Hub Question: White vs. King vs. Am. Classic?

[richwagmn]

Its more of the large white lettering bordered by the red rectangle that bothers me. I'd rather have a hub where the lettering almost blends in with the body of the hub

Gotcha. I guess they put all of their quality into their hubs because the stickers do look pretty crappy.

 

[42x16ss]

Its more of the large white lettering bordered by the red rectangle that bothers me. I'd rather have a hub where the lettering almost blends in with the body of the hub

What, peeling the labels off isn't an option?

 

[richwagmn]

What, peeling the labels off isn't an option?

Yea. Might be a b*tch through the spokes though.

 

[nightfend]

White Industry hubs are really well made and a thing of beauty. I'm always amazed they don't charge more for their hubs. Also, if you ride Shimano/SRAM, you will love the fact that they use a titanium cassette body.

 

[DirtyWorks]

The placement of the flanges/bearings makes for a stiff wheel.

[RANT ON]
This little bit of salesmanship BS needs to die. Yes, the high/low flange has minor technical benefits that can very rarely ever be realized, but vague claims of stiffness is not one of them.

The bicycle wheel is a beautifully engineered system. It's been quantified/calculated a million different ways. All of the consistent analysis paints the same picture. All things being equal, hubs and spoke crossing do not make substantially stiffer wheels. Mathmatically, there are minor differences but on the road there are none.

For example, a rear wheel with 28 spokes cross-3 drive-side and radial spokes on the other may be lighter than a similar wheel with 28 spokes cross-3 on both sides, but vertical stiffness is unchanged. When torque is applied to the wheel, the math says there's an insignificant amount of deflection in one versus the other, but generally meaningless. Maybe there's some other performance characteristics to discuss, but stiffnes is not one of them.
[RANT DONE]

Enjoy your new wheels. Put lots of safe, healthy kilometers on them and make an effort to welcome/bring new participants along the way.

 

[ElChingon]

This sounds like a good comparsion test piece by the CN tech guru, if they had one.

I wonder if anyone else has done something along these lines, using the same hub, rim, spoke brand/type, same for nipples.

 

[User Guide]

[RANT ON]
This little bit of salesmanship BS needs to die. Yes, the high/low flange has minor technical benefits that can very rarely ever be realized, but vague claims of stiffness is not one of them.

The bicycle wheel is a beautifully engineered system. It's been quantified/calculated a million different ways. All of the consistent analysis paints the same picture. All things being equal, hubs and spoke crossing do not make substantially stiffer wheels. Mathmatically, there are minor differences but on the road there are none.

For example, a rear wheel with 28 spokes cross-3 drive-side and radial spokes on the other may be lighter than a similar wheel with 28 spokes cross-3 on both sides, but vertical stiffness is unchanged. When torque is applied to the wheel, the math says there's an insignificant amount of deflection in one versus the other, but generally meaningless. Maybe there's some other performance characteristics to discuss, but stiffnes is not one of them.
[RANT DONE]

Enjoy your new wheels. Put lots of safe, healthy kilometers on them and make an effort to welcome/bring new participants along the way.

I never said height i said placement ie wide bracing angle

 

[RDV4ROUBAIX]

DirtyWorks, If you've built and ridden Alchemy hubs you'd have a completely different idea of how hub design effects the performance of a wheel. Id agree that the difference from hub to hub from most manufacturers is almost zero, on the other hand you have Alchemy who uses huge axles, larger bearings spaced as wide as possible in the hub shell, as well as a fifth rear hub bearing, wide flange spacing. Build up a set and get back to us if you still think all hubs are alike.

 

[Bustedknuckle]

DirtyWorks, If you've built and ridden Alchemy hubs you'd have a completely different idea of how hub design effects the performance of a wheel. Id agree that the difference from hub to hub from most manufacturers is almost zero, on the other hand you have Alchemy who uses huge axles, larger bearings spaced as wide as possible in the hub shell, as well as a fifth rear hub bearing, wide flange spacing. Build up a set and get back to us if you still think all hubs are alike.

These are VERY nice, wish they weren't so expensive. $600 for a hubset.

 

[RDV4ROUBAIX]

These are VERY nice, wish they weren't so expensive. $600 for a hubset.

Top shelf price for a top shelf hub set, but the DT 240s's are $600 as well. I think that Alchemy makes a far superior hub to the 240s, and pretty much everything in that $500-$600 range.
Not biased either that they're made in basically our back yard, they're just that good.

 

[TexPat]

Top shelf price for a top shelf hub set, but the DT 240s's are $600 as well. I think that Alchemy makes a far superior hub to the 240s, and pretty much everything in that $500-$600 range.
Not biased either that they're made in basically our back yard, they're just that good.

How's is the bearing quality?

 

[RDV4ROUBAIX]

How's is the bearing quality?

So far so good. Alchemy released the front hub first about 3 years ago, the rear came a year or so later after many design tweaks. The bearings they plug into their hubs are a size bigger than what most use because he won't compromise bearing weight over durability, which is why most hubs fail. For instance an Alchemy ELF front hub uses 6900 bearings instead of the typical 6800, and spread wider in the hub shell. I was actually there about two weeks ago talking with the owner, got to see some nice prototypes. Expect Alchemy MTB hubs sometime this year.

