So I'm building a new wheel set for a new bike, and I want to know which hubs I should get. I am deciding primarily between:

Miche Primato hubs: https://www.businesscycles.com/thub-miche.htm
Shimano Durace hubs: https://www.businesscycles.com/thub-shim.htm

The Miche weigh 240g front, 346g rear - Cost $110
The Shimano weigh 215g front, 295g rear - Cost $225

Both have a 36h drilling option, which I need for a 3 leading 3 following lacing pattern (seen here: https://www.minortriad.com/wheel.html). Both are fixed/fixed rear hub. Both are sealed bearing (cause I'm not p***y, I ride in the rain).

As far as usage, I live in Chico, a college town in Nor Cal. It's almost all flat, rains about 15-30 days a year, super crappy pavement on most roads. I don't run a brake. I have a high gear ratio, 52 x 17, so lots of pressure when sliding. I am pretty into learning tricks right now, lot's of wheelies and whirly birds. At the same time I ride about 30-50 miles a day right now, but plan on riding down to LA, about 700 miles away. I'm putting the hubs on a set of H+Son 42mm deep rims (seen here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/30185145@N04/).

Is the Shimano worth the extra money? Will they be that much better? I am not pressed for cash, but at the same time I don't want to blow it on stuff I don't need. And can I get a set of hubs powder coated? My bike will be green and I would want to have the hubs match, but am not sure I want to spend even more money on Phil Wood, which is the only company I see with 36h green hubs. Input?

Formula....$70. You will not notice the difference.

If weight is a concern (as you seem to be indicating here, by posting the weights) get a low flange road front hub. You can get very good 70 gram road hub for $60.
https://www.oddsandendos.com/product....1&categoryId=2

Forget about that silly lacing pattern. Radially lace the front wheel (with 24-32 spokes), 2x or 3x the rear (with 28-36 spokes). Use more spokes if you are into tricks and less if you are into fast riding.

how can you be worried about weight when you are lacing the hub to those H+son rims....

i call bull**** on this thread and will say go for dura ace because it'll be what you want... "bling"

+1 on everything said, but I'll bite and try to explain nicely why this is sounds like a bad plan.

Do not powdercoat hubs. It's a really bad idea and will probably render your hubs unusable. What you are after is anodized parts - that's what phil (and formula and iro - did you check these?) does with their colored hubs. Anyway, have fun with anodizing. It is going to require some work to break the hubs down and probably some $$ to get someone to anodize them the right color.

Also, avoid the exotic spoke work. I have built several 3L 3T wheels exactly like what is in that picture, and lots of regular for both myself and others. I know people have said that 3L 3T holds up well, and they might once built up, but it does bend the bejesus out of the spokes if you try to interlace (which I think is important), and they are much more of a pain to true during the build. These days, I am a huge fan of 2x front, 3x rear. Particularly with a high flange hub and deep profile rim (and therefore short spokes), interlacing a 3L 3T is going to kind of suck.

why are you buying such heavy rims?

oh, yeah.

For somebody doing Wheelies and Whirly Birds, you know tarck tircks and stuff, you should really be focusing on the bling factor. It nice to see you've though about hub color in relationship to your bike. An asthetically pleasing hipster is a hipster to be noticed.

Don't dismiss the Phil Wood. Sure they're expensive, but can you really put a value on street creed? Especially since you'll be wanting to maximize that creed when you pull into LA after the 700 miles ride.

What crank are you using? Sugino 75s come in all kinds of anodized colors, you should really look at how those will complement / accent your wheels. Colored chain?

Holler up No Cal !!

Anodizing service would likely do a set of stripped hubs for <$100. Alternately, do it yourself:

https://www.caswellplating.com/kits/aluminum.htm

i've owned formula, da7600 njs, sansin njs, and suzue pro max ... just get whatever your heart desires. will be be "faster" with one over the other... no

Exactly, but when you add $100 on to the price of the hubs for anodizing, you are in phil territory.

I have tried doing it myself with a homemade version of this with supplies I borrowed from school one summer back in my days as a high school teacher. Of course, the quality of my setup probably wasn't as nice as what you could acheive with the kit here, but instead of paying $260 for a kit, I paid $0. My results were extremely mixed. I did a stem that came out really well. I did a set of handlebars and another stem that were OK, but not great (color didn't take very well) and I did a crank that completely sucked.

Some of the chemicals are not so nice, so it is good to have proper facilities - again, working in a school has its pluses.

as hilarious as this is i'll give you a non dickish response. if youre doing tricks (what kind of ratio is 52/17 for tricks?), get some profiles, they make them in green, and 36 hole, and soon will have them in a fix/ fix, and should hold up really well.



or for something cheaper milwaukee hubs, but i don't know if they come in 36, but theyre formula comparable.

and throw some phil bearings in them.

Yeah that gearing is horrible for tricks. Theres a reason 10/12ths of fixedgearlondon rides < 62 sonny.

alright, lot's of joking going on here. One thing just to inform the ignorant. The H+Son rims are actually lighter than Velocity Deep V's. Not much, but anyone building a nice fixed gear knows you gotta run deep rims for steez.

