Quando Hubs
 

So, I'm building up my first fixed gear bike
Today I picked up a wheelset with Quando hubs and Rigida rims for $150 built up and put on a bike but not ridden.
I knew nothing about the hubs, but it appeared to be a good deal, and a lot cheaper than building it up on my own as I had planned to do.
Then i get home to research the hubs that I had already bought (its always good to do these things after the purchase) and found that they're considered to be pretty much crap.

So, what problems to the Quando hubs generally show up with?
Are they going to last until i've got the money to build up a new set?

I have what I suspect to be a Quando (110mm, loose bearing, fixed-free, low flange, black). Costs a whopping $13, brand spankin' new in a shop. That's pretty much as much as it is worth.
I stripped the lockring threads through a combination of poor design (too short threads for both cog and lockring), mediocre manufacturing (threads), probably subpar material, and user error. Other than that, it gets the job done. Now the cog is just rotafixa'd on, but it's working, and the bearings have survived on and off winter commuting with just one repacking done in January. I'm sure they don't spin very smoothly, but then they didn't when the hub was new.
About manufacturing tolerances: one section of the dustcap touches the hub shell once in every turn... Not a very round hub shell, but who cares. Now it has 1500-2000 miles on it, and it's still spinning:D

Can you post a pic of the hub? Quite possibly it has nothing to do with my POS

I've stripped the threads on a quando pretty quickly and the bearings are scapmetal rolled into ball shape, roughly.

How long would it take to save up a new set... it really depends on how you ride. Mine only lasted 5-6monthes before it stripped out and almost got me run over, but I was riding a pretty big gear and brakeless. They'll get you where you need to go, but don't expect much out of them and try not to do any crazy skids.

Oh yes, I wouldn't skid on one of these. I stripped mine with backpedaling:eek: (ok, things weren't tightened down properly)

The hubs i got were High Flange silver with a quando logo etched into the hub. The front dustcap says sealed, but the back says nothing of the sort.

Ill plan on building up a new back within the next two months or so, but hope the front will last me longer than that. If the threading tends to be the only problem, the front should last longer, and ill be careful with keeping the cog tight.

I've gone over 15,000 miles on cheap ass LOW FLANGE QUANDOS on cheap ass Alex rims (stock on a Fuji track -2003)



Go ****in figure

i stripped threads on a quando hub in two short weeks... arg.
get some red loctite on the cog and lockring, tighten those suckas down real good (but not TOO hard cuz you can strip those threads like that, too!), and probably run a front brake, and you should be fine...
that said, an IRO set wouldn't cost you much more, and they are, in my opinion, excellent, well-built, tuff-as-nails, inexpensive wheels. i dig mine.

In my book Quando equals crap, although to be fair that's based on one experience only. On my last bike I started with suzue jrs on the back and a quando on the front. I swapped the back for a Phil and the improvement was nice of course, but perhaps a bit below what I was hoping. Few months later I swapped out the Quando in the front and felt like I was flying the second I hopped back on the bike, most immediately satisfying upgrade I've ever experienced...

I stripped a Quando flip flop hub the second day I had it. The cog was put on at the bike shop that sold it to me, and instead of returning the wheel, I went to the store and told them "you guys knew what I wanted out of a wheel, and you gave me a piece of crap that couldn't even work for a 115 lb girl." I then told them that I was taking my business elsewhere.....which I did. And to add insult to injury, a week later the crankset they sold me when I initially placed the order for the wheels, stripped off of the spindle.

Moral of the story: Quando sucks and avoid Wolff Cycle in West Philadelphia at all cost.

bearings are cube shaped, threads are made of play-dough...best way to get your moneys worth from a quando hub is to throw it through a bike shop window after hours and grab a hub worth a ****. i'd ride a suzue basic soaked in salt water for a few months over a band new, right off the assembly line quando.

I've had mine go loose 'n floppy once.. but so far they haven't left me stranded. Let's just say they're cheap enough to get me to the point where I can afford something better. :)

So, The bike hasn't left the shop yet.
Partially because i dont have cash for the remaining parts but also because the quando hub i bought has 110mm spacing.

