Bearing Upgrade Needed for Hunt Wheels?

[scruffmeister]

Hi all,

I'm looking for a good value for money set of deep rims (45-50mm) to fit to my Canyon Ultimate. I am contemplating purchasing either the Hunt 50 Carbon Aero Disc wheel set or the soon to be released Hunt 48 Limitless Aero Disc wheel set (designed around 28mm tyres).

I've been led to believe from a couple of different sources that the bearings in Hunt wheels let them down a bit and will probably need changing...

a) What's your experience with the Hunt bearings, are they suspect?

b) What would be a good set of bearings to use as an upgrade and are they sufficiently standard that what I am hoping to do is possible? I'm happy to spend on them but don't want to go beyond the "sweet spot" of price/performance?

Thanks!

[probertsqbe]

Before you decide on Hunt Wheels you need to read the article published by Hambini on the aerodynamics of wheels. Hunt don’t come out that we’ll and I assuming you want aero as your going deep section.

https://www.hambini.com/blog/post/bicyc ... s-fastest/

I’m pretty sure Hunt use Bitex hubs which come with TPI bearings which are OK but won’t last that long. I’ve got wheels with Bitex hubs and have replaced the bearings with either NSK of SKF. Hambini sells most bearings sizes on his website. Avoid ceramic bearings as they’re just a gimmic and don’t result in improvement gains.

[Nefarious86]

To be fair Hambini didn't do so well when asked to validate his claims so....

Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk

[scruffmeister]

Thanks, interesting article. Maybe I will broaden my search a bit...

[bm0p700f]

Hunt use novatec hubs for some of there wheels and something else for other but not bitex. Hunt make a big deal if the ezo bearings which are fairly low tier.

The issue maybe the bearings or the fact novatec don't make nhubs very reproducibly. It not easy to tell the two apart. If the hub has decent sized bearing 6902 or bigger then an skf, ink, nsk or NTN bearing with contacting seals helps. 6802 in rear hub shells are simply too small. Any hub manufacturing issues with a small bearing affect how that bearing perform more thqn a bigger one. The better brands can really help there much. Novatec hubs and hunt wheels have some of these smaller bearings in the main shell.

Non contacting seals so the hub axle spins freely in your hand is the other sin. The most relaible cartridge bearing hubs have seal drag in your hand but at 300rpm there is no extra seal drag over non contacting seals. Well the difference is very small and can be ignored.

[Hexsense]

Very common Novatec disc hubs (Centerlock, Straight pull) are D411SB-CL and D412SB-CL.
The front (411) use 2x 6803 bearings.
The rear (412) use 2x 15267 in freehub. And i believe bearing in the hub shell are also 2x 6803 bearings (not sure about this, didn't open it up).

6803 (ID: 17, OD:26, width=5mm) is a fair bit smaller than 6902 (ID: 15, OD: 28, width=7mm).
I don't know how significant is this size difference though. At least it's larger than 6802.

[alcatraz]

I found that a 6802 can work in a hub shell but only on the nds side. The imbalance in a dished wheel takes the load off that bearing quite nicely.

I certainly wouldn't recommend running a 6802 nds bearing if you're over lets say 80kg or you're building an endurance bike. Smooth roads = no problem.

On the other hand, the right hub shell bearing needs to be seriously well chosen and installed.

I've gotten 6802 to work there but I had to resort to retaining compounds and several bearing changes before I found one I liked. I'm 65kg.

I guess the weightweenie approach is that you can be ok with 6802/6803 on the left and 15267/6902/6903 on the right. Former is lighter, latter is heavier.

[bm0p700f]

The f482 use a 6802 on the nds side. I can assure Alcatraz it does not last long over here for most of my customers which is why I stopped building with them. If you have to use retaining compounds and tell a customer you can use this if your light and stick to smooth dry roads it not a commercial proposition is it. That the definatio. Of it does not work.

My own disc brake hub uses the 6803 size two but 5 bearings in the rear hub (3x shell and 2x freehub) but skf made bearings.

Also in the 15627 size there is only junk options like nbk, ezo or enduro.

Then again white industries don't get it right either with enduro bearings which another customer has swapped for skf in these hubs.

If bearing life is a concern and it should be bigger generally last longer. Carbon ti and extralite show you can make a light hub with bigger bearings.

I had a set of novatec d711/712 hubs with ezo bearing (6902) and they did 18000km before needing a change (that's decent) but but not all novatec hubs last as long. There seems to be variability in them.