At the heart of your wheels are your hubs – they house the axles, bearings and freehub, which carries your cassette, and drives the rear wheel when you pedal. They are often the most expensive part of the wheel, so choose them wisely.
Choosing the right hubs for your next set of wheels can be daunting – there are so many options, brands, colours, spoke counts, axle and freebody standards and brake disc mounting options. In this article, I’ll do my best to demystify this for you.
First, let’s explore the various axle options and standards that you’ll need to know about when deciding on new hubs. Your bike’s fork and frame can only accept wheels that use a specific kind of axle, front and rear.
Front axle options include 9mm quick-release (QR), 100mm x 15mm, 100mm x 12mm, 110mm x 20mm thru-axle or BOOST, which is 110mm x 15mm thru-axle. Get this wrong and the wheel won’t fit in the fork’s drop outs.
Your rear axle options include 120mm x 9mm quick release or bolt-on axle for track bikes and fixies, 130mm x 9mm QR for most road bikes, 135mm or 142mm x 12mm thru-axles for gravel and mountain bikes, and finally BOOST 148mm x 12mm for many modern mountain bikes.
Now that you know what the axle options are, make sure you know which ones your bike uses.
Next, let’s check out the 2, actually 3, freehub body options that are compatible with the various cassettes available on the market today. These are the Shimano freehub, SRAM xD driver and the new Shimano Micro Spline freehub.
Firstly, Shimano-compatible freehub bodies on road and MTB wheels, are compatible with, you guessed it: Shimano cassettes. A few other makes and models will also work, like some SRAM and Sunrace cassettes. The smallest cog on these cassettes is typically 11-teeth. The cassette is held onto the freehub with a threaded lock-ring.
Secondly, the SRAM xD driver is designed for some SRAM cassettes and some other makes of cassettes that have a 10-tooth smallest cog. The spline pattern is different and the smallest cog is also the cassette lock-ring.
Lastly, Shimano have recently released their first 12-speed cassette for their top-of-the-range XTR mountain bike groupset. This cassette only wrks on the newest design of freehub, called Micro Spline. Shimano, DT Swiss, Industry9 and Damil components make hubs that work with this new “standard”.
Servicing and maintenance is a must to keep your hubs running reliably. Hubs which use easily available parts like bearings will be less expensive and less costly to maintain. Many hubs have a tool-free way to change end-caps (making it possible to change axle compatibility from QR to thru-axle, for example) as well as perform freehub cleaning and maintenance.
There are generally 2 kinds of bearings found in bicycle hubs – traditional cup-and-cone bearings with loose ball bearings and sealed cartridge bearings. Hubs with cup-and-cone bearings need more regular maintenance, but if looked after properly can give many years of faithful service. If NOT looked after properly, the bearings can wear into the hub shell – replacing the entire hub will be your only option if this happens.
If and when sealed bearings wear out, it’s a simple exercise of knocking out the old ones and pressing in the new ones. Even if they are neglected, they can’t cause damage to the hub shell – making them the most popular choice in new wheels.
Hub brands
So, when choosing new hubs for your custom wheel build, what are your options? There are a few brands I use regularly. I’ll list these below, with some info on each.
Hope Technology
This UK brand manufactures their hubs (and other components like BB’s, headsets, cranks, seatpost clamps, stems etc) in the UK and I consider them one of the best options available today. They offer excellent quality, durability, performance and value for money. Spare parts and bearings are readily available at most bike shops and they require no specialist tools to service.
Their hubs are available in MTB (Pro4) and road versions (RS4 and RS4 CL), in disc brake (centre-lock and six-bolt) and rim-brake versions. They offer hubs in black, red, blue, purple, silver and orange anodized colours, and in all popular axle configurations. Their hubs are also easily convertible between axle and freehub standards, although at the time of writing this, no Shimano MicroSpline option yet. They’re most well-known for the loud sound of their freehubs. Their freehub system uses individually sprug pawls which engage a toothed drive ring integrated into the hub shell. The Hope hubs are generally available through a local distribution channel.
DT Swiss
DT Swiss, of Switzerland, has to be one of the most recognizable brands in cycling. They make hubs, rims, spokes and nipples and suspension components. They offer many options when it comes to their hub range – MTB and road, disc and rim brake. Their 350 model range is similar in price to the Hope hubs mentioned above, although only available in black with white graphics.
Their premium offering is the 240S range, available in black with red graphics. Both 350 and 240 hubs are available in classic j-bend or straight pull spoke models. Their freehub system uses two opposing toothed ratchet rings and is available in 3 different options making it possible to upgrade the engagement rate of the freehub mechanism. Like Hope, the DT Swiss hubs are generally available through a local distributor.
Aivee CNC Components
This relatively unknown, small French company manufactures a range of road and MTB hubs in France. They offer 3 models of each road and MTB hubs, at different price points, to suit anyone’s budget. They offer hubs in a handful of deep anodized colours – black, orange, blue and red.
They are also one of the few companies offering aftermarket hubs for Cannondale Lefty wheels. I import these hubs on demand directly from Aivee in France.
Damil Components
I’ve used hubs by small Italian company Damil, when I was looking for a high-quality, value-for-money Shimano MicroSpline option for a customer who needed a non-BOOST rear hub.
Novatec
The hubs by Asian company Novatec are extremely popular for budget-conscious cyclists on a limited budget. They offer hubs to suit all axle and freebody standards, for road, track and MTB, at a price point lower than the above-mentioned brands. You’re limited to black colour options, but they do all come with high-quality sealed cartridge bearings, and spare parts are readily available in the local market, through a local distributor.
Of course there are many more brands out there, some of which are very common, like the hubs by Shimano themselves – and more boutique brands like Chris King, Industry9 and White Industries.
