Ira in Chi

I'm a daily rider and use low flange. They are really smooth and I've never had a problem. I don't service them regularly but I'm a mechanic so I know enough to pay attention to what's going on. I have a second "beater" bike that sees all the snow and salt, but I use the DAs in the rain and I've never seen water actually get inside. They are a light, fast, good-looking hub. I have a buddy who rode a pair all winter without damaging them. I'm just going by his word, but he's a mechanic too and a big guy at that.

^^^edit - anyone who knows andy(wibikeandy) knows how huge he is and by virtue of this, how much he physically abuses his stuff- this was a good enough endorsement for me.

queerpunk

they'll still warantee it? phew. i was about to start a new thread, but you've answered my question...

prodigal son

So if live in Los Angeles and repacking the hubs isn't a big deal then Suzue NJs hubs would be no problem then?

pigmode

durrá ace-su (hard R)




Pig ODed on cohi

onetwentyeight 

I think you missed the joke. I'm not *that* ********. Close, but not quite.

Cohi?

pigmode

That happens to me more often than I'd care to admit.

Judah

Suzue NJS hubs are great, at least I've had good experience with them.

Sorry, can't say anything about duraches...

11.4

Last year I won a pair of low flange Dura ace track hubs and laced them up for my primary fixie. They saw 30-35 miles 5 days a week, virtually every day regardless of weather, throughout the winter. The cyclometer says they've seen 3714 miles. No problems. I gave the rear an overhaul at about 2200 miles but it didn't really need it.

Note that Shimano hubs come with a really crappy grease. I'd suggest you disassemble them, clean them out, and replace it with a good lithium grease or Phil grease. Also, before building a wheel they feel fine but after adding spoke tension they sometimes are a tad loose, so be sure to adjust them. Bearing maladjustment will kill your hubs faster than any kind of weather. That applies to over-cranking your track nuts as well, which will affect bearing adjustment.

If you get the high flange hubs (my current fixie pair has 8000 miles on it and one overhaul, and they're in superb shape) do use the optional seals that are supplied with the hubs. They help keep water out of the bearings. Since 7600's have dropped in price a bunch and low flanges have been creeping up, it's almost a wash. I'd buy the 7600's over the low flanges.

Also to someone's question above, I haven't tried this on the low flanges, but on 7600's you can tap out the races inside the hub and then replace them with a standard cartridge sealed bearing (got ours from Phil Wood). Just get a pair of the sealed-bearing adjustment cones (from Bicycle Research) and they run superbly. This works on old-style Campy hubs as well (Nuovo/Super/C-Record, both high and low flanges).

ink1373

thanks for the responses, everyone.

a very good point, and weighs heavily on the choice i will make. shimano is a juggernaut, but i also just want the least bling/most performance combination possible. tough call.

jim-bob

Just get the phils. You know you're gonna beat the piss out of them, and you know they'll take it.

ink1373

maybe i'll wrap the centers with electrical tape so that they don't look so fancy.

grasscircle

the threading on them seem to be durable. but if you did have a reservation about the threading, get a double-sided fixed. just in case there is some user error on one of the sides you'll still have a working hub.

jim-bob

eh, just take some dulling spray to 'em and call it good. it's not like dura-ace hubs don't look expensive.

46x17

or you could just ride them for a while

ink1373

take the little logo off of the low flange DAs and hardly anyone could identify them. maybe some of us here at BF, but we're all ****ing demented.

jim-bob

It's still a wheel with a fixed cog that's shiny and pretty. An opportunist will still take it.

I think you're kidding yourself if you think that the DAs aren't going to attract attention from the wrong elements.

ink1373

but compared to phils? i might be overreacting, period, but it seems like phils still attract more attention.

jim-bob

You're overreacting. In a fit of dumbassery I locked up my holland on telegraph while I killed time at a record store. I only locked the rear wheel to a rack, and nobody even stopped and looked at the tasty phil wood / deep v front wheel that was just waiting to be plundered.

Get the phils.

(okay, to be entirely truthful, it was mcatano that locked it up, but my point is still valid.)

46x17

people will steal any bicycle. I had a $15 bike stolen once that was kryptonited to a parking meter.

mcatano

It's funny - before I got to your parenthesis I was all, "Hey! I did that too!"

But yes, It's true. I totally Sheldoned jim-bob's Holland. I'd do it again, too.

jim-bob

To clarify, I claim full responsibility for the dumbassery. I had two very nice cables just hanging out on my kitchen counter, but did I bring them?

(it's funny that a u-lock fits both seat tube and rear wheel on the 3rensho conversion, but not on the holland tracky bike.)

RicFlair Fixie

maybe you should because phils destroy dura ace's in strength, durability, bearing life, warranty,etc.... no offense but something that's that good cant be compared.

now back to the dura ace's

i've ridden onetwentyeights front after a little hooptyha crash and it wasn't bad. i like phils more tho. but everyone has their opinion.

Erich Zann

DURA-ACE is awesome because of the fact that it sounds like a bad translation. Some guys I know make the Dura Achay Liberace joke, since Dura Ace are the Liberace of components (best).

jitenshako

By the way, I'm not familiar with their line of hubs but do they only have one type of HF hubs? I was just looking at them from businesscycles.com and from bikeworks and they are priced differently and have different names. I was just curious...

r-dub

https://www.philwood.com/pproducts.htm

They have high flange and low flange, each with options of:
1x fixed
2x fixed
1free/1fixed

standard colors are silver and black, but they occasionally do other colors, too.

HF are available in the SLR version, which has drilled out flanges for decreased weight.