Dreww10

Looking into building a set of rim-brake wheels, and have the primary options of straight-pull DT hubs. Not on a super tight budget, but going from 350 to 240 is almost a $400 jump in price. I'm not the type to spend extra for vanity, a few grams, or 1/8 of a watt, just need something that works and is reliable. Is there any compelling reason to not be satisfied with 350 and stick to my budget?

cxwrench

No, 350 are great hubs.

Troul 

from my understanding, the 240 is (in a layman's terms way) the lightweight version of the 350. Both will be classed as a loud hub. If you can find a hub with a 1.7°ish engagement, it'll likely have a reduced decibel output from the ratcheting mechanism.

cxwrench

DT makes 18, 24, 36, and 54 tooth ratchet rings. There is no difference in volume between them, only pitch. When clean and lubed they will be quiet, as the grease thins out and gets dirty they get louder.

Dreww10

I actually have some Roval CL50's that have DT Swiss ratchets, and if I grease them properly, they are almost TOO quiet...like silent. Are actual DT hubs louder, even if they have the same 18T ratchet?

Troul 

Sure, you can lube it & change how it acts temporarily. Lubrication is a static impact to the noise, the design in which it operates ultimately sets the tone for it's normal operating loudness. You will have to figure out what is on the inside to know guess at how it will sound. As for a quality difference, I wouldn't spend more on the one model.

my $00.02

Ridinglurker

The new drive design in the 240 had a lot of failures. They do repair it for free, but it is a hassle and fails in the middle of a ride on relatively new hubs.

If you really want DT for reliability, stay with the old design untill they figure out the new design. AFAIK DT never acknowledged the problem or started a recall.

There is a long thread on MTBR.​​​​​

himespau 

That's a pretty pricey increase for a little extra weight savings.

vespasianus

I have a new set of Farsport wheels with DT240 hubs and the rear is very loud. They actually spin down really quickly and your post has me thinking that I might need to open them up and add some grease.

cxwrench

Clean them out and regrease them with DT Special Grease and only use a little bit. Don't add to what's already there. If they're new there's probably enough already. Watch the DT Swiss video about how to clean and grease the ratchets. They definitely don't like a lot of grease. Over greasing is really the only way you can f up a DT hub.

cxwrench

Agree with all of this. But DT did release a 'ratchet exp maintenance notice' a while ago that admits to the problem and what to do if you experience it.
Exp maintenance notice

Camilo

I have a set of 240 hubs and yes they are loud, but it doesn't really bother me. They kind of sound "solid" to me and seem to engage very quickly. But for the sake of future maintenance, would a heavy oil the likes of (not specifically) 90wt or even chainsaw bar oil be better than my usual go-to grease, which is plain old waterproof marine stuff, pretty heavy? Is that DT Special Grease like "normal" grease thickness or would you call it light weight?

JamesInSJ

I had a set of wheels built on DT240 back in January/February and the serial # indicates they are not in the recall. I expect most supply today is post-recall so this shouldn't be a problem anymore for new hub/wheel purchases.

cxwrench

I would stay away from heavy marine grease. I can't say whether heavy oil would work well, but I'd assume it would be better than heavy grease. DT ratchet hubs are stupid simple so pretty anything should work as long as you don't use too much.

SoSmellyAir

I thought 360° divided by degree to engagement = number of contact points? E.g., 36 ratchets correspond to 10° engagement. So for a < 2° engagement, the hub would have 180 ratchets!?

Ridinglurker

Oh, they finally did. they ignored the problem for a very long time.

I would wait a year or two before trusting all the ones on sale are fixed. whatever they replaced looks exactly the same, so there was no fix to the design itself.

Just keep your receipt and have a spare wheelset :-)

Darth Lefty 

The Amazon/Ali Express brand called ZTTO is selling clones of the last generation hubs. So are some other less-known brands. The MTBR guys have been using them, sometimes replacing the ratchets and bearings with higher quality parts.
https://www.mtbr.com/threads/dt-chin...-hubs.1153155/