advice on buying hubs

I intend to get a pair of wheels built soon, around some Velocity Deep V rims, for a single speed bike.

I see hubs for sale on here and other forums all the time. My thoughts are to buy the rims new, get some half decent 2nd hand hubs, then get them assembled by an LBS in my hometown (Bristol) If anyone on here knows a good wheel builder in Bristol as well then please let me know. My background is mountain biking and I have *very* little experience with road wheels/hubs...I'd appreciate some advice on what hubs are good/what to look for/roughly how much I should be paying...

Seeing as I'm running only one gear will it matter if the hubs are shimano/campag? Or is this unimportant? Sorry if any of my questions are dumb but as I said this is a whole new area to me.
I don't need anything too amazing but don't want bottom of the range stuff either.

Any and all user suggestions/comments/experiences are very welcome.
Some people love these V-Rims, others have been trying to steer me away from them and towards mavics... again I am open to any suggestions anyone might have.

The V-Rims are 32H, I await your answers gentlemen

You'll probably find that a lot of the single speed hubs available on the market at the moment are all made in the same factory. I am a wheelbuilder and there are a huge amount that I have access to and remarkably little difference between them.

I prefer sealed bearing (which most are) although Shimano and Campagnolo are not. Also I believe that Campagnolo only offer a small flange track hub now, whereas I think a big hub looks best with deep V section rims. If you were interested I could get you some 'zenith' hubs. There are probably best value for money. They are sealed bearing and the hub flange has some cut outs that look really nice. The flange diameter is 60mm to give you an idea as to their aesthetic.

These are ambrosio branded versions of exactly the same hub. I would probably recommend these hubs whether I build them for you or not. Something better would probably be made by dia-compe

If you really wanted to splash out suzue promax carbon. These are nice but very expensive:

Even more expensive Phil Wood or perhaps even a matching set of Velocity hubs.

Personally i'd go for the zenith hubs. Keep them with the velocity rims or a similar deep section. I've got a few others I can suggest to you if you're interested: mavic CXP 33, DT RR 1.2, or an economical version with the Rigida DP18

I actually have a set in stock if you want that i'm letting go for £165pr, they are actually built with Miche Primato hubs and rigida DP18 rims, they come with double butted sapim race spokes. However these are fixed wheels and therefore will not allow freewheeling. The zenith hubs are known as 'flip-flop' hubs which means that you can have a fixed cog on one side and a freewheel on the other.

One final point, please note the width of your frame at the rear end. Track hubs come on a 120mm axel. You can pull a frame in by 5mm no problem but you may cause damage with more than that. So check your frame is not with a 130mm rear end. Also an aluminum frame cannot be pulled in at all really, it does not have the same natural flex as steel.

I hope this helps, sorry it is so much information.

David Hunt
Hand Built Bicycle Wheel Specialist
dcrwheels.co.uk

red hubs are fastest, blue...not so much

I'd go for flip flop hubs, that way you can either choose two different ratios or have one side fixed and one side freewheel... In the case that your frame is 130 at the rear, i think on one do a 130 hub, or you can add spacers to the axel on either side..

In terms of rims, AFAIK Velocity are fine. Weinemann DP18 look very similar and are slightly cheaper, CXP30s are better quality, old school Rigida DP18s are very nice.. H+Sons do some pretty deep section rims but are pricier, and older Campag rims are v. nice e.g Shamals.

Alternatively, a fairly cheap option is to get a (second hand) set of road wheels built on deep section rims such as CXP30s, take the rear cassette off and use a single speed convertion kit (basically a bunch of spacers and a cog that slides on to the freehub).. This helps rear spacing and chainline issues, but you cant run them fixed, and you'll not find a set of road wheels built on to velocity deep Vs..

londonfgss is a great source of info for this kind of stuff, worth doing some searches there..

Hope this helps

great replies guys thanks for the advice.

My cheapo bike I bought off of this forum will be arriving in a week or so when the guy gets back off holiday, then I'll get a better idea of what it is I need. (width of frame at rear end) I do fancy flip flop hubs though.

I have been checking out londonfgss a lot lately, I just find the people on here a lot less.....abrasive :roll:

Zenith

The zenith hubs are available in a longer axel if required, they are also available as flip flop as a fixed-free or as fixed-fixed.

They are also cheap, so really don't bother with second hand hubs, you wouldn't be able to reuse the spokes anyway as they'll be the wrong length, plus even if they did fit, they'd be fatigued. You want a new clean system.

David Hunt
Hand Built Bicycle Wheel Specialist
dcrwheels.co.uk