 

[RDV4ROUBAIX]

For as much praise I'm giving Jeremy (Alchemy), I will have to say that the one, and only one criticism I have of the ORC rear hub is that he originally wanted to use a ti fhub for shimano/sram hubs, now aluminum just like everyone else, and plagued with the famous notches that they leave on the splines. Hard to stomach for a $600 hub set.

 

[Bustedknuckle]

Top shelf price for a top shelf hub set, but the DT 240s's are $600 as well. I think that Alchemy makes a far superior hub to the 240s, and pretty much everything in that $500-$600 range.
Not biased either that they're made in basically our back yard, they're just that good.

Yep, but Record and DA are 'top shelf' hubs and far less $.

Just got a couple of 350s as well, wee bit heavier, in the Record/DA price range..nice hubs.

 

[RDV4ROUBAIX]

Yep, but Record and DA are 'top shelf' hubs and far less $.

Just got a couple of 350s as well, wee bit heavier, in the Record/DA price range..nice hubs.

Agree that Record/DA are fine hubs, but in that upper price range Alchemy are the best. This is the very reason I use Edco, just as good as the DT 240s and for the price of one rear 240 that nets the customer a full Edco Super G set w/skewers.

 

[veganrob]

Yep, but Record and DA are 'top shelf' hubs and far less $.

Just got a couple of 350s as well, wee bit heavier, in the Record/DA price range..nice hubs.

Been riding the DT 340's with Velocity Major Tom for few years for training and bad roads. Great

 

[Wallace]

Agree that Record/DA are fine hubs, but in that upper price range Alchemy are the best. This is the very reason I use Edco, just as good as the DT 240s and for the price of one rear 240 that nets the customer a full Edco Super G set w/skewers.

Funny thing about the price of the 240s. I built up a pair of wheels with them in 2009, and after some rummaging around on the internet was able to find a pair for around $300. Lots of places had them for around $350 front and rear. They seem to have doubled in price in 3 years. Inflation? The American dollar? It seems like a big jump to me. In 2009 240s were a little bit more expensive than Campy Record hubs--maybe $100 or so more. Now they're three times as expensive. That's crazy. 240s are nice hubs and I'm glad I have them, but they aren't three times as good as Record. The record rear hub weights 231 grams with skewer, and the DT 223 without, so weight isn't the issue. What are you paying for? Again, I love the DTs, quiet, solid, etc., but if I was building a wheelset now, I'd stick with Campy.

 

[fabramowski]

I would just buy some Phil Wood Hubs, bombproof and easy to maintain

 

[RDV4ROUBAIX]

Funny thing about the price of the 240s. I built up a pair of wheels with them in 2009, and after some rummaging around on the internet was able to find a pair for around $300. Lots of places had them for around $350 front and rear. They seem to have doubled in price in 3 years. Inflation? The American dollar? It seems like a big jump to me. In 2009 240s were a little bit more expensive than Campy Record hubs--maybe $100 or so more. Now they're three times as expensive. That's crazy. 240s are nice hubs and I'm glad I have them, but they aren't three times as good as Record. The record rear hub weights 231 grams with skewer, and the DT 223 without, so weight isn't the issue. What are you paying for? Again, I love the DTs, quiet, solid, etc., but if I was building a wheelset now, I'd stick with Campy.

Options is what you're paying for with DT and other aftermarket hubs. As good as Campy Record hubs are, you are relegated to a 32h 3x wheel, and that's it.

 

[RDV4ROUBAIX]

I would just buy some Phil Wood Hubs, bombproof and easy to maintain

All true, but the reason for their bombproofness is that a rear Phil road cassette hub weighs over 500g, that's more than the weight of two rear hubs from any other manufacturer that's been brought up in this thread. And still no Campy compatible hub from Phil. He's been teasing us Campy users for eons it seems about that. Supposed to be released this year, wasn't it?

 

[simo1733]

Does anyone have expierience with Royce hubs?They seem to have a good rep in UK.

 

[durianrider]

Ive had all 3 and the DT was a noisy shocker. Noisy in that it sounded like it was going to explode sometimes. Sounded like the alloy Cannondale chain stay and hub axle grinding together.

Had Chris King's and rated them before they got stolen in Malaysia.

American Classic wheels still going strong. Got em in 2003. No hassles. I hear the latest versions in 2012 are even better.

My main hub is a power tap PRO+. Retro fitted with the 15mm axle by Cycleops. Great product. Chewed out the alloy freehub body and slapped on a steel one. Heavy and strong.

I hear a lot of crap about the old AC hubs but have no bad experiences with em. Ive cracked a Mavic Ksyrium freehub and 2 dura ace right hand cranks too.

 

[karlboss]

Enjoy your new wheels. Put lots of safe, healthy kilometers on them and make an effort to welcome/bring new participants along the way.

Love this, enjoyment, safe and healthy,