Road bike hubs which one is the best

The ball-bearings are accessible either via lock nuts or via cartridge type bearings that fit together in a single unit. Hubs come with raised lips at either end, called flanges, which are drilled with holes to fasten the spokes. The number of holes on your hubs will dictate the number of spokes and will differ depending on the type of bike you ride. Front hubs are often fitted with disc-brake mounts so that brakes can be installed.

Not all bikes feature brakes on both the front and back of the wheels, but many road bikes are fitted with disc-brake mounts. Front hubs do not do as much work as their rear counterparts because they only handle the steering, but they are an essential component of each and every bicycle.

The rear hub tends to be a more involved piece of technology because they handle the power of the bicycle. On a fixed-gear bike, the power only comes from how hard the cyclist pedals. But on a multi-gear bicycle, the rear hub will also handle the transmission of the bicycle.

That is to say, the gearbox that operates the speed and torque is balanced between the cyclist and the wheel. Geared bikes feature a freewheel that is attached to the rear hub that allows for the changing of speeds.

Inside the rear hub is something called a ratchet-and-pawl mechanism. This mechanism is a toothed gear that allows the cyclist to switch between the freewheel when coasting, and to engage the transmission when needed. For this reason, rear hubs are far more complex than their front counterparts.

The number of teeth on the ratchet in your rear hub will determine the type of riding you will be able to do. BMX riders and those who want more torque will often have fewer and larger teeth on their ratchets, while road cyclists will often have more teeth for quicker and more seamless gear-changes.

All the power you generate must go through the rear hub, therefore making it one of the most important elements on your bike. Your wheels connect to your bike through the hubs. A faster bike means faster spinning wheels, and therefore faster spinning hubs.

Hubs connect to the axles of a bicycle and spin as quickly as the cyclist can pedal — under the right conditions. If the ball-bearings in your hubs are creating excess drag, the wheels will not turn as quickly, and your bike will not move as quickly. In a roundabout sense, then, the right hubs will certainly make your bike go faster.

In a more direct sense, the wrong hubs will make your bike slower. Not every bike is built for speed, of course, but many are built solely for speed. You want to make sure that you are able to put in the minimal amount of effort in order to spin your wheels as quickly as possible.

There are several areas on your bicycle where power could be lost:. A bicycle is a machine, and every piece must be properly oiled for it to work perfectly. As for the rear hub, this is where most would think that all the speed is gained or lost. This is actually not true! The hubs are crucial for the transfer of speed and power between the wheels and the bicycle, but the amount of drag that can be exerted on the bike is minimal in the long run.

The amount of drag that the hubs will create is minimal in the grand scheme of things. Take the example of a road bike once again. Between all the different areas in which a road bike can gain or lose power, the ball-bearings in the hubs are actually quite low down on the list. Furthermore, you will almost always be able to tell when your hubs are dragging you down by simply turning the bike over and spinning the wheels.

If they move freely with minimal drag, your speed problem is likely coming from elsewhere on your bike. One factor often not even considered with bicycle hubs is the weight. Most would think that how quickly a hub will allow the wheels to spin is the only factor in how fast they can go. Not true! The right hubs can save your road bike valuable weight — especially in a long-distance ride. They use NTN bearings in their hubs which are not actually bicycle wheel bearings but are designed instead for machining.

They are very well sealed and very durable. However they are, particularly given their size at the rear , fairly heavy. The axles on Royce hubs come with a lifetime warranty. The freehub bodies are made from titanium, like White Industries, however there is less machining on this version. The titanium as before helps to keep the weight down but resists bite. This will still use a titanium freehub body, a titanium axle again, smaller bearings and a different shell profile. They will be available in black with an engraved logo.

They should be available in , we are taking a list of interested parties. Royce hubs are the only option in this list that is made in the UK. Longevity and strength is an obsession when it comes to Royce hubs and they require among the lowest maintenance of anything in the line up. Occasionally you will need to grease the pawls and it is best to do this with the lubrication system designed by Royce available at DCR Wheels. Royce hubs are ideally suited to heavier riders, as well as riding who regularly cycle in harsh conditions and riders who do very high mileage.

