What rear hub?
 

My wife just got a custom Terry frame that uses 26" wheels (my retirement gift to her!). I now am working on building it. We ride road and she likes how Campagnolo shifting works and how the lever feels. We've had Shimano, and Campy is what she likes. So the problem now is to get a good quality rear hub that takes Campy 9/10/11 cassettes, can be had in 32 spokes, and is silver, prefer polished rather than anodized. It will be laced 2x or 3x.

Several are out there: White, Hope, Velocity, DTSwiss, Novatech, Mr Ride, Circus Monkey, Velo-Orange, Miche, and a few others that are in the sub-$200 price range.

My questions: what works well? I have confidence in the current Campy, White, and DTSwiss based on experience. Are those other brands worth buying? Are any to be avoided? What can go wrong? Is there a hot buy, below the premium level?

For this bike we need appearance, reliability, serviceability and long life.

All of the ones you mentioned are very good. I too like polished shiney bits. Its really hard to beat the look and function of a White Industries hub. They build up nice and look fantastic.

Most of those are very good but my two personal favorites are the White Industries and DT options. I have seen both go well over 10k miles with no issues at all despite not being serviced in that time.

Campagnolo's anodizing is polished first, and is as good as polished , but wont need re-polishing all the time to keep it looking good.

I vote Miche, they have a good reputation and look nice if you remove the gaudy decals. I would use the novatec if you need hybrid/mtb 135mm spacing and/or disc brakes.

I'd take the Miche over White for a 130mm silver hub based on cost. I'd only go with the White for a show bike or if I had a burning hole in my pocket.

I'd only go with velocity if you wanted one of their rims and were using their wheel builder option. I assume they are equal to the novatec.

The only reason that I'd go Hope or DT Swiss (or White, for that matter) is if I was going to use a hub on my touring bike and wanted the extra peace of mind.

I don't think the VO is worth the price unless the tool-less aspect of disassembly appeals to you. I'm sure it's a good product.

No idea about the circus monkey and I've never heard of mr.ride.

Too bad they only make black Record hubs these days. Le sigh.

aint much in 2014 dollars buying power

does it have to say 'Record' on it to make you happy?( that is well over $200 anyhow) mine are screw on freewheel hubs, havent kept up with the Joneses.

the black goes with all the CF parts you probably dont need either..

I'll make a point that might already be known by the OP but needs stating anyway. There are many different actual tire/rim diameters that all say 26" on their labels. My experience suggests that your Terry uses what are better referred to as 650c or 571 ISO wheels/tires. It would be a shame to assume one size and end up with a different size, easy to do if not specific and if the bike's not in front of the parts source (as in buying on line).

As an example, Terry has made road bikes with the 650c/571 wheel sizes and the mountain bike 26"/559 ISO size wheels. It's only the comment about campy shifting that makes it pretty obvious to a knowledged reader that your Terry is a road bike and therefore uses the 650c/571 size. Lacking this shifter reference (and just saying the freehub needs to be campy isn't really a full description to determine wheel size) and it's any one's guess which wheel the Op really needs. Already one person replied with both road and mountain hub axle lengths. Andy.

No it does not need to say "Record". The sad fact is that for new Campagnolo product, the only hubs available are Record, and are only made in black finish. And for the premium level of available hubs, a pair of Campy cost less than a pair of White or the others. If they had a silver one I would not be asking my question. I also only want a new rear hub, since the front will be a dyno.

Another reason for no Record is that she does not want black.

Let me rephrase... too bad they only make a single hub these days, a 32h Record Hub. Everything else is buying a prebuilt wheel. The few NOS Centaur hubs floating around are overpriced junk (usually the 2008ish model, not the older version that was practically identical to Record and Chorus).

My point wasn't that the hub say record, but rather, that Campy is basically out of the hub making market.

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The frame is spaced 130. Not usual for Terry's frames these days, but that's what we wanted. Those odd names came from Ebay - maybe they're trying the house brand ploy?

IDK where you are Looking.. Campagnolo has a Broad range of different price point components .
(though they dont dip down to be as cheap as what Shimano's fully robotic machines can crank out )

130 is the road standard width these days .. Veloce is their basic group now, & go up in price from there.

Veloce - Mechanical Groupsets Campagnolo


Have you tried asking at a Professional Bike Shop?
Campagnolo has 9 distributors supplying US Bike Shops.

http://www.campagnolo.com/media/file...gnolo_2015.pdf

And as you said before, le sigh!

Ok, thanks. I think it's pretty well established at this point what Campy is making available in stand-alone hubs.

You do understand that they don't make a Veloce hub, right? Campagnolo only makes one hub. We are talking about hubs, not component groups.

The closest thing available to a modern lower-end Campy hub is to buy a Miche which is made in Italy (and probably the same factory, but who knows?)

I expect the finish differs.. the Romanians make the cheaper stuff . Campagnolo loves off shoring for low wages too.

lots of Shimanos freehubs the aluminium part is machined the same .. finish differs.

Out here we only see newer Campag stuff on tourists bikes in the summer .. they are usually up a creek without a paddle for spares.
[the shop copes by advance warning another shop down the coast 2 days they special order and try to have it there when they arrive]

I have older stuff , ride My Rohloff IGH bike more, now... think Ill go do that ..

so I stopped paying attention.. I got off the bandwagon at 7 speeds.

Ok, then, thanks for your input. My question is strictly about current production hubs.

the campy record hub is about 250 and 32 hole