# hubs - chris king or dt swiss ?



## roadcycles (Jul 2, 2004)

Hello,

Planning to build a set of road wheels.
Already have the rims (dt swiss rr 1.1) and the skewers (salsa).
Next on list - the hubs.
I'd like your opinions about strenghts and weakness of chris king classic hubs and dt swiss 240s & hugie 240 front and rear hubs (reliability, easy/dificult maintanance, break in till smoothly runing time etc.....).

Thanks.

PS: about the rr 1.1 rims which are a relatively new product I can tell you that they are very light 415 grams and high quality made.


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## Pierre (Jan 29, 2004)

*As far as I know*

I have the Hugi 240, and not enough money to ge the Kings

from reading a lot on this forum about these 2 hubs
- they are supposed to be the best 2 on the market
- Kings have 72 engagement pawls, Hugi have 24 (like Shimano)

Don't know about the King, but for the Hugi it's really easy to take the freehub apart to clean/grease the ratchet mechanism. This is incredibly nice, all hubs should be made like this.

The King freehub is REALLY NOISY. The Hugi freehub becomes noisy when the grease spreads out. Then reapply grease.

Pierre





roadcycles said:


> Hello,
> 
> Planning to build a set of road wheels.
> Already have the rims (dt swiss rr 1.1) and the skewers (salsa).
> ...


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## Mike Prince (Jan 30, 2004)

*If you use Campy 10 speed cassettes*

Kings will not work as they only come with a Shimano spline pattern. Not even sure you can use them with a 10 speed conversion cassette according to their website - it basically says "try it with a Wheels Mfg cassette and let us know how/if it works". Hugi offers Shimano and Campy compatible hubs.

Now if you're on Shimano 9, the engagement of the King is instantaneous vs the traditional cassette lag on the Hugi (just like all others, it spins a bit before catching). Both are very well made and light.


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## russw19 (Nov 27, 2002)

King hubs use an aluminium (standard) freehub shell. That is why they don't list compatibility with conversion cassettes. If you email them they will tell you that with the alloy shell they would only recommend cassettes with an alloy carrier. However if you use the stainless shell (which adds about 50 grams) you can use any stell cogs even if they are loose fit.

Russ


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## Lemondpoprad (Jan 22, 2004)

I am running Chris King hubs 32 spoke, 14 gauge, brass nibs. They are great. As to the noise I don't think they are very loud. Chris King is one of two wheel companys that makes it s own bearings. Everyone else uses car bearings. The tolerances are very tight on the Chris Kings so it takes around 2000 miles to free them up. Until then you will notice some drag when you spin the wheel. But I really doubt that you would feel this riding. So far I haven't. I think in the long run the Chris Kings are better because if you want to sell them you will get more money than the Hugi. They are very easy to take apart if you need to and I think the quality fit and finish is better than Hugi. As for the ingagment it is fast and after running on these for a while it is hard to go back to standard wheels because they feel sloppy. And you will never need a set of hubs again because you can send them into Chris King to have them serviced down the road.


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## russw19 (Nov 27, 2002)

Lemondpoprad said:


> And you will never need a set of hubs again because you can send them into Chris King to have them serviced down the road.



Kings have a 5 year hub warranty! Can't beat that.

Russ


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## parkmeister (Feb 22, 2002)

*Chris King products are excellent.*

On my mtn bike, I have a CK headset and wheels built on CK hubs. The stuff is expensive but worth it. Light, strong, very durable, and easy to disassemble for maintainance. In the MTB world, the reputation of CK is as high as it gets.

Not sure what their quality control is like nowadays, but a few years ago, DT/Hugi had a terrible reputation for exploding freehubs. A guy I rode with had a pair on his cyclocross bike and he blew up his freehub. There are lots of negative reviews on MTBR for Hugi.

The wheelset on the 2001 LeMond Zurich were midrange Rolfs with Hugi hubs. I was in a bike shop talking about the reliability of these hubs when a woman wheeled her LeMond in with a wrecked Hugi freehub. I ended up getting a 2002 Zurich which had swapped the Rolfs for midrange Bontrager wheels. I wasn't sure who the vendor was for the hubs, but I knew that Hugi had been a supplier for some of Bonty's MTB wheelsets. Call me paranoid, but I swapped out the wheelset for some standard 32 spoke 3x Ultegra hubs and Mavic Open Pro rims. I try to get stuff with a rock solid rep for durability. I'm not a sponsored racer, so fancy, lightweight, fragile stuff does nothing for me.

My recommendation is to go with the Kings. Also, I really the buzzzzzzzz of the King freehub on my MTB!

Hope this helps.

gary


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## slide (May 22, 2002)

Both are great hubs and I doubt you'd be dissapointed in either. I went with King though. I like the large number of engagement points and I've always just considered CK to be the best. There stuff is expensive but they don't cut any corners on anything and you know your getