Chris King R45 hubs

vinnymarsden

Anyone got experience of Chris King R45 Road Hubs?

I'm looking at a wheel build around some sweet hubs, and narrowed it down to either Dura Ace or Chris kings..anyone got any info to share/advise?

Cheers

Vinny

ugo.santalucia

Nice, expensive and require equally expensive tools to service them, which shops don't have. Dura Ace can be serviced with a pair of allen keys... see what makes sense for you...

These days I struggle to see any point in anything pricier than Hope... they've got the best freehub around, high quality bearings and they are very service friendly. Spares are available and always will be as they are made in Lancashire... try to find a spare preload cap for a CK 45 hub...

northpole

Ignoring all technical aspects (I'll leave that to the experts) I have both. The DA have endured years of abuse with little or no servicing (shame on me) and continue to work perfectly (since 2007, used daily!). The R45's are relatively new to me and my only observation thus far is that they are noisy when freewheeling. May seem a trivial point, but you really need to understand if the noise is to your liking or not as it could drive you nuts!

Peter

foggymike

The Hope's are noisy like the King hubs (you only freewheel approaching junctions where it's useful for warning pedestrians or at 55mph downhill when you can't hear the freehub because of the wind noise) and have the same fit and forget rider experience. Other than the name on the hub shell I can't see why you'd pay the extra for the King's. They are both very good, but one's a lot cheaper. Dura Ace are very smooth and if you don't mind the occasional clean and re-grease they are equally good but IME not any better than Hope or King so I'm all for the cheaper, no hassle option.

I use Hope hubs on my winter wheels with Open Pro rims/dt comp spokes and on one of my mtbs too. I've never regretted the choice.

cycleclinic

Given DA hubs are available now in 18H (24H, 28h 32H and 36H drillings (madison are getting the18h fronts in november guess what I ordered up today) there is little point (IMO) in any hub more expensive than these unless you want Campagnolo freehub or Royce perfection.

CK hubs are pretty but they are so expensive the only reason why they sell is becuase they are over priced. Hope hubs are decent but so are many cheaper cartridge bearing hubs, the best freehub about is found in DT Swiss hub shame about the geometry of there road offerings but the disc brake hubs are sublime.

ugo.santalucia

thecycleclinic wrote:

Hope hubs are decent....

They're not decent, they're excellent. For something made in England they're not even expensive

iron-clover

My first set of 'nice' wheels had a pair of second hand Chris King classics in them. They were (and still are, kinda) very nice hubs- they sound, feel and look great.

Big downside was when freehub mangled itself unexpectedly on the first ride after an expensive rebuild. As Ugo says, they need expensive tools to service so the wheel had to go on holiday to the States for CK to service themselves- and quite costly.

They do feel very nice again, but I haven't really used them since from the paranoia of the hub breaking again- I now use Hope hubs in an otherwise identical build instead.
TBH, the Hope hubs feel and sound the same as the CK classics- they look slightly more industrial but they're still fairly attractive hubs, especially if you go for one of the colour anodizing.

on-yer-bike

CK arent very good for shallow rims according to one wheel building expert on here because the flanges are too close together on the rear hub. Ive got some 32 spoke wheels with R45s but I bought the complete wheels at a good price – I cant really see the point in paying all that money unless they last forever without any attention. I like Campag hubs because I can service them easily, unfortunately its not economically viable to re rim their wheels. I cant see the point in paying for their headsets either, its just a headset.

on-yer-bike

You can buy a Rolex or a watch that costs £100. They both do the same thing in fact the £100 watch may be more accurate.

LegendLust

on-yer-bike wrote:

You can buy a Rolex or a watch that costs £100. They both do the same thing in fact the £100 watch may be more accurate.

Says the man with a Pegoretti

FatTed

I have C45 hubs, seem fine to me, Hope did not have 11 speed compatible when I bought mine and I could not use Shimano hubs with my campagnolo group set. My LBS has the tools to service the hubs.

ugo.santalucia

FatTed wrote:

My LBS has the tools to service the hubs.

You are lucky then, most shops even refuse to tighten the preload cap, which is an operation that can be done by hand... although CK recommend their expensive tool to do it.

cycleclinic

I reserve excellcent/perfection for Dura Ace, XTR, Royce, DT Swiss disc brake hubs and Campagnolo record hub.

twgh

thecycleclinic wrote:

Given DA hubs are available now in 18H (24H, 28h 32H and 36H drillings (madison are getting the18h fronts in november guess what I ordered up today) .

Where are you seeing these? I would love some 20h front and 24h rear hubs?

BTW to the OP - Dura Ace hubs are the business.

bendertherobot

Have to say I'd love King hubs. I mean, who wouldn't. But I'd not be able to shake the suspicion that I really should have got DA ones.