Can anyone recomend some good quality hubs to build into SS 29 wheels.
Maybe something Chris King down.
What are Hope hubs like? By the way one criteria is they have to sound good.
Cheers
Any hub you want. In theory, an SS hub (either a freewheel type or a short cassette body type) is stronger, but unless you're tacoing rims, are a fatty or going for a super light rim, then it probably isn't necessary. In practice they are a little stiffer, which is nice, but not really necessary. They're normally on the heavy side. XTR hubs are really nice, light, cheaper than 'boutique' stuff and very well made. I have a set of XT hubs on a bike. Heavy, cheap, good work-a-day hubs. Roll well, last long time.
King hubs are really nice, last approximately forever and come in lots of pretty colours. They're also not that light, very expensive and require another $200+ of proprietary tools to service, which not that many bike shops have. Spectacular engagement, but some think they are over-sealed and don't roll particularly well.
Hope hubs are popular, cheap and of pretty good quality. Roll pretty well, but not amazingly. Not bad weight, especially for a 6-bolt hub. Rear SS hub is heavy, but the 465g (!) quoted weight includes bolts (=-65g as you don't need a skewer), spacer kit (~15g) and I think a lockring (not sure though, 11g) so is more like 380g. 310g for the regular hub, but many complain of cheese-like alloy cassette body. The cool thing about them is that they're very easy to change between QR, 15 and 20mm fronts, which is good considering a lot of 29er sus forks are going that way, but that rigid forks are pretty much all QR.
Hadley hubs are the shiznit. 72 points of engagement. Not light, but apparantly they roll as if they have perpetual motion devices in the bearings.
DT240s hubs are great too. They have a single speed variant, are very light and roll very well. Not as good engagement, but DT has an aftermarket ratchet mechanism now which increases stock engagement to 36 (?) points of engagement, and drops 10g or so. This is about an extra $50. DT hubs are not cheap, but are virtually indestructable. Centrelock only.
Tune do a single speed hub too. Stupidly light at ~220g for a 6-bolt hub. Lots and lots of pretty colours. Apparantly tune hubs are a bit shit though. Never seen one and you'll have to order it from europe, or baum bikes, who are the distributors in australia, but who charge a *ahem* premium on their already expensive stuff.
FWIW you can now build non-carbon 29er wheels down to ~1300g! (FRM 330g rims, tune hubs, sapim super spokes), not that i'm drooling over a new blingle speed or anything.
If I had infinity dollars, i'd get dt240s, suitable stans rim and maybe bladed spokes. Hopes are cheaper, heavier and not as nice, but lots of people have them, so to many they must be good value. Cheap if you get them online. Probably hard to beat in the mid-range price point. I've not really heard of them breaking. Convertable front is useful if you start rigid (or QR) but want to keep open the option of a sus fork, and want to keep through axle sus forks as an option.
