You'll hear me coming...

Tristan delivered my newly built up rear wheel yesterday. In the end I settled on the Hope Pro II singlespeed hub option, which he laced onto a DT 4.2 disc rim using DT revolution spokes. It came out lighter than I expected, considering how the rear hub is such a beefcake.


I've only ridden it around the block so far, but it feels lighter and stiffer already than my old wheel. Tristan is a product development and design student, and has made numerous tools which he uses in his workshop. One of these is the torsional stiffness jig:


Which measures the lateral stiffness of wheels. Research shows that non-dished wheels are significantly stiffer than dished ones (ie, wheels which use a standard 8-10spd cassette body), making a great case for singlespeed specific, non-dished hubs. Tristan also built the wheels on my Surly Cross Check fixie (which I need to get around to posting a picture of on this site), which are lightweight DT road rims on Surly track hubs. These non-dished wheels have been hammered and haven't seen a spoke key near them since the day they were built. They still run true.

This ratchet on this hub is louder than any that I've ever heard... you'll hear me coming.