Rear hubs - Phil Wood and Chris King

[BikeFreak]

That is disheartening about the Phil hubs.

FWIW, my experience with cassette hubs that have LONG mileage on them has been all Shimano Deore XT, 105, and Ultegra with cup and cone bearings.  They seem to last pretty much forever if given a reasonable level of maintenance (repack bearings once in a great while and keep an eye infrequent on adjustment).  Given that, I've never been too tempted to upgrade to Phil Wood or White industries.

+20 years ago my hubs were Shimano cup and cones and I never really liked these hubs since I had to adjust them and adjusting itself was a pain. Needing two wrenches and make minute adjustments taking into account that the cup locking nut pressure would add to the axial play. With industrial bearings in Chris King, Hadley, White Industries, Hope, tune, Phil Wood, this is all history.

I guess I feared that I would have to adjust my Shimano hubs during a 5-10000 mi trip a number of times, bringing extra tools that are obsolete on the higher end hubs.

But if you have personal information proofing that modern Shimano hubs can do 10000 miles without bearing play adjustment, regreasing etc, I am open :-)

Lucas

[staehpj1]

That is disheartening about the Phil hubs.

FWIW, my experience with cassette hubs that have LONG mileage on them has been all Shimano Deore XT, 105, and Ultegra with cup and cone bearings.  They seem to last pretty much forever if given a reasonable level of maintenance (repack bearings once in a great while and keep an eye infrequent on adjustment).  Given that, I've never been too tempted to upgrade to Phil Wood or White industries.

+20 years ago my hubs were Shimano cup and cones and I never really liked these hubs since I had to adjust them and adjusting itself was a pain. Needing two wrenches and make minute adjustments taking into account that the cup locking nut pressure would add to the axial play. With industrial bearings in Chris King, Hadley, White Industries, Hope, tune, Phil Wood, this is all history.

I guess I feared that I would have to adjust my Shimano hubs during a 5-10000 mi trip a number of times, bringing extra tools that are obsolete on the higher end hubs.

But if you have personal information proofing that modern Shimano hubs can do 10000 miles without bearing play adjustment, regreasing etc, I am open :-)

Lucas

I have probably gone 10K miles between maintenance at times, but, no I don't recommend it.  I never found it a huge deal to adjust cup and cone bearings and usually repack and do so every four or five thousand miles.  If I am riding the bike less than that per year, I might just do it once a year.  Then again I sometimes am neglectful.  My tours generally range from roughly 1000-5000 miles I have not needed to service wheel bearings on tour.

My tours are in the US where worst case I could hitch a ride to a bike shop within a couple hundred miles at most from most of the places I tour.  I have never needed to hitch a ride due to wheel bearing issues though.  So I haven't always carried cone wrenches.  I used to, but haven't in more recent years.  I might go back to carrying them if I were to tour in more remote places.

I am not knocking someone else wanting a more bullet proof hub, or one that uses easy to replace cartridge bearings.  I just have never felt the need myself.

[wildtoad]

Thanks for the long term update. Boutique, rebuildable parts are great as long as the manufacturer is around and supports them (or to the extent they use non- proprietary, common parts). Phil makes great grease and hand cleaner, but I’ve never been tempted by their components. I have White Ind stuff across different bikes (no hubs) and their products are solid so good luck with the hubs.
As much as I enjoy and appreciate finer bike components, most of my bikes run Shimano hubs. Older LX, XTR, newer XT, 105, the venerable Ultegra tri-color, etc. Some of these hubs have been going strong for 30 years with periodic, simple maintenance. And they are quiet ( not a fan of loud hubs). Have also had great experience with DT Swiss hubs on Campy equipped road bikes. Perfectly reliable and parts readily available.