When it comes to building wheels, your choice of hub is going to be an important choice.
Not only finding the correct configuration that will fit within your frame (such as OLD and axle type). But also what’s going to work for your riding style & your choice of tyres.
Terrain & where you ride is a big factor in the choice of components for your wheel build. Because there’s not much point having a really high engagement front hub on a commuter bike. But that huge number of engagement points on a mountain bike hub is going to make all the difference climbing rocks.
But let’s keep it basic – your hub’s quality & performance is largely determined by the bearings. We stock options in loose ball bearing & sealed bearing. This gives you budget options for budget bikes. And performance options for bike’s you really care about & plan to do serious kilometres on.
That’s not to say your budget options are bad – in fact they do the job just fine, or we wouldn’t sell them! But we’re in the world of interesting and unusual bikes here at Bicycle Parts Warehouse. And sometimes you don’t intend to ride your 40 year old road bike very far, but you want it rolling! Choosing a really decent & serviceable loose ball bearing option for an older bike is a great idea. In fact, it’s in keeping with the bike’s original specs!
Building your wheel – the hub bearings
When it comes to hubs it’s a lot to do with compatibility (like drop-out dimensions and compatibility with the cassette & shifter you are running).
However the big difference between the hubs once you have passed the compatibility stage is the type of bearings used.
The bearings determine how well & how freely your wheel will spin. Loose ball bearing hubs are generally cheaper and lower quality than sealed bearings. Sealed bearings are long lasting & have your wheels rolling smoothly.
There are often cases where loose ball bearings can be replaced with sealed bearings when it comes time to service the hub. But this isn’t true of all loose ball bearing hubs, and if you want sealed, go sealed!
Choosing your hub – the pawls
Not often mentioned on our hubs or in our wheel descriptions but a big factor in hub quality are the pawls.
Pawls are the points of engagement that the hub has as it spins within the freehub. The pawls catch on the hub body and you will notice this on your rear hub the most. When you stop freewheeling and begin to pedal forward this is your pawls engaging within the hub to ‘resist’ you and push the wheel forward.
There are hubs with a very high number of pawls (think 72 points of engagement) and others which will have 4 pawls inside. The hub which uses 4 pawls is perfectly good, but if you are a mountain bike you want more engagement. Because if you are climbing up and over a rock you want every tiny movement of your foot on the pedal to create momentum. And that’s what a high pawl count will do for you – use your effort more efficiently!
