Originally Posted by
Andy_K
Aluminum freehubs are a curse sent to punish cyclists for being weight weenies. Every time I'm shopping for wheels and I see something with a really low listed weight I remind myself that my rims are as light as is practical for me (~420g) and that any weight savings would come from too few spokes and/or a super light freehub, which even if titanium ($$$) wouldn't actually provide the supposed "rotating mass" bonus, and go back to being happy with my dependable but kind of heavy wheels. </rant>
Blame the same cyclists; Shimano was forced by the market to change the deep-spline Dura-Ace from economical aluminum, back to titanium/shallow-splines, under the weight of complaints they received. Campagnolo figured it out early, but it turns out people won't accept that from Shimano (see: mountain bike '11' speed cassettes). Wouldn't we really all be in a better place now, had people not complained about it?