mcoine

Thats it.

FarHorizon

For what purpose? Offroad - road racing - touring - commuting - BMX - Single-Speed - what?

mcoine

0k fine..lets say mountain.

Retro Grouch 

Cost considerations aside, I'd pick Chris King for mountain bike hubs. My son has had a King Disco Tech rear hub on his Intense for around 5 years with no issues what-so-ever and he gives the components on that bike a real good test.

MattP.

yeah aside form the cost, I've heard nothing but awesome reviews about CK hubs.

Maelstrom 

Beyond that, for half the price with a slight quality drop you also have Hope and Hayes as very good contenders

Maelstrom 

For mountain? Really...never heard of them

DannoXYZ 

I don't know about "best", that has yet to be invented. I'm envisioning something with mag-lev non-contact bearings. You can ride it in the rain without worry and without re-packing afterwards.

However, pretty much ALL of the hubs on the market are identical as far as performance goes. Some are lighter than others, some are more durable and will outlive the lifetime of its owner, some others look better, some are re-configurable to take both Shimano and Campy cogs, some cost more, some cost less. "Best" is a darn hard quality to quantify...

mcoine

campy made mtb hubs.. a whole group in fact.. they might still. can't remember the name now.

mcoine

I got it, Euclid was the mtb group by campy

56/12 and 22/28

Also Icarus.

Best hubs are from Tune.

socalrider

Chris King and Phil Wood..

oldcrank

These are road hubs, not MTB, but . . .

. . . to give credit where credit is due, I just repacked a pair of 1985 French Maillard hubs and I am VERY impressed with their smoothness and fine adjustment. They are just spinning forever, and I'd put their "feel" up there with the best of campy and shimano, even by todays standards. Very nice indeed, and you can't beat the price when they pop up on Ebay, etc. Tip o' the hat to Maillard.

2wheeledsoul

I'm on a set of Shimano hubs that outlived two wheel rebuilds and a bearing replacement each, and they're not big $$$ hubsets. I've also beat the crap out of lowend Campy hubs and that took it all, till the bike they were on got stolen. I guess it depends on luck, some components are tougher than others.

FarHorizon

I guess I'm the odd man out, but I just bought MTB hubs, and my money went for DT Swiss "Onyx." I didn't like the quality on the Shimano I had in my parts box, and I don't like the way the ratchets on the Chris King hubs are so LOUD! Your money, your choice.

Don Cook

There isn't anyone on this forum that can answer your question. But, there isn't anything in this world that will stop dozens from trying.

mcoine

This was posted as a follow up to the noisy cassette thread.. and I don't honestly care what other people think are the best hubs. I got the answers I expected..king, phil, hugi, hope...shimano acera

"Opinions are like a**holes, everyone has one, and they all stink"

Maelstrom 

That applies to any and every question on the internet. Whats the use of posting/responding if people were to live by this credo.

Besides thats half the fun.

Maelstrom 

I guess I could have followed up further by asking what makes a hub "best" to you. For me it is engagement and durability and then value. I always pick my hubs based on those facts (although value is subjective I suppose)

Don Cook

In my experience with motorcycle, and automotive forums it is actually quite common to see a response to a question that refers to, at a minimum, some research article, a consumer magazine article, trade publication, and sometimes a fairley well constructed do-it-youself experiement. Why that isn't the norm with this forum I don't know. The question in this thread won't even get a response from anyone that had lots of years usage with lots of different hubs, tracking mileage, road conditions, routine maintenance sessions. Asking most forum members what's best, is most often responded to by "what I own", "what cost the most", "what some pro rider is using or saying", and heaven forbid "what some moron in an LBS is saying". And when you consider that the overwhelming part of the forum membership is seriously mechanically challenged, go figure!

If the poster's question had been constructed diferently, he could've come pretty close to figuring out the comparative strengths and weaknesses of various brand and style of hubs. Then for his (or her's) intended use, make up their own mind as to what hub would most likley fit their needs best.

mcoine

whoa.. I totally agree here, there is no science or objectivity.. but that wasn't what I was after. I am sorry I asked a totally open ended question, but I was just looking for peoples opinions. The fact is, that is almost entirely what this site is, opinion. I wasn't going to use this info to purchase hubs, I have a 10 year old set of hugis that work great. thats why I posted this, because in another thread about noisy cassettes, I got blasted for buying expensive hubs, but in this thread, almost everyone has said chris king etc.

Maelstrom 

Interesting, but I don't know any bike forums that do that. Most of the information is based on conjecture. There is the odd time I have seen information on suspension designs with real world statistics. I understand where you are coming from but believe that is an unrealistic expectation. I can give my fully biased opinion in the most unbiased way possible based on my experience, which I always do. I do think this is the best I can expect in return. I neer give an opinion based on a topic I have no experience in. Do I fully analyze statistics and return a pie chart based on my personal findings. No, I don't have the time. I will say something like

"Having used chris king, I find the hubs durable with high engagement and clearly well made, however with hadley (especially with the new design using more engagement points) and hope offering similar quality for half the price are a better purchase in my opinion."

I think generally, thats the best you would find on any bike site, especially mtbikers. To work out actual statistics would be so subjective they would be pointless anyways. I am 270, I dh and fr and abuse the heck out of my parts. Any statistic I come up with wouldn't apply directly to 90% of the mountain bikers out there.

As for responses based on someone elses opinion or pure conjecture, I agree those are completely pointless. If you don't have any experience, don't bother trying to explain.

MichaelW

How do you test hubs to find the "best".

Maelstrom 

I love noisy hubs. Not sure why, some sick yearning to hear my bike ...

I do know this, I destroy shimano hubs. The only hubs to survive my abuse were hadley, hope and king. Anything below that, especially not sealed, and I usually ate through them ithin 3 to 6months depending on how much I rode and the conditions I was riding in.

mayukawa

As others have said, many of these "best" ratings are objective in a way, but mainly on a small sampling basis, might not be valid on a large sample. I think to really evaluate hubs, we would have to take them all apart and see what makes them good or not. Who used the biggest (most durable) bearings? Cartridge bearings or separate bearings? How many sets of bearings per axle? How good are the seals? How much drag from the seals? how thick (strong) are the axles? You can just evaluate a bunch of stuff and then come up with a "best" for a certain purpose. Obviously for a MTB, you want to focus more on sealing versus drag... You can ask similar kinds of questions regarding the racheting system, the freehub body, the hub body, etc. I sometimes wonder why bike publications don't do more these kinds of tests...