zenitb wrote:I have just raided my "hub stash" to try and illustrate what I mean - see photo. The more upmarket 105 hub in the middle has a slight greyish tint wheras the OLD Deore LX (FH-T660) above it and the current Deore (HB-T610) hub below it are shinier. In the photo they look the same of course!! My advice is to get the Deore FH-T610 - mine are nice and shiny.
Thanks for that, I had it in my head that Deore 610 hubs had moved to the same painted finish as the XT. I'll investigate, if not that'll do fine, I'm happy with the quality and servicing of Shimano hubs and I'm after a particular look, rather than a name.
hamster wrote:One other tought is to look for a 'new old stock' Shimano M737 XT hub. In my view it was the finest hub they ever made - beautifully finished, light but still with the steel axle and larger bearings. A fair few come up on eBay and Retrobike, expecially as most people want 32H.
Yes, those are the one's I've found NOS but only in 32h and only sold in pairs. I'm still toying with the idea, they would be a good match for the bike and it won't get the sort of abuse that the 36h wheels have survived without issue. OTOH that I've never had any problem with 36h wheels makes me reluctant to tempt fate...
Have a look at Velo Orange hub, it has the advantage of being able to replace drive side spokes without having to carry chain whip etc. Plus its very shiny! and comes in 36 hole.
Ant... wrote:Have a look at Velo Orange hub, it has the advantage of being able to replace drive side spokes without having to carry chain whip etc. Plus its very shiny! and comes in 36 hole.
Downside for me is the alloy body freehub - IMHO steel is necessary to prevent the sprockets digging in to the freehub.
Ant... wrote:Have a look at Velo Orange hub, it has the advantage of being able to replace drive side spokes without having to carry chain whip etc. Plus its very shiny! and comes in 36 hole.
Good idea. However I suspect it has the problem of all non-Shimano rear bubs in that the RH wheel bearing is some way inboard. Shimano have the whole design still locked down in patents.
Ant... wrote:Have a look at Velo Orange hub, it has the advantage of being able to replace drive side spokes without having to carry chain whip etc. Plus its very shiny! and comes in 36 hole.
Downside for me is the alloy body freehub - IMHO steel is necessary to prevent the sprockets digging in to the freehub.
VO offer a steel body for Shimano, but not Campaq.
zenitb wrote:Thanks for that, I had it in my head that Deore 610 hubs had moved to the same painted finish as the XT..
I think some of the "M" (mountain) series Deore hubs (eg FH-M615) ARE painted PH ...wheras the "T" (trekking) series FH-T610 is shiny. As dicussed above the FH-T670 is also shiny but has a disappointing grey/blue-ish hue to it ..best avoided for the "classic" look we all seem to like
I have put some screenshots of the painted deore hubs to avoid below...
White Industries MI5 is a nice polished silver hub. Not cheap, but not as much as Phil Wood, and comes with a Ti freehub body. I have a front/rear pair of these and they're rather nice. Not the world's quietest freewheel mechanism, but not nearly as noisy as Hope or Chris King
If I could find one of those in 36h it would be a winner. I think someone must have found a big box of them somewhere, NOS are all over the internet.
Thanks all for the suggestions, some I hadn't considered and some I hadn't heard of. I think I'll stick with Shimano, the Doere 610 seems the practical choice, though the NOS XTs are still tempting...
zenitb wrote:….. As dicussed above the FH-T670 is also shiny but has a disappointing grey/blue-ish hue to it ..best avoided for the "classic" look we all seem to like ...
FWIW I built a set of wheels to go on a friend's audax bike which is mainly metallic grey with black bits on it. At his behest (colour wise) I used T670 hubs together with H plus Son Archetype rim, in the grey anodised finish. The colour match between the hubs and the rims was pretty good and the wheels looked a lot better than I expected them to.
I like polished silver parts (and BTW polished Archetypes look lovely too, and respond well to tlc with solvol autosol) but I was quite pleased with the semi-stealthy grey look with the T670 hubs and grey rims.
zenitb wrote:….. As dicussed above the FH-T670 is also shiny but has a disappointing grey/blue-ish hue to it ..best avoided for the "classic" look we all seem to like ...
FWIW I built a set of wheels to go on a friend's audax bike which is mainly metallic grey with black bits on it. At his behest (colour wise) I used T670 hubs together with H plus Son Archetype rim, in the grey anodised finish. The colour match between the hubs and the rims was pretty good and the wheels looked a lot better than I expected them to.
I like polished silver parts (and BTW polished Archetypes look lovely too, and respond well to tlc with solvol autosol) but I was quite pleased with the semi-stealthy grey look with the T670 hubs and grey rims.
cheers
Classy wheel build !!!! I am sure Shimano have chosen this grey anodisation to appeal to the hipster market !! My kids think anything in traditional polished silver is unbearably retro (i.e. most of my bikes!!). BTW your photo of the hubs shows the differences nicely Brucey.. I just didn't want anyone to buy the FH-M670 hub without realising its grey sheen. I am presuming the bottom hub (without the axle) is the older Deore LX FH-T660 hub - it looks just like mine.