Boardman Hubs :(

NWLondoner

Terrific, the front hub on my Boardman hybrid comp is starting to screech like a cat being tortured plus is feels reel rough when i spin the wheel in my hands.

I'm a bit miffed as they've only done appx 600km and only around 30km of them were wet!!

The hubs are formula hubs and to be honest the seals always looked shocking and never had much faith in them.

Would you say they are worth servicing or should I just look for an upgraded set of wheels?

As I understand I need to be looking at 29" wheels with a 135 rear axel width. Is their any benefit over centre lock fitting for the disc rotor v 6 hole fittings?

Budget would be £150 max. Ideally with 6 bolt fitting as I could use existing rotors

pnev

Superstar components wheels with the switch evo hubs will do the job at that price

apreading

Shimano Centre Lock hubs are generally lighter than the 6 hole Shimano counterparts. You can get an adapter to use 6 bolt rotors on a centre lock hub if you wanted, so that you could use your current rotors for now and then go centre lock later.

I am not convinced that you would get much if anything lighter/better for that price to be honest though. The hubs on my Boardman Hybrid Team did 5-6000 miles in all weather before I needed the rear serviced, which cost me £24. Front still seems fine. So you were probably just unlucky that yourse went early - perhaps they didnt have enough grease in at the factory.

For a little over your budget, you could get these and save some weight: http://superstar.tibolts.co.uk/product_ ... cts_id=623

If you can up your budget, the Kinesis Crosslight wheels are pretty good too: http://www.fatbirds.co.uk/954929/produc ... tAodBSoA3g

http://road.cc/content/review/69946-kin ... isc-wheels

Mr.Duck

Can't you strip it down, take out the bearings, clean it up, and repack it with fresh grease?

mpdouglas

The Formula hubs on my Boardman Hybrid Pro gave up the ghost earlier this year (after daily commuting for 35 miles all year round). Instead of buying new wheels, I rebuilt the wheels using Halo Spin Doctor Pro hubs (my wheels used the Ritchey OCR Disc rims as opposed to the Alex rims on the Comp/Team models but I believe the hubs used are the same).

All the key dimensions of the Spin Doctor Pros were the same as the formula hubs so I was able to reuse the spokes and rims. They have been a treat since and I like the fact that they use cartridge bearings meaning if they fail in future, its a cheap cartridge bearing swap instead of a whole hub replacement. The design of the spin doctor pros is such that the freehub just pulls out without any tools being needed (when the wheel is removed from the bike) so it's really easy to keep the freehub ratchet pawls lubricated and clean. I know that some people prefer non-cartridge bearings but I hate that the inner race is the hub itself so that when you get any corrosion, the hub is normally ruined. (my road bike has Fulcrum Racing Zeros with these types of bearing but it doesn't get abused through the winter like my hybrid commuter does).

Winstanleys sell the Halo hubs in 32 hole format:

Front: http://www.winstanleysbikes.co.uk/produ ... _Front_Hub

Rear: http://www.winstanleysbikes.co.uk/produ ... B_Rear_Hub (but not listing black colour at present)

The 2 hubs together are <£100 - I'm not sure what a LBS would charge to rebuild the wheels.

The Rookie

apreading wrote:

Shimano Centre Lock hubs are generally lighter than the 6 hole Shimano counterparts. You can get an adapter to use 6 bolt rotors on a centre lock hub if you wanted, so that you could use your current rotors for now and then go centre lock later.

So the hub is lighter and then you use either a heavier CL disc or add an adaptor weight to it?

First step would be a strip and inspect of the hub.cones/bearings and go from there!

apreading

The Rookie wrote:

apreading wrote:

Shimano Centre Lock hubs are generally lighter than the 6 hole Shimano counterparts. You can get an adapter to use 6 bolt rotors on a centre lock hub if you wanted, so that you could use your current rotors for now and then go centre lock later.

So the hub is lighter and then you use either a heavier CL disc or add an adaptor weight to it?

First step would be a strip and inspect of the hub.cones/bearings and go from there!

I think they still work out lighter, even with the adaptor. I think this may be because the centre lock XT hub design was updated a while back, but the 6 bolt still uses previous design. Althouh I found people on the web who prefer the older design...

NWLondoner

I've decided to upgrade the wheels and get a set of the Kinesis crosslights

I'll probably be getting a crosslight pro 6 CX early next year anyway so they'll go together nicely

desweller

Do you even need to replace both wheels?

NWLondoner

DesWeller wrote:

Do you even need to replace both wheels?

It seems an overwhelming YES!!!

New wheels arrived yesterday and installed a short while ago.

First these spin so smoothly compared to the OEM wheels. They just keep spinning.

Secondly I ALWAYS had chain rub no matter how much/little I adjusted my derailleurs. The chain line is now much better, in fact I had to adjust the limit screws as the chain wouldn't get on the 28t. Once that was done no more chain rub. Just a smooth running chainset and smooth running hub/freehub.

Well worth the investment IMO.

I may even start to like SRAM :shock:

Big_Paul

If my hubs had lasted 600km I'd be at the shop looking to insert them into someone!

Even if the bike was out of warranty, 600 km is a months riding for me, I'd say the Sale Of Goods Act would be applicable in this case!

The Rookie

Indeed my (bought used) Shimano M475 have done over 3,500 miles on my commuter.