eric01 wrote:Novatec and I believe American Classic hubs use a small steel insert on the aluminum hub bodies. Clever. The cog to hub body interface is steel, while majority of the body is aluminum for lightweight. Other mfg's should adopt assuming there is no patent barriers.
There are patent barriers to American Classic's approach: https://www.google.com/patents/US20080315679
But it seems Novatec and Bitex have found ways around it. However, if running 11 speed cassettes, why not use a Campagnolo freehub and cassette, especially if the wheels you want don't come with a good option for Shimano cassettes? A Chorus cassette is a lot less expensive than a SRAM XG-1190, ignoring the weight difference.