Hub Quandary.

Shami Sniffer

I will soon be building a new pair of wheels which will initially be used on my Campag equipped Trek 5200 but hope to acquire a SRAM force groupset for it at some point. Ideally therefore I would like a rear hub that can easily have the freehub replaced and hopefully not have to re-dish the wheel.
I would like to keep the hub weight below 260ish g. The new rims will be Stans road (alpha?).
Options seem to be:-
1 Dura-Ace with Campy freehub conversion. (Are all Aftermarket freehubs steel? Seems that way)
2 Campy Record and get a Shimano freehub conversion when the SRAM comes along. (Does such a thing exist?)
3 Any other make of hub (hopefully not much over 200 quid) which offer either freehub option. (DT,Hope III, Chris King.)

I quite like the Dura-ace option but cant find a campy 10 freehub conversion.

Any advice appreciated.

huuregeil

Hope hubs are great - a new freehub body (with bearings) costs in the region of £50.

Alternatively, I have a shiftmate (shimano hub & cassette, campag shifters) and it works a treat. Cheaper and you can choose your hub freely. (And also save buying a new cassette potentially).

APIII

If you go for DT 240s, I have a spare campag freehub from a broken lightweight rear.

Shami Sniffer

Thanks for that, I had not seen that shiftmate gizmo. May come in useful sometime but don’t think I will plan a build based on its use. The hope pro3 option seems quite good but spare freehubs are a bit of a rip-off. I have some of their tech x2 brakes and they are just perfect so expect the hubs to be the same. They are a reasonable price but a bit heavy and anyway, its always good to buy British.
The DT hubs are a bit lighter but quite expensive. I get the feeling you are paying for the name. APIII did you have a failure in a DT hub?

Speaking of rip-offs...........park spoke tension gauge. Think I will have to build something.

APIII

I snapped a spoke, which can't be repaired on Lightweights (they are carbon spokes moulded into the rim), so the whole wheel is toast.

I think you do pay over the odds for the DT Swiss hubs. I have two sets of wheels built with records hubs and they are perfect IMO, and much more reasonably priced..

huuregeil

The spare freehub price for the hopes is not too bad when you factor in the bearing cost too (i.e. you get a new set of bearings with the freehub). However, regarding the shiftmate: "but don’t think I will plan a build based on its use" - why's that? They really do work very well, weighs next to nothing and you hardly notice it on the bike. I'm really very impressed with mine, it's opened up a world of possibilities!