Ah, my mistake was I had assumed the free hubs were built up pretty similarly to the 9 speed freewheels. I was thinking, how much worse could it be.

either that or youre over exaggerating

i highly doubt that you rode 12,000 miles (aka three times this distance across the atlantic ocean) in rain, salt, grit, potholes, mud, snow, and two hurricanes without having even the slightest little click, grind, slip, or noise. the fact that you say your wheel "survived" makes me wonder. anyone can easily ride a broken freewheel and not service it or fix it and say it "survived without service". was it running completely silent and sqeaky clean the whole time? did you have some kind of bag around it? some kind of god-like degreaser?
oh and by the way, what was it like riding in a hurricane? i should try that sometime.

How reliable are these SS hubs?

I am growing more tired of this forum every day. People love to boast their silly little opinions as all-encompassing. It's a matter of taste, just ride your bike and be happy.

pretty ****in reliable

the CK is a freehub(from what I can tell) which is going to be nicer than a standard freewheel but that hub in particular will cost a pretty penny

On my old mtb that I commute with it daily and did long weekend rides on. About 100-120 miles a week in the winter, 200 or so in the summer for 2 years. The only thing that went wrong was the rear derailleur was crashed on a few times and bent so I replaced it. Other than that, everything, even the bb worked fine. I'm not saying it was in new condition but it still spun just fine (nothing I noticed). The "without service" part means it was never opened up. I cleaned the outside of it every month or so by wiping the grit off, that was it. This is a geared bike, so you can't expect it not to click. Geared hubs have a ratchet inside that click whenever you coast. Plus the derailleur, unless it has a perfect chain line, will always make a small amount of noise too. I replaced the chain twice, never took it off to clean it either, just wiped it down every month. So I think what I meant to say was that the hub on my geared wheel survived; which is apparently very different than one in a SS even though technically, it should be even easier and cheaper to beef up the SS one.

Hurricanes are pretty fun, the ones that make it up here to NYC aren't officially classified as hurricanes, just the left overs, but you do get 50-60mph winds and pouring horizontal rain. It's great to see the look on a coworkers face, even better that I get a place to change and dry myself at work, not so great when you go into puddles that are deep enough to submerge the bb.

Time to start saving your pennies.
From what the roadies tell me, it's loud as ****ing hell and doesn't coast all that well either cause of the 72 point engagement. I think the white industries ones only have 3 points of engagement and the dtswiss ones are like, a clutch.

A practical fixed gear thing:
Slowing down hands-free in traffic.

A practical singlespeed thing:
Coasting over curbs.

Very reliable. Probably cosidered one of the best. However, it runs a freehub and cog. no freewheel.

Ok... now I'm confused... what's the difference between a freehub+cog and a freewheel?
I'm assuming both have a ratchet (or clutch), which is about all I can think of, the spacing should be just about even and there shouldn't be any dish right?

To me, it's about control. I recently started riding fixed after 2 decades of riding 'regular' freewheeled bikes. I went riding with my kids (6 and 9). If you've ever went riding with kids you know how important control is. My 6 year old will stop or turn on a dime for reasons that only make sense in his little head.

When riding fixed I was able to moderate my speed with amazing ability. My 6 year-old's antics were insignificant. I wasn't ever coasting so I never had to grab my brakes unexpectedly. I could do little adjustments with my speed and only grab the brakes when I had to. I was surprised. I had done a few longer rides and enjoyed the fixed difference but only after riding in a more challenginrg environment did I really realize how fixed changed the ride.

I'm no messenger. But after that ride it made me realize why many messengers ride fixed. They need that level of control to navigate the everyday madness of the streets.

Try it, you'll see.

Thanks for all the great replys.

One bfssfg cliche deserves another I guess.

Most people who run fixed do it for fun or training purposes. It is fun, and from a training perspective it helps develop smoothness and spin. As for practical advantages they are few.

I do find I can climb in a taller gear fixed than free, because my pedal stroke is more completely circular. this also helps you go fast, but is more difficult to measure that advantage.

the other advantage is durability, Freewheels have a lot of fragile moving parts that can wear or get gummed up (especially bad in winter) A fixed cog properly installed will give many more miles of trouble free service.

These advantages are generally not enough in and of themselves to outweigh the convenience of coasting and shifting. Unless of course you just really love riding fixed. Which is why most of us here do it.

[QUOTE=slvoid]How reliable are these SS hubs?QUOTE]
Many folks swear CK is the best there is. Loud though. I have an axiom s/s hub, same style, freehub concept, 3 prongs and bomb proof.

A pic is worth a thousand words, even Sheldon.

Jeez, glad you put the link here. i just wasted a lengthly explanation that got lost in the IE void.

that's a shame, that's when i enjoy it the most. for me it is like a zen thing. i don't care if that's corny or played out. i'm sick of all of bf's ideological trends, the above one included. you may be jaded about it all, but i'm not. this isn't a trend to me. i found what feels good to me and i will do it until i can't. [/rant]

I see now... well kind of. Either way, they can both be designed to seal up pretty well, I wonder why the freewheels seem to be so much easier to contaminate than freehubs, unless maybe the manufacturer just didn't give a crap about freewheels.

cause that seal isnt a seal, its an open gap

to oil a freewheel cog like a BMX style that most SS roadbikes have, you simply lean the bike on its side, spin the wheel, and drip oil into the gap-------dirt, water, salt have zero problems getting in there too

freewheel hub has actual O-rings or c-clip retained end washers/seals

I'm getting pretty old for trends, or ideology for that matter. I just like to coast sometimes.

Fixed is fun, but I'm on a single speed kick this season. I found myself really missing bunny hopping last year and since I want to race cross this fall I definitely need the practice. My IRO Rob Roy frame is on the way and that's going to be built up on a single fixed hub (but with a freewheel for '07 at least).

This will also give me a chance to learn trackstands on a freewheel bike ... so far I'm still doing cheater trackstands (inching forward instead of staying still/rocking back and forth).

That's frightening...

Re: freewheels, just get a decent one. --> https://www.whiteind.com/ENO-free-specs.html

Yeah if you can do fixed track stands, freewheel ones should come naturally enough though instead of back pedaling like on a fix, the balance is more in how you shift your overall body weight back and forth... either way, I swear to god, these things are impossible if there's even the ever slightest hint of downslope in whatever surface you're on, which really makes them a lot less practical than fixed track stands where you can do them anywhere, uphill, flat, downhill, whatever...