Struggling on retro mtb rear hub choice…

“And I don’t want it to be a holy grail super nos incredibly rare hub…”

afraid alivio falls into that category I’m afraid…
 
“And I don’t want it to be a holy grail super nos incredibly rare hub…”

afraid alivio falls into that category I’m afraid…
In that case I'd go with a cheap modern deore, they don't work well out of the box but after 45 minutes of servicing they're great and will last a good few months. If you're lucky
 
If that’s the hub fitted to front sus marins in the nineties when they had the cranks and chainset?
Then period xt would be a good match in appearance and quality, and not silly money…
And I as a yoof never killed the Stx rc rear which will go 7 or 8speed, is polished and easy enough to find as a wheel set for very little money… that route would get a rim for your front hub. ?
 
The Shimano freehub is a work of genius and hard to better. In terms of weight and durability there is little between them, apart from the ones with oversized aluminium axles (XT M780) which had pitifully small bearings that generally disintegrated after 1000 miles.
Personally I think the high point are M737 XT, which had a lovely polished finish. After that they saved cost and painted them.
 
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