Shimano Dura Ace 9000 Hubs - how good are they?

Stevo C

I'll come clean from the off - I've actually ordered these in a moment of weakness. I didn't even know I needed any hubs. They were £235 at Evans (when the £5 voucher is included), which seemed just too good to pass up. I ordered them in 24H/28H and will almost certainly be pairing them with the obligatory archetypes.

I was just looking for reviews and am struggling to find anything . There's plenty of reviews of the rest of the groupset, but nothing hub specific.

ta

Steve

cycleclinic

For £235 they are excellent. They are possibly the perfect hub good blance of everything.

ugo.santalucia

They're top notch... probably the best out there

Stevo C

Top work chaps - exactly what I needed to hear. Reckon I might try the reverse psychology approach this time:

Me: " look at these, aren't they wonderful etc"
Her: " very nice darling, how much were these then?"
Me: "£235 - and that was cheap"
her: " Very funny, no one in their right mind would pay that for two lumps of metal - how much were they really?"
Me: "about 25 quid?"

What could go wrong?

Anyway, next question - Archetypes of Velocity A23s?

ugo.santalucia

Archetype, the new A 23 tubeless ready are a pain.. .no tape fits properly (have not tried Stan's)... OK if you go tubeless, otherwise Archetype all the way

src1

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Archetype, the new A 23 tubeless ready are a pain.. .no tape fits properly (have not tried Stan's)... OK if you go tubeless, otherwise Archetype all the way

What do you think of the Pacenti SL23 rims?

e999sam

I bought a pair about five years ago(older version) and despite only having done about 4000 miles the rear has some hair line cracks coming from the spoke holes and the free wheel mechanism makes a right racket.
Certainly wouldn't buy another pair.

ugo.santalucia

e999sam wrote:

I bought a pair about five years ago(older version) and despite only having done about 4000 miles the rear has some hair line cracks coming from the spoke holes and the free wheel mechanism makes a right racket.
Certainly wouldn't buy another pair.

Did you build them yourself?

ugo.santalucia

SRC1 wrote:

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Archetype, the new A 23 tubeless ready are a pain.. .no tape fits properly (have not tried Stan's)... OK if you go tubeless, otherwise Archetype all the way

What do you think of the Pacenti SL23 rims?

I think they are ugly...
Seriously, I don't know, I have never had the chance to build one... they are a bit pricier and they look quite horrid, so I am a bit put off... the weight saving is very marginal and the extra mm... well, people who have ridden the 25 mm HED+ say they are exactly the same as the 23... so a 24 mm rim is not likely to cause a stir

cycleclinic

the SL23 is the same width internally as the Archetype and A23. The extra mm is to try to make the rim more aero buy giving a flater rim to tyre transition. Pretty pointless really.

e999sam

ugo.santalucia wrote:

e999sam wrote:

I bought a pair about five years ago(older version) and despite only having done about 4000 miles the rear has some hair line cracks coming from the spoke holes and the free wheel mechanism makes a right racket.
Certainly wouldn't buy another pair.

Did you build them yourself?

No they were built at a bike shop by a wheel builder I have used before with no problems.

jamiemilbourn

I have the DA9000 in the spoke count you mention laced up to the Archetypes.

Fantastic wheels built by a builder not a million miles away from this post.

I find that they roll better than my chris king r45's on gigantex rims and I am generally not out rolled on descents on the club rides I partake in (freewheeling).

They are also bomb proof - done 3,000 miles on them this year and still they run true. Can't remember what spokes were used but I am sure ugo will jump in and remind me...

Do it. You won't be disappointed.

ugo.santalucia

e999sam wrote:

wheel builder I have used before with no problems.

Cracked flanges in Shimano hubs are very very rare, as the shells are forged, rather than simply CNC machined, like Hope or DT Swiss for instance. This adds strengths and improve fatigue. Any chance they were tensioned too high?
I have seen wheels tensioned at 1600-1700 N from very respectable builders... and whilst the wheels perform well, the flange suffers a bit

cycleclinic

My instincts also say tension too high if the crack is on the DS rear.

