Thread: Hub upgrade
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Old 12-28-14, 10:46 AM
  #20  
tjspiel
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Originally Posted by jyl
I wouldn't replace the hubs just to replace the hubs, unless you want to spend money just to spend money. Repack and adjust them if they need it.

However, breaking spokes every 150 miles is not normal at all, and even needing to retrue that often is abnormal, unless you have very exacting standards of trueness (like 1 mm) or bash the bike around a lot. So a better way to spend some money, at least to me, might be to buy a Park TS2.2 truing stand and completely true and tension the wheels. You'll get a very useful tool out of it, and then you can correct any failings with the Crossrip wheels, build new wheels, etc - the tool and the gained skill will pay for itself in time.
+1

To me there wouldn't be much value gained from replacing the hub other than what you learned in the process if you were to do the work yourself.

Though people have been downplaying it in this thread, you can see a difference between a high end performance hub and a cheaper one just by spinning the wheel. The wheel with the better bearings will seem to spin forever. The problem is that I'm not sure what difference that will make in actual use. Especially on a backup bike, used on trails.

A high performance wheel will also have improved aerodynamics via a deeper rim profile, fewer spokes, and maybe even flat spokes vs round. It will also be significantly lighter. You probably don't want fewer spokes on an off road bike anyway but pairing an expensive hub with a cheap rim loses those other benefits.
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