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Old 03-22-05 | 11:55 PM
  #21  
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commander_taco
Live to ride
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Joined: May 2004
Posts: 188
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From: San Francisco
I just finished building up paul hubs with campy delta rims. I will post some pics over the weekend. If you are looking for paul ones try bikeman.com for good deal. A few months before this I built a set of wheels using phil hubs (to mavic cxp-14s). Here is my experience:

Paul hubs: Mine came with a glaring manufacturing defect. The front hub was not threaded deeply on one side. I could not tighten the bolt to the extent that it presses on the fork end. I cut the bolt about 10mm shorter and everything is fine. I called paulcomp about this situation and he sent me another front axle and bolts (took couple of calls to straighten this out though, not very responsive but not too bad). I am going to replace the axle soon. As far the hub shell, it is not forged (I think). Up close, you can clearly make out the marks left by cutting tool (mine are polished). Looks like it is turned from a thick cylindrical chunk of aluminum on a lathe/cnc. I suspect it is less stronger than a Dura ace (which is forged). There is another thing I did not like (applies to phil hubs as well). The hub flanges are really thick, so when you insert the spoke and position it, it leaves a big indentation on the hub flange where the spoke 'neck' sits. These indentations will act as stress raisers. A unsuspecting Joe may look at the thick flange (compared to dura ace) and conclude that the hubs are 'strong', but such a conclusion is not very accurate for the reasons mentioned above. I like paul hubs because they are quite beautiful (to my eyes atleast), and i am going to keep them unless something bad happens. Finally, I bought into the sealed bearing hype. I suspect a well designed loose bearing hub (like DA) will seal the mechanism just as well as the sealed bearing ones (I am saying this based on looking at paul's bearings).

Phil hubs: I found a minor manufacturing defect on this one. One spoke hole was not fully punched through. In fact there was not much of a hole, more like a mark for a hole. A little fiddling with Dremel tool fixed the problem. These also do not look forged (but I could be wrong), and the comment about thickness applies to these as well. Compared to paul hubs these look flat, not much visual appeal. Mirror polish actually looks tacky on this one (compared to the satin anodization of DA and campy).

Finally, I found that the bolt attachment that these hubs have is not as secure and strong as the trditional track nuts, especially for rear wheel (I will leave this one to prove to yourself). In addition, Pauls bolts are not as long as phil's. I complained to paul about this. I would have liked it better if the bolts on pauls were longer, esp. since somone on this forum had some issue with the paul's bolt breaking. I have a deep suspicion that none of these hubs (paul or phil) can pass NJS certification (bolt attachment not as safe and secure as track nuts, and inconsistent quality). Finally, I am not trying to scare you on this bolt issue. Rest assured that this design is working for so many people quite well.

Last edited by commander_taco; 03-23-05 at 07:20 AM.
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