Wheel Hub Update Cycle?

[MattTuck]

I'm having some wheels built up for the spring, and I'm trying to figure out the build specs. I'm pretty sure it's going to be White Industry hubs with HED Belgian wheels.

My question is more one of curiosity. How often do hubs get an update? Are the changes between generations substantial or have they pretty much reached a level where any improvements are very marginal?

[maunahaole]

Changes are marginal - the next big thing will probably be a switch to 135 rear spacing for road. WI just launched a new hub - changes are minimal. You will get a good wheel out of what you are proposing.

[AngryScientist]

Loose bearing campy hubs that are decades old technology are still considered by many to be the best ever. Any updates ssince then are mostly marketing and often cost saving downgrades.

[oldpotatoe]

I'm having some wheels built up for the spring, and I'm trying to figure out the build specs. I'm pretty sure it's going to be White Industry hubs with HED Belgian wheels.

My question is more one of curiosity. How often do hubs get an update? Are the changes between generations substantial or have they pretty much reached a level where any improvements are very marginal?

I think it's a lot like bicycle frames. After more than 100 years, the best design is still a double triangle with the rider over it.

The last real hub innovation was cassette hubs with shimano being the only designer that supported the axle at the right hand end of the hub..to this day via patent.

There are pretty hubs and complicated hubs and simple hubs but the bicycle hub is pretty much the same as the ones made 100 years ago. Same with cranks and headsets and......

[shovelhd]

Well, now you have 11 speed Shimano starting to enter the market. For some existing 10 speed wheels, it means a new freehub and a re-dish, but for others it might mean obsolescence. If you don't care about that, then it probably doesn't mean much. Hubs are pretty straightforward devices. Detail differences are small, i.e. rear hub pawl configuration, steel or ceramic bearings, etc.

[FlashUNC]

I believe White Industries' new hubs are purely aesthetic changes. Didn't make any changes to the guts of the hubs themselves.

[bluesea]

Looks like Campy downgraded their hub polish levels again, sometime after 2005. Or maybe I'm just idealizing the past again.

[EDS]

I believe White Industries' new hubs are purely aesthetic changes. Didn't make any changes to the guts of the hubs themselves.

Well, they made them 11 speed compatible (with spacer for 10 speed cassettes).

[Mark McM]

The last real hub innovation was cassette hubs with shimano being the only designer that supported the axle at the right hand end of the hub..to this day via patent.

While the Shimano design was/is very good, Shimano wasn't the first to invent or market the cassette hub with outboard bearings - the Maillard Helicomatic cassette hub preceded the Shimano freehub by a few years.

The Suntour freehub design, which came out a few years later, was nearly identical to the Shimano's - the only significant difference was the orientation of the tubular bolt that held the freehub body onto the hub 'spool'. On the Shimano design, the the tubular bolt passed through the freehub body and threaded into the hub 'spool'. On the Suntour design, the tubular bolt passed through the hub 'spool' and threaded into the freehub body (this variation was likely done to get aroung the Shimano patent).

The Shimano patent did not cover all outboard bearing freehubs (as mentioned, others had done it before), it only covered their specific configuration. Since this patent is now over 30 years old, it must have expired by now. Several other manufacturers have produced their own outboard bearing freehub designs in the intervening years.