Originally Posted by
TiHabanero
So it seems the freehub body has changed to aluminum. Not a deal breaker for me at least because the hub is so darned good! My 350 hub has the 18t engagement and has not presented any issues with lag. My son changed his to the 36t engagement and he did say when sprinting it makes a real difference for him.
Either way it is an excellent hub and filled with superbe (pun intended) engineering that has set the standard for the rest of the industry, which is starting to take notice and copy them.
If you are slight and not a very strong rider, you shouldn't have a problem with an alloy freehub body. If you weigh over 200lbs or are a very strong rider, your cassette will gouge the freehub body.
I built up a set of wheels with White Industry W11 hubs. They have a 48t engagement. I cannot say these are any real advantage over Shimano 18t engagement hubs unless you have these on a mountain bike with ultra-low gearing. A big nothingburger IMO. The only thing I really noticed is that WI hubs have a noisier freehub than Shimano.