Monday, July 9, 2007

Blingle speedin

At some point, sometime soon, the plan is to ditch the very ordinary Shimano 525 hub on the rear wheel of my Specialized and replace it with something that has some balls. The question is, which one to choose?

At the moment, I'm considering the Hope Pro2 Singlespeed:

Or the DT Swiss 240 Singlespeed:

But am open to other options, too. Probably not this, though:

Pricing will have some influence on the final decision. Working in a shop helps, but none of these hubs are particularly cheap, retail priced at $499 (Hope), $699 (DT) and approx $849 (King).

I'm liking the Hope option at this point; Owen has one on his trials bike and it works mint. If you're going to ride a bike with a freewheel, it might as well make a satisfying loud clicking sound as you cruise along, and with 48 engagement points the Hope buzzes like an angry hornet and definitely lets people know you're coming.

Have decided to shy away from screw-on freewheel types like the Surly or White industries hubs. Although you can get some awesome screw-on freewheels (like White Industries' offering), the non-adjustable default chainline that you end up with seems like a negative. Maybe I'm just being fussy, but I used to ride a SS that had this sort of hub and sometimes, when you were least in the mood for it, changing freewheels could be a total pain in the arse.

Opinions? Suggestions?

3 comments:

brettok said...

DT baby... as u know, I have 240s's on my Stumpy, and they are bombproof, and make a not-too-loud ratcheting sound. my 2c...

josh said...

The louder the ratcheting the better, buddy. In freewheeling mode, Carl's DT hubs practically scream to the world at top volume that he's coasting, so maybe they vary. Possibly it's because he treats them like shit, and whatever lube was calming them down is long gone...

refreshinglygood said...

how about an aireal.

0z made, about $350. Looks good