The drag on the NTN bearings is higher than most standard bearings, however that comes from the nature of the sealing on them. They do break in as time goes on and you can opt for non-contact seals if you wish. Inboard bearings on Royce hubs come with non-contact bearings as standard, outboard hubs come with contact bearings. The hub shells are made from alloy. Normally shells are made from series aluminium which is a standard series.

Generally The hardness can actually cause problems because it does not mold around the spoke as well and it is more brittle. It is often used when shells are heavily machined to keep the strength up. The series alloy used by Royce is stronger than but not as hard as the series. So it is a fair compromise to gain strength overall. The hubs themselves are not heavily machined and the profiles are quite curvacious which helps with durability. White Industries hubs have a lovely finish to them.

They have a real feel of hand craftsmanship about them. The logos are engraved into them. They come in a black finish or a high polished silver finish. They were developed as an 11 speed capable hub. The spacing on the flanges is nice and wide at the front. The flanges are significantly different sizes at the rear. A large flange on the drive side has helped keep the tensions more even at the back and help prevent wind up.

The smaller flange on the non-drive side saves weight. They come with a cro-mo axle at the back which is an unusual choice for a high end hub but steel axles are naturally stiffer than aluminium. The steel itself has been heavily machined and then capped with aluminium at the end, to keep this weight penalty to a minimum.

The axle comes with a preload function. The front axle is alloy which is doubtlessly chosen for its weight saving. The freehub bodies are made from titanium but part of the body has been machined out behind the splines to save weight. Titanium is a lot harder than aluminium, so these bodies are a lot more resistant to bite. Titanium is also considerably lighter than steel, so the weight is kept down over using that as a material.

Axles can be different sizes, so using a steel axle does not need to add as much weight as a freehub body does, where the external shape is already pre-determined by the cassette. The bearings are larger than some other hubs improving the stiffness and carrying capacity of the hubs, especially at the rear. Longevity is built into the philosophy of White Industries and is taken seriously by them. However, bearings are an item that you can expect to replace more regularly than other hubs.

They come with a low friction Enduro bearing. The hubs provide very little rolling resistance. As part of this low rolling system, the hubs provide only external shielding and no external sealing. So the hubs are better suited to fairer weather. The reduction in seals has reduced the drag on the hubs, making them ride very nicely, especially when couple with the wide bracing angle at the front and large flange and steel axle at the back with large bearings.

They also have gentle leaf springs in the freehub, which is designed to be used only with lighter greases or perhaps even just oil. The gentle springs make a quieter sound and put less wear on the pawls, they also reduce the drag. Given that there is a preload on the hub; this does need to be adjusted periodically.

A very similar weight and price to the Royce hubs comparing pro Phil hubs with Venus and Ultralight Royce. I am comparing these hubs generally in price order, however I have made an exception here because a Phil Wood hubset probably would cost you more than this as colour options are extra.

It is also nice to be able to compare it directly after Royce. Like Royce this is a different focus for the hubset. A bit of background on Phil Wood:. They have been making hubs for a very long time.

They are one of the oldest manufacturers here and over the years most of their hubs have been track of freewheel hubs.

They have sold a range of touring and tandem hubs as well and lighter road hubs has been their newest venture. Campagnolo and 11 speed shimano hubs as well as alloy axles and bodies are new to So these hubs are both, in essence, very old and very new. The traditional Phil Wood formula was essentially to use quality components, work with them to a high tolerance, over engineer them and build yourself a hubset that will last forever.

They would prefer you to have a stainless steel freehub body and steel axles. Steel is stiffer for an axle and given that this is the largest steel axle used, it is fair to say that Phil Wood make the stiffest axles of all.

Similarly when it comes to freehub material, steel is the most durable, it resists bite best and if you are using a pawl and ratchet system as Phil do then it will be the most durable there too. They use a very high quality ABEC 10 bearing. Essentially because they can and they have worked with a bearing manufacturer to do so. That is likely to be a major factor.

They make more colours for example, more axle interfaces, more drillings and more designs, they actually make more designs than any other manufacturer here. They also use steel freehubs, so if titanium is too soft for you, that may be your preferred option.

