Feedback on the latest Tune King & Kong?

[brusko]

I'm eyeing on Tune's 2011/2012 King & Kong hubs. I was told "The Kong is similar to the previous Kong, but has a larger 17mm alxe, bigger bearings, bigger drive ring, no xot bearing and a larger hub body." As per Fairwheel Bikes.

Has anyone purchased the latest version of the said hubs? I'm wondering if Tune has gotten rid of that creaking noise most seem to have had.

[andrewh8877]

Personally I wouldn't buy Tune again, I've got a Prince and it's on it's third freewheel in 2 years. Appalling reliabilty, especially in the wet.
If you must have a Tune hub and are in the UK avoid Poshbikes (buy from Germany or Belgium) Their warrenty turnaound is woefully slow.
The problem was down to the seal at the back of the block, this allowed water and grit to get in behind the freewheel and destroy the springs an pawls from the inside. None of the improvements you have listed above leads me to beleive that they have overcome this problem.
Having said that, on a dry dusty day (the only time I dare use it now) it is noticably faster than my Chris Blings.

[brusko]

Thanks for the reply, Andrew.

When did your Tune hubs come out? Is this the model prior to 2010? Does it use XOT bearings? I'm sorry if I seem to be leaning on Tune. But truthfully, I just want to weigh things before anything else. (No pun intended)

[andrewh8877]

I've got a 2009 Prince/Princess.
The freehweel was replaced at the end of 2009 and again with a different (and I presume newer design) one in late 2010. It's not been been out in the wet since, I can't afford to be sitting around for 3-4 months waiting for Poshbikes to fix it.
The front has been faultless though.
How can I tell if it's XOT bearings?

[brusko]

The bearing looks like this. Sort of a hybrid bearing that Tune only produces. It costs around 60USD at Fairwheel Bikes. It was never confirmed or no one was ever sure whether this bearing made the infamous creaking sound. Despite replacing it, the problem still persists for some Tune users.

Currently, the new Tune hubs use conventional cassette/inline bearings that can be found in automotive stores.

There's a Tune distributor here in Manila who sells the new model. I've asked around and there are zero complaints so far. I'm looking for foreign feedback, negative or positive, on the new hubs.

[Rider10]

I've been using a newer Tune Kong rear hub and have been pretty happy with it. Got about 3000km on it. I get the occasional creaking noise but this may be caused by the XTR rear cluster moving on the freehub splines. The Tune Kong makes for a noticeably stiffer rear wheel than the Rotaz/Chin Haur/A2Z rear hub with its smaller 15mm alu axle.

[Lateralus]

My 2011Kong for QR was creaking, my new 2012 Kong for X12 shows absolute no creaking.