Hub Bearings

Ed 81

Looking at new wheels for my avalanche as the bearings have disintigrated in my rear hub mangling the cone, it being the same price to replace the hub and having the wheel built up, as it would to replace the whole wheel.

Any way, what are the pros / cons to sealed cartridge / coned hubs?

I understand coned hubs are stronger.

I was looking at a pair of 07 Magura Comp with DT onyx hubs. Any good?

supersonic

Both systems have their pros and cons, and at the minute cartridge bearings are generally seen on the more expensive hubs. However Shimanos top end hubs are cup and cone and are of very high quality, and often people open them up after two years use and the grease is still fresh.

With lower priced cup and cone, the internals arent quite as good, and they like a bit of T+C and precise adjustment. Even then a set of Deore can last years with little maintenance. The big advantage of cartridge hubs is that you just knock the old ones out and pop new ones in, and as the system runs on itself so to speak there is no chance of damaging the hub with crunchy bearings. However they are more expensive to replace and don;t last as long, as the seals don't toend to be as good as a good labyrinth seal and cup and cone bearing. And for a similar sized bearing, loose ones can indeed take more load, but this is rarely a problem in the real world.

Shimano Deore and up are hard to beat for value, strength and longevity, but cartridge bearings have their fans for ease of bearing replacement. Also look into the freehub quality.

Ed 81

Cheers SS. Either way I suppose its dependant on the quality of the hub as a whole.

Would the magura comps be a good buy?

http://www.merlincycles.co.uk/acatalog/info_443.html

supersonic

The Onyx was found on a few of the mid range GTs last year, and seemed to get pretty good reviews. It does seem quite lardy for an XC wheelset. For that money I'd get XT hubs on a Mavic rim and keep the change!

nicklouse

sorry not a fan of the onyx name. brings back memories of soft metal. and self undoing hubs.

supersonic

The words 'Hope' and 'freehub' bring the same to me ;-)

nicklouse

supersonic wrote:

The words 'Hope' and 'freehub' bring the same to me ;-)

which is way they say cassettes on the carrier. but i know what you mean.