Originally Posted by
cavernmech
The spacers I have never had to deal with as all who ride em bought the right spaced hub to start with...but yeah...I guess $42 is a bit steep. As for cogs, up here in Canuckistan the regular price for a Dura-Ace cog is $32....$8 more doesn't seem ridiculous for a small batch, stainless cog.
I get what you're saying. But the good thing with non proprietary stuff is that you have choice. So you don't have to buy the most expensive part, you can buy a cheaper one you know to be just as good. This goes for cogs as well as for hubs. A DT Swiss hub can be outrageously (strike that, "is outrageously") expensive, but I don't have to buy one, because there are plenty of cheper alternatives, or I can buy NOS or good 2nd hand ones.
I'd be probably somewhat softer on the issue if LeVel offered a solution that's clearly superior to the existing ones, but I am not convinced. LóFarkas had some good points regarding LeVel vs. drilled cogs. And I still don't think a decently assembled track hub + cog can be stripped, although I do accept that my example with track sprinters wasn't necessarily supportive of that point. It doesn't detract from it, either... but ok.