Most track hubs are 125 spacing. Does anybody know about the way small hub spacing on this?
Ive got to get the smalles BB that my frame can take to make the chainline straight. I may have to respace and redish the wheel for it if that doesnt bring the chainring in enough.. Whats the deal with quando?

Oh yea. I figure ill ride them until the give me a reason not to. I'll let you know how it works out.

120 is standard track spacing. the shop should know that


on a similar not any experience with formula hubs?

Track hubs are 120, not 125. Some were, and in Japan, still are 110. My hub was also a 110 until I put in a longer axle ($3) and put on two nuts as extra spacers (50c).

It should have the standard 42mm chainline with a normal cog, though. Anyway, if you have chainline trobles, you can play with the spacers easily, as you need them in any case. (unless it's a flipflop and you'll use both sides)

I just finished the bike.
The chainline took a bit of work. I put a 107mm BB in and .7mm spacers to move the chainring in. Ive got another .7mm spacer to move the cog out. Im running a dura ace cog and lockring.

Everythings working like cake except the lockring has been coming loose when i try to skid. I put it on with the lockring wrench, it came loose when i tried to brake with it.
I got it down tighter and it works fine to slow down with but it will loosen when i try to skid. Ive tightened it several times myself and had someone at a shop tighten it down. Still comes loose.

Im assuming it all comes down to the quando hub, but does anyone have any ideas for tightening it down? If i use thread lock will it ever come loose if i want to change cogs?

Oh yea, does anybody think the loosening could have anything to do with the spacer on the cog?

Just to confirm, you are tightening the lockring by turning it counter-clockwise (opposite of normal) right? Lockrings are reverse threaded. If the spacer is big enough that it pushes the cog far enough out that the lockring can't grab enough threads then it's possible the spacer is your problem. If you post a picture of the hub with the cog/spacer/lockring and also without the lockring we might be able to help better.

I'm not saying it isn't the hub, but I've never had a problem with my lockring coming loose on my quando rear hub. Of course, I'm sure I've now successfully jinxed myself and will have problems on my way home today. :)

what kind of lockring are you using? and what kind of cog?

Im running a dura ace cog and lockring.

The spacer leaves about 2 threads of the lockring off the end. This weekend im going to try to take the spacer out and space the chainring in to 1.5 mm. Im hoping that this will solve the problem. If it doesn't then i will go with the threadlock until i get a new hub.

Im worried a bit abot flex and general instability with 1.5 spacing in on the chainring. Im thinking about going down to a 105mm BB withing the next couple of weeks so i dont have to space in the chainring. I also was thinking about getting an actual track crank instead of the dotek road crank i have on it now. Would a track crank help me with the spacing? I'll have less than a mm clearance between the frame and chainring bolts if i go with the smaller BB and my current crank. Maybe then id be able to have the chainwheel on the outside rather than the inside then?

threadlock is a crappy way to fix the problem, leaving it as it is until it fails and you'll be one more voice in the crowd saying that quando hubs are junk.

they are economy hubs sure, but that said I have one laced to a 27" rim that has outlived the bike it was originally mounted to, probably 5,000 - 6,000 km's on it... not bad for the $30 it cost me (doesn't say much for the converted road frame though I realize that). It still spins smoothly after having been ridden through 2 winters in Toronto.

Surly cog and lockring fits perfectly on these hubs, I don't know about Dura ace.

screw the spacers alltogether.
1.4mm of misaligned chainline is no big deal.

I'd recommend putting the hub together without the spacer. fixed-gear hubs usually only give you about three or four threads for the cog to bite onto, and the same for the lockring. You want to use as many of the threads as possible, and the spacer is just offsetting your cog away from a solid purchase on the threading.

If your lockring isn't at least flush with the face of the hub, you're making a big compromise. Take the spacer out and I think you'll find that the lockring threads on all the way to flush or even slightly further. This will probably solve your problem; I bet you only have one turn of thread holding your lockring on. That's a recipe for tearing that thread off and having all kinds of bad things happen.