Originally Posted by
justinzane
Sorry to be pedantic, but I'm wondering how to identify what quality I need. Say I've got a 68mm shell and 110mm spindle with JIS square taper. How do I know what spending the extra $75 on a Phil Wood vs a Sugino gives me. Durability? Ease of maintenance? Stiffness? Ability to attract unicorns? Ability to impress bike club folks?
Does it matter if I do small time crits? Seriously loaded tours? Riding the cobbles in Boston or Roubaix? What about if I am a female triathlete weighing in at 105 pounds? The actual me, weighting in at 222.5 pounds?
While I know that extremely high speed applications like dental drills benefit from the lower mass of ceramic balls, does it make any difference in a low speed, high force application like a bike? Why, other than the couple of grams?
And, if one is a cheapskate, like I am, how do you know what is truly crap to avoid and what is a reasonable quality affordable part?
...I think maybe you have unrealistic expectations of what and how much you can learn about stuff like this on an internet forum, but that's just my opinion.
Yes, there are a boatload of different things out there now, in terms of standards and quality for sure, as well as a bunch of proprietary stuff.
Some things, you just have to figure out on your own.