Phil hubs are quieter when they freewheel. They also have 5 pawls not 3 and they are bigger pawls as well. Double row. The Phil hubs also have larger flanges for stiffer wheels. So, what about downsides over Royce. They also use a steel body which is heavier than titanium, you can see that in reality, the hubset weight is comparable, however what is being compared there is the new Phil hub with the alloy axle and body.

So the Phil hubs are normally heavier than Royce. Also, Royce hubs have bigger bearings with a bigger carrying capacity — in a way, that is a bit unfair, as the ultralight Royce hub has smaller bearings than Phil but the mid flange and titan hubs have larger bearings. That does make freehub removal and servicing easier, however it does mean that the engagement of the pawls relies on their shape being in tact and just one spring.

If you wanted something that is tough and durable but did not want a hubset as heavy as Phil or Royce, DT and PMP are probably your best options as each of those have no real maintenance programme. Chris King is exceptionally durable and tough, however there are higher demands from maintenance. For those of you skimming this, you will notice from the headline that these are among the lightest hubs in the lineup.

You will also potentially notice that it is the rears in particular that help with this. Although the 71g front is by no means heavy. The g rear is achievable through a combination of a very machined shell and freehub body, small bearings, oversized and thin, unthreaded axle and a titanium engagement mechanism. The mechanism that Tune use is probably their most unusual features, with the rest being found in a similar way in the Carbon-ti and AIVEE hubs. There are three pawls which engage simultaneously which means each of them shares an even burden of the overall load.

Each component can be reduced down accordingly as the load is distributed more evenly and consistently among a great number of components. The shells are both forged and machined out of aluminium.

This ensures that the molecules are aligned fanning out of the flanges to maximise their strength. The spoke hole drillings are 2. The tighter fit helps to improve stiffness, as does the oversized axles and flange spacing. The freehub bodies are a very special material, a blend of titanium and aluminium helping to guard as much as possible against cassette bite. Alloy carriers on cassettes are still recommended i. The hubs have a 0. This allows the hubs to run freely without risking over preloading the bearings.

It is also a push fit assembly which does away with the need for a thread which adds weight as more material is required. The hubs can be fully dismantled but it is not recommended that you do this at home. However, there's a limit to how many teeth you can add without reducing their durability and for this reason, star ratchet systems struggle to reach the same number of engagement points as pawls systems. Although road cyclists will rarely apply the kind of leverage that mountain bikers do in a very low gear, the pawl hub design can suffer faulty engagement.

In very specific conditions surface friction, rider input, gearing , the pawls can miss their initial engagement point into the drive ring. That can mean a delay between pedal input and rear-wheel response, which is a lot more pronounced in the low gear riding that mountain bikers do — but can become equally annoying on a road ride.

Hubs work hard for a living and require maintenance. Your rear hub needs cleaning and lubrication, but with the pawls being under such significant spring tension, you need to be meticulous and careful during disassembly. Many an inattentive home mechanic has experienced the surprise, followed by great frustration, of having hub bits projected all around the garage when attempting a DIY service.

If they have the potential for fiddly engagement and are harder to service, why are so many rear hubs engaged with pawls? For the most part, they do work well, especially when packaged in a hub shell by skilled industrial designers. The legacy of pawl hubs, supported by a list of proven component suppliers, has given this hub design the scale to become successful. Simplicity and ease of serviceability are two meaningful advantages of the star ratchet system.

A long period of patent privilege kept many hub brands from licensing the ratchet, leaving DT Swiss to court riders who believed in the star ratchet concept. Although there is now greater freedom for more brands who would like to use a ratchet design, the cost and complexity of redesigning their product portfolios, have prevented this.

Road bike hubs should be light and produce as little friction as possible. This differs from what mountain bikers require, where immediate engagement is the most important factor.

Road cyclists desire a hub that spins most freely, and rapid engagement is an acceptable sacrifice for this. Though it must be said, that the drag effect is marginal. Rear hubs live a more charmed life on road bikes, as opposed to those being used in mountain bikes. The swiftness of engagement might not make much difference for real-world riding, but a hub failure is terminal, for any ride.

If you like the idea of home maintenance, a star ratchet system is easier to keep in working order.