9/10 speed rear hub with cartridge bearings

[Andy61]

I am trying to find a rear hub which is for 9/10 speed (shimano free hub) which has cartridge bearings, 130mm OLN, QR, non-disc, 32 hole, silent free hub. I will use this with a 10 speed cassette to maintain compatibility with my other bikes.
I know 10 speed is a bit outdated now and people will say use a 10/11 speed hub with a spacer, but I've done that before and not been happy with the result. The trouble is the right flange is much closer to the centre (typically 16mm to centre, rather than 20.5mm for a 9/10 speed hub) and the left flange is often further to the left. This means that the drive side spokes have a much steeper angle so the wheel is less stiff laterally (and noticeably so when riding). Also the left/right spoke tension ratio drop to about 40% from about 60%, so to have enough tension in the non-drive side, the drive side spokes need to be much tighter, making them prone to breaking (I've broken 3 such drive side spokes).
I favour cartridge bearings over cup and cone because of the extra maintenance needed for cup and cone bearings and they always seem to get pitted quite early in their life and never roll so smoothly after that. The other thing I'd like in the hub is for it to be a silent (or at least quiet) free hub when free wheeling (the bike should run silently!).
Some of the Shimano hubs meet nearly all of what I'm looking for except for the cartridge bearings.
Any suggested hub makes/models would be most welcome. Thanks

[geomannie]

Ambrosio Zenith?
https://spacycles.co.uk/m20b0s117p2005/ ... -hubs-pair

Edit & here for rear only
https://www.totalcycling.com/Mobile/en/ ... 17292.aspx

I had a pair and they were absolutely fine but the outboard cartridge bearing in the freehub was hard to replace. I needed to get my LBS to do it

[Brucey]

in the far-off mists of time, it was quite common to find a rear hub that turned on cartridge bearings, but had a shimano style (by which I mean loose ball, shim-adjustable) freehub body. For example the hubs in both lower-tier Mavic wheels and a lot of Giant bikes were made this way. IME these hubs can be almost silent if a thick oil or SFG is used to lubricate the freewheel mechanism. Today, I think there is at least one hub manufacturer in Taiwan who makes hubs this way. Also, if you are prepared to do a little grinding, it is possible to convert many hubs (including shimano) to similar operation.

[Andy61]

Thanks geomannie for your suggestion of Ambrosio. I'd seen these before on SPA's website but the description only says sealed bearings (all bearings have some sort of a seal), not explicitly cartridge bearings so I'd passed these over. I did some more investigation and eventually found the answer I was looking for, that I'm sure you new all along, that they do have cartridge bearings. I found a useful guide on how to service these hubs at:
https://ambrosiobikes.wordpress.com/201 ... io-zenith/
This gives good pictures of the servicing process including showing the cartridge bearings.
Prices at Total Cycling are a bit more competitive.
I think my search is over, thanks.

[mattsccm]

Go and have a look on Aliexpress and get a Novatec hub. Every possible option there.

[geomannie]

Go and have a look on Aliexpress and get a Novatec hub. Every possible option there.

That triggers a memory. I remember reading that Ambrosio Zenith hubs are rebranded Novatech hubs.

[mattsccm]

I bet you , anything that isn't SRAM, Campag, Shimano or Hope is rebadged Novatec or Formula which are the same thing.

[NickJP]

If you really want to minimise the L/R flange offset difference, get a 7-speed hub and use 8 cogs of a 9-speed cassette or 9 cogs of a10-speed cassette on it. I have a couple of rear wheels I built using that setup, and when combined with a rim using offset spoke holes, there is very little dishing in the wheel. I just measured the L/R spoke tensions on one of these wheels, and there's ~15-20% difference between the L/R tension. Here's one such wheel with a Shimano 7s hub that has a Shimano 11-32 9s cassette with the 11t cog discarded to give a 12-32 8-speed.

Nor have I found that the bearings in Shimano cup and cone hubs give out in short order. I have Dura-Ace hubs that I built into wheels about 30 years ago where the bearings still run perfectly smoothly.