And I don't care that much about weight, but at the same time I will spend the extra $20 for a nicer fork that is a half pound lighter type of thing.

And the ratio is simply what I ride now, and I will have something similar on the new bike cause I ride distance and like to do so with some speed. The reason for the fixed/fixed hub is so on the other side I can run a low ratio like 38x16 for uphill and tricks.

And I wouldn't spend an extra hundred on anodizing, I would just buy the pauls or chris king then. But since I am powder coating the frame and fork already, just thought it might be an option, guess not. Can you powder coat carbon?

And to the hipster remarks, I'll answer like anyone would, I'm not hipster. Thing is, I actually ain't. I have short hair that I part to one side, don't wear a shirt cause it's too hot in chico, and wear denim shorts, cause that's what I own. And most important I don't have any v-necks or flat shoes, I have DC skate shoes cause their padded and comfy as can be.

I'm not into hip, but I know that looking at bikes and seeing the ones you like, the colors coordinate. I was into hot-rods for a long time, same holds true there. You pick a color scheme and pull it out through the whole thing and it looks really nice when all's said and done. I just want my bike to look really nice, to me, when it's done.

As far as the rest of the bike, I have a Leader LD-735TR frame, the pista concepts look alikeish that's way less money (https://www.leaderbikestore.com/pd_ld...rack_frame.cfm). I want to get their aluminum aero fork too, but can't seem to find it for sale now (https://cgi.ebay.com/LEADER-I806A-ALU...742.m153.l1262 Reason for the aluminum fork is that I've already broke the old steel fork that I had on my current bike from trying to learn tricks and stuff, I put a lot of pressure on it, and would hate to brake a nice expensive carbon fork. For cranks I'm actually thinking the Miche Advanced Track Cranks (https://www.universalcycles.com/shopp...&category=3418) or maybe the Sugino Grand Mighty Cranks (https://cgi.ebay.com/SUGINO-GRAND-MIG...QQcmdZViewItem).

Leader is supposedly coming out with a new aluminum fork. i talked to Sal today and he said in about ten days. Now that is what he said two days ago so I'm not putting to much faith in that. I mean i didnt really want to wait a month for a aluminum fork that kept getting pushed back so I just got a cf easton fork

Haven't they already tried aluminum forks? I think there is a reason they don't exist.

Even if they do make them, I find it impossible that it would take more of a beating over steel.

So not only are you going to be running a F/F hub, but dual chainrings? Hot damn!

is this dude serious.....

your the one posting hubs that are grams heavier than the next and yet you are lacing them to 40mm deep wheels.... which weigh less than a barn aparently. saying they are "lighter" than Vs isn't saying much.

The steel fork I had was the original on the 1980's frame I had. It probably broke mostly because it was old, but at the same time shows i do have a tendency to give it a beating. So while steel is stronger than aluminum, aluminum will be stronger than carbon fiber, and cheaper.

And no dual chain rings, just flip the wheel and change the chain. The ratio given was just an example. I think I'll run something like 43t chainring with 15t and 17t cogs. In which case I won't even need a second chain. Might need an 18t instead of the 17t. Will have to test it up the hills to see which rides better.

And to the dudes being dicks, for real, do you have nothing better to do? I came seeking advice about which hubs would be smoother, stronger, last longer. I am looking for advice from people who have been riding longer than me, tested more products, have more experience with parts. If I wanted to argue and s**t i could just do that at home.

Thanks to the people who actually did help and gave useful info.

Steel is stronger than aluminum - no arguement there. I do take some issue with the idea that aluminum is stronger than carbon. It depends greatly on how each product is make. Carbon will probably cost you a little more, but there are some OK carbon forks out there that aren't too expensive. I am not into tricks at all, so I can't really help you out with product reviews there, but I would guess that for materials, steel is best, carbon is next, and aluminum is last. Really, I can't think of a worse material to make a fork out of than alumium (OK, that's not true, but you get the idea). I would stay away.

Also, you cannot powdercoat carbon. Sorry for being suck a buzzkill.

FYI, here is some gearing info:
52x17=80 gi
43x15=75 gi
43x17=66 gi
43x18=63 gi
38x16=62 gi

Just FYI

Be like ME, just get some vintage drilled out high flange campy record pista hubs, problem solved.

you should get some custom 72h rims and do it right

Or I could go 18h and have 2x drillium.

Essence of Bfssfg

Based solely on my experience hand bending aluminum strips to make a drop handle for my camera, I would agree that aluminum is very weak. But at the same time in the description leader gives for their aluminum fork they make it sound superior to, at least their carbon model. And 6061 aluminum is what sugino messenger cranks are made from, so it a quality material.

And not a big deal to not powder coat carbon, just wondering. I have a spray gun and auto body paint. I just add a little more hardener to the mix and it's pretty strong and looks nice too.