Light to extralight hub durabilty

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mariovalentim
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by mariovalentim

I'm researching hubsets for a light wheelset that'll be building and reading the fairwheel blog about hubs it seems that usually the lighter the hub the less durable/serviceable it will be. I'm trying to go light but I wouldn't like to hurt durability too much.

So far, it seems that using a Tune 45 and a rear Extralite rear hub is my best choice as far as I researched. $643 and 184 grams. Any more suggestions?

Zoose
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by Zoose

I was just about to ask this is the wheelbuilding thread as well. I'm curious who has put some miles on their Extralite Cyber SP hubs and is around my weight 70-75kg and can attest to their durability and reliability?

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HermesSport
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by HermesSport

Servicing Mig 45s is not for the faint of heart. The axle is extremely hard to remove, and preload is set by a stack of shims, which you have to take in or put out as a matter of trial-and-error until you've got it right. Massive pain.

My experience with Extralite hubs is that while they do tend to demand more frequent maintenance as a consequence of the little bearings they use, actually getting at them to make adjustments with most models (not sure about the SP) is reasonably painless, as they're threaded together, not pressed, and have adjustable preload as a consequence.
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velomane
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by velomane

Great question OP, my own interest is in the Mig70/Mag170 combo. Anyone have any comments on these? My impression is they're fairly durable. Is this correct?

bm0p700f
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by bm0p700f

the bearings the extralight hubs use on the rear are not small 6803 same a DT Swiss 240 hub. I think they will be most reliable of the light hubs as a consequence. As a result I would go with these. The tune Mig70/Mag170 hubs are set up like all tune hubs with shims. The extralight hubs are easier to set up but will need doing more often. I dont see them as especially unreliable but I dont think they will make a great all weather hub either.

mariovalentim
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by mariovalentim

bm0p700f wrote:the bearings the extralight hubs use on the rear are not small 6803 same a DT Swiss 240 hub. I think they will be most reliable of the light hubs as a consequence. As a result I would go with these. The tune Mig70/Mag170 hubs are set up like all tune hubs with shims. The extralight hubs are easier to set up but will need doing more often. I dont see them as especially unreliable but I dont think they will make a great all weather hub either.


That's something that I struggle a little to choose...on one hand the extralite is easier to service but need more care, on the other hand tune seems a pain to service but it will need less care. Damn.

@bm0p700f these hubs would go to climbing wheels and/or good weather wheels, it seems like a natural thing when it comes to extralight parts?

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arizonahalfnhalf
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by arizonahalfnhalf

I don't recall reading one positive thing about the Extralite hubs in terms of reliability, honestly. I had a pair sitting on my shelf forever, and desperately tried to find a good review to convince me to lace them into a wheelset, but ended up selling them because I just couldn't find a single good thing - I wanted a light near-daily wheelset.

I have a pair of Tune 70/170's and they're brilliant. Sure, a bit heavier than the extralites, but I thrash them about in the rain, dirt, dust, whatever and they're as smooth and quiet as could be. Honestly, they're easier to service than my Chris King R45's on my other wheelset. I would absolutely buy again!

spdntrxi
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by spdntrxi

^ well you have not even tried them.. I have the rear Hypers.. so far so good (daily since January)

the Tune rear I had was a bad creaker.. bye-bye.
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Zoose
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by Zoose

arizonahalfnhalf wrote:I don't recall reading one positive thing about the Extralite hubs in terms of reliability, honestly. I had a pair sitting on my shelf forever, and desperately tried to find a good review to convince me to lace them into a wheelset, but ended up selling them because I just couldn't find a single good thing - I wanted a light near-daily wheelset.

I have been seeing the opposite. I have looked but cannot find a single bad review about the Extralite hubs, especially the newer Cyber SP version. If you have a link to some negative reviews of the hubs I would love to see them. After talking to some wheelbuilders and hearing them say that they almost never see Extralite hubs come back with issues it seems like the Extralites are great hubs. They also say Tunes come back a little more frequently but that more Tune hubs are sold, so it's a tough comparison.

bm0p700f
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by bm0p700f

Well I think you have it right mario..... great hubs for the decent weather but I would not use them over winter. I will be using a set in my new Look. 50mm deep carbon tubular wheels that will weight 1125g. Beat that tune.

Denavelo
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by Denavelo

I'm running a set of Extralite hubs and Love them! Funny the guy up there didn't run a product because of what he read online. Yelp much? When ti comes to reviews, you just have to factor in that certain people think they're special snowflakes. Extralite products are durable for how light they are. Compare the Extralite hubs with something like Dash and look at the durability of Extralite stuff.