Hubs will not make anyone faster. I roll quicker down a hill than most in the club but it not down to the hubs I use it is for other reasons like as I do not hit the brakes.

CK hubs, Hope hubs, DA hubs all waste a 1W or so at 30 mph maybe less they will not make you go faster. The extra drag on hope hubs are the seals which you want trust me.

e999sam

I havn't got anything to measure the tension but from experience I wouldn't say they feel over tight.

cycleclinic

Depends what you are referencing doesn't it. If you do not have a calibrated gauge you have no idea what the tension is. Even calibrated gauges will differ on the results. My DT Swiss gauge gives tension results to my Sapim Gauge, which is why a load cell and rig is in the works so I can make my own conversion charts for each gauge I have and the other I have not bought yet.

e999sam

Referencing 40 years of experience.
I agree spoke tension is the most obvious cause but they are not obviously tight.

buckles

I was tempted by the Dura Ace hubs when I saw how 'cheap' they are at Evans. I love the concept of the digital click adjustment system, but at £235 they are ~£190 more expensive than a pair 105 hubs. £190 for oversized aluminium axles and a titanium freehub?! The rear hub alone costs as much as the entire 105/Archetype wheelset I'm building. As much as I lust after these hubs it would be insanity to buy them.

Another thing that put me off - while it may be unlikely that I'd ever need to replace the entire axle assembly, the replacement axle kit for the £160 rear hub costs £120. :shock:

mroli

I think the 105 hubs are a bargain. Make for great winter wheels... Don't quite have the "bling" factor that some people like though.

Stevo C

Couldn't agree more, it's madness, but sometimes sensible financial decisions and cycling just aren't compatible.

I also have the 105 hubs as well sitting under my desk along with some Ambrosio Excellights. The hubs were less than £45 from Ribble on one of their 10% off promotions and the Excellights were £25 each from Hubjub. Even adding in the spokes, the whole wheelset will have cost me less than the DA rear hub.

cycleclinic

105 hubs are 32H or 36H and if that is what you want they are great. If you want something lighter and in 24H and 28H drillings then 105 hubs are not an option. That is were hubs like Dura Ace come in. Of course there other's like Miche and Novatec A171/F172's are as light but neither have that special name do they. It is a bit like the Record effect except this is the Dura Ace effect. The is the XTR effect as well. We all buy into it in one way or another.

kangarouge

I've had some Dura Ace hubs in the past, though not at the moment and they were really good, despite being old. I'm about to purchase another set in the near future. I consider them to be great hubs and well worth the money. remember - you pay less and more often than not, you get less.

ugo.santalucia

105 have threaded axles, which don't go on very well with some modern soft carbon dropouts. Ultegra 6800 are the winner and if they came in all drillings there would be no need for Dura Ace. As they don't, Dura Ace is the hub of choice for quality light wheel sets.

cycleclinic

28H 6600 ultegra hubs exist they cost an absolute fortune to import though. Still no 24H and you can see why if they did no-one would buy dura ace. The 7403 hubs I have are perfect. I sold a some NOS 6402 to a guy in Denmark who has 6402 hubs (basically the same as later ultegra) and his have done 50,000 miles and all he needed was a new freehub shame I do not have the freehubs. So Shimano hubs do last well.

buckles

ugo.santalucia wrote:

105 have threaded axles, which don't go on very well with some modern soft carbon dropouts. Ultegra 6800 are the winner and if they came in all drillings there would be no need for Dura Ace. As they don't, Dura Ace is the hub of choice for quality light wheel sets.

What's so good about Ultegra hubs? I thought they were almost identical to 105... do the newer ones have the same kind of axle as the Dura Ace 9000 ones?

Edit: by the looks of it, the ones that are built into complete wheels have a similar design... larger axle with 10mm endcaps

Are the bearings now smaller, or has the hub body been made bigger to compensate for the bigger axle??

ugo.santalucia

yes, they do take the DA technology