Originally Posted by
timbobjones
Hello there fellow cyclists,
Im building some wheels to handle anything in 4 seasons from day to day cycling, trekking, commuting, touring (fully loaded)
I was wondering if anyone had used MTB hubs for road biking? Also what is the difference between road and MTB hubs anyway? Different bearings? Im thinking the Chris Kings iso disk hubs front and back. If is just a weight thing then i do not care as an extra 200g or so per hub is worth it for the strength and durability.
Cheers
Tim-Bob
Basically, hubs is hubs. About the only thing you should be concerned about is the width of the dropout. A hub with a 130mm width is a road hub and 135mm is a mountain bike hub. If your bike has 130mm spacing, there's often enough flex in the frame to force a 135mm hub into the dropouts (5mm is only about 0.2") but it will make wheel removal more difficult. Some bikes are even designed to take either a road hub or a mountain hub by having 132.5mm OLD on the dropouts.
As for weight, that depends on the hub. The Kings are relatively light...170g front, 306g rear. Shimano XT hubs are kind of portly at about 450g (rear). White Industries XMR hub are about 100g for the front and 300g for the rear. On the plus side for the WI hubs, they don't buzz like angry bees when you coast. Phil Woods hubs are a bit heavier than the XT (200g front, 510g rear) but they offer easier field disassembly than any of the other hubs if you have to fix them.
All of them are rugged. All of them are good. The Kings and Phils are pricey. The Whites are pricey too but they a bit more affordable. The XTs are dirt cheap.