I'm interested in buying the best hubs ever. It seems that Chris King and Phil Wood are the best ones. But has anyone really tried both hubs, felt their drags etc etc? What's your opinion?
I have to use the hub for road touring and not hard core freeride, downhill etc which means that I need a hub with smallest drag possible (= does this mean I'll have to look for Shimano XTR??)
Somewhere I read that Chris King hubs have a large drag when you turn them by hand, but it vanishes when riding, ie they are designed in a way that the drag disappears when riding. Is that true?
Lucas
I'm interested in buying the best hubs ever. It seems that Chris King and Phil Wood are the best ones. But has anyone really tried both hubs, felt their drags etc etc? What's your opinion?
I have to use the hub for road touring and not hard core freeride, downhill etc which means that I need a hub with smallest drag possible (= does this mean I'll have to look for Shimano XTR??)
Somewhere I read that Chris King hubs have a large drag when you turn them by hand, but it vanishes when riding, ie they are designed in a way that the drag disappears when riding. Is that true?
Lucas
I have used both and still own both.
I still use Phil Wood on our toruing tandem. FSA and FSC make it easy to change out the "sealed" bearings. They are not as well sealed as Shimano XTR, XT, LX or Deore.
They have very tough hub shells, but their cassette body isn't as well sealed as Shimano XTR, XT, LX or Deore.
Chris King has some adjustability in it's bearing pre-load. The seal drag is more noticeable on Chris King than Phil Wood, but the cartridge bearings on Chris King are better protected.
Both hubs are quite expensive.
Only you can decide if they are worth it.
Both are serviceable, but not as easy to find service parts ...and for Chris King not as easy to find the proper tools and lubes in every bicycle shop.
That said, the amount of drag that you can discern when riding gets lost in practical things like gravity and air resistance, tire rolling reisistance. I have toured over 200,000 miles of loaded touring. You will find may opinions, but it is very hard to beat good old Shimano MTB hubs for value, servicability, and durability. My two touring bicycles that get most of the miles have Shimano XTR M950 hubs on them.
See a good article on "sealed" bearings on Sheldon Brown's website. URL:
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/brandt/sealed-bearings.html
Once you have read that article and look at where the cartridge bearing "seals" are on Phil Wood hubs, you will have a better idea what you are dealing with.
I think efficiency in touring gained by lowering wind drag, reducing weight, getting effective/safe riding position, securing the load, and using tires with lowest rolling resistance for riding conditions and rider/load.
Sheldon has other good articles, that if you haven't already read, I suggest looking around his site.
