disco" hubs (the ones with the prism stickers on the them). Not sure if they were the loose bearings or the sealed but I'm sorry I sold them along with that bike.

adriano 

orgin8 is good.

Deademeat

I have Paul hubs, and I have absolutely no complaints. I could have easily dialed up the price and gone with dura ace or campy, but someone pointed out that it was probably a bloody stupid idea to put track hubs with unsealed bearings on a bike going on the road.

Sherblock

wat.

Deademeat

Apparently Adriano and I like to make a point. Over and over and over again. Or posting is a little screwy today.

Scrodzilla

Yeah, posting was a little weird for a few minutes.

Novatec > Formula.

adriano 

sorry for any repeats.

91MF

anything that keeps a fixy bike wheelset that gets locked up under $300 is fine. im sure phils are great, or whatever

Nuggetross

if you're going to say "campy" hubs (and assume that we're only talking about track hubs that are currently in production), then why not say "shimano" hubs?

Kayce

Singlespeed fixed gear subforum means we are talking about singlespeed and fixed gear products. In this case Campy fixed hubs.

There are dura-ace road hubs too, but this is not the road forum.

Santaria

I'm probably never going to build a fixed-gear wheelset better than my Surly/Salsa combo I run now - it's bulletproof.

However, I eventually want to get a tour-worthy bike for my wife and I, and we've discussed off-and-on BLTs, LHTs and All City Space Horses. I probably will invest in a wheelset with these at that point.



White Industries MI6CX hubs since I didn't bother to link the page.

yummygooey

From what I've held in my hands:

Zipp
Novatec
IRO
Formula sealed
Formula loose ball

8bits

best:
Zipp T2's
Dura Ace
Record Pista

worst:
shunfeng

Nuggetross

soooo, you mean record track hubs?

there are record road hubs, too (but this is not the road forum).

and p.s. i really like the idea of this thread. i think it would be really informative. but, i think what we're really trying to get at is people who've had personal experience with the hubs. i feel like people listing off seemingly inexplicable hub hierarchies is not helping anyone.

Scrodzilla

Deademeat

I think that the three points I was wanting to make are:

1) I have Paul hubs. I like them and consider them to be a high quality hub. I've ridden thousands of miles on them both on some crappy roads and a computrainer.
2) Comparing unsealed track hubs apples to apples against cheaper single speed hubs with sealed bearings may not be a good idea - better depends what you want to use your wheels for.
3) I have no real idea what I am talking about, aside from putting a few thousand miles on some single speed hubs. You can ignore me it's really OK.

Dave

hairnet

Quando, along with the stock Kilo hubs (loose ball Formula), and non "disco" high end Suzue are some of the common lowest of the low el cheapo hubs.

Others will most likely be just fine to excellent, depending on your level of bike snobbery. I have my beef with Surly hubs, but they use angular contact cartridge bearings which are what you want if you will be building a SS mountain bike to take off road (or you can choose a loose ball hub for the same effect)

max5480

can someone lock this ridiculous thread?

But really, White Industries FTW^∞

Kol.klink

My hate for loose ball formuls knows, no bounds. especially if you're foolhardy enough to use the aluminum lock ring that comes with them, the drive side of the hub shell shears off with the lock ring upon removal.

Dura-ace are SSSSMOOOOTTTTHHH especially once they wear in a little, a shimano technical rep over from Japan once told me the BB/races they use are an order of magnitude more round than "normal" ball bearings and made of some inconnel-unobtainium alloy, don't think he should be taken at his word but they are some smooth ass hubs, and i know some couriers who run them on their work bikes and claim they never need to replace them, even after years of street service.

If you're talking cartridge, i went White industries over Phil and would do it again, Phills are a little common uncreative for my taste, but the quality between the too is about the same IMO. besides, i think, ascetically they're pretty boring, their draw is their "street cred" psshhtt...

Orgin8=formula+origin8 stickerz, same story goes for a lot of the cheaper cartridge hubs out there, no matter how much they deny it.

Santaria

If ridiculous was the standard, wouldn't 99.9 percent of this forum (at least this subforum) be a ghost town?


I guess between Chris King, Paul, White Industries and Phil Wood they're all almost identical in quality?

Kol.klink

Close enough you'd be hard pressed to qualitatively prove otherwise without some kind of engineering analysis.