A good friend who moved to AUS ran the Extralite SLX hubs and that was my first look at them in person. I have a SLX v 2.0 rear with the Ceramic upgraded bearings. It's beyond butter smooth. I also have a set of Tune 70/170 hubs and the Extralite hubs ride better, but that could be due to the Ceramic upgrade. Extralite did have issues with flanges breaking, but with bike parts this light things can happen in that manner.
I hear the new Extralite hubs are even better than the older ones. I use my SLX as a daily laced to Kinlin rims. I'm actually going to sell them because I want to have all carbon hoops on my bikes. I also want to try the new SP hubs and the stuff from Carbon Ti that FWB is having them make.
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petromyzon
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by petromyzon

I have a set of Extralite Cyber SPs as part of an AX lightness wheelset. Happy so far, but wouldn't ride them in the rain deliberately as they are quite minimally sealed. The annoying thing for me is that the front flanges are very wide, which is brilliant from an engineering point of view but fouls the dropouts on one of my bikes, barely clearing them on the other.

PROs
Light
Beautifully machined
Good flange spacing
Smooth
Stiff
No creaks and nice medium free hub sound.

CONs
Tenuous front dropout clearance
Relatively exposed internals
Rear tension balance would be a struggle as NDS very wide, consider offset rim/thinner NDS spokes

I will update when I have a few more miles if anyone is interested!

I am 75 kg. I can't see why I would have any worse durability than many cheap sealed bearing subsets on the market but I bought them for nice days out and that is what I will use them for!

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by mdeth1313

I've been running extralite hubs since 2009, other than new bearings and cleaning out and re-greasing the freehub once or twice a year (takes 5-10 minutes) I've had exactly 0 issues. These are my daily wheels- my front hub has outlasted the enve rim it was laced to as well.
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bm0p700f
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by bm0p700f

NDS flange is not positioned far out board. 39mm to centre just right, it does not need an offset rim but there is nothing wrong with using one either.

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TheDarkInstall
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by TheDarkInstall

My input...

TuneMig45

I have this built into a FarSports 23/38mm clincher. Like others said, it is annoying to work with, as taking the axle apart requires pressing the very tight and delicate end caps off the carbon axle to get the spokes in. Once this is done, it needs to be pressed back together with shims in place, but you are never sure if the amount of shims you have will be enough, until you clamp the wheel in place and give it a wiggle for play. If it is out, you have to then press the end cap off again, and add/remove shims until it is perfect. Very long process.

However.

I have used my TuneMig45 front hub daily, for 10,000s of kms, doing hard sprints, riding in rain, etc., and have not had a single issue with it. One of the bearings eventually died, but that would be the same in any front hub, so I just replaced it, and it is once again running fine.

People say the hub looks good and has a good finish; I disagree. It feels very scrappily put together, with glue spill coming out the sides of the carbon flanges, but it does seem to be pretty tough.

Tune Mag 170

Should have been good, and I have put a lot of kms into mine, but it is just so random when it WILL start to creak, and the issue has never been officially recognised by Tune, nor is there an actual recognised source for the noise. It is all hearsay, and theory. The noise can be fixed (sometimes) by cleaning out and lubing the ratchet mech, but that is not 100% guaranteed to work on every Mag170. I have not managed to fix mine, but fixed two others in this way. I also have not had direct contact with anyone who owns one, who has NOT had it creaking, and clattering about at some point.

Building, yeah it is OK, if you use radial NDS. 2x on NDS is too low tension, I found out. Again, this should have been specified by Tune, but they seem very dodgy when it comes to giving full info about anything (do they even know themselves...?) The fact that they only recently released the correct info about how to measure for bearing arrangement compression with the shims is also telling of a company who are not really into giving out full info on anything. Which is lame.

Extralite UltraFront SPM

This is basically the same as the CyberFront SP, so all of this applies to that.

Very nicely machined. Compression system is a bit fiddly (mainly due to the size of the parts, rather than the essential design). I had one of the Enduro bearings die on the very first wet ride (like completely die, and come to a metal shredding ripping sounding halt). Extralite send me a new flange with bearing pressed into it for me, for free.

Like the Mig45, (and the matching Extralite rear hub) you need to take it apart fully to build. Building it up, it made a very stable, and stiff front wheel, which was really nice to ride.

I have not put many (really, any...) kms into this hub though, so can not speak about its longevity.

Extralite CyberRear SP

Like the matching front, this is very nicely machined. The compression system is easy, and less fiddly than the front.

I have a problem with mine though (see separate thread). It creaked pretty much immediately, and I have only done about 400km on it (just 3 rides). I am currently working through this issue, so can not give it a thumbs up (or down) until I get the bottom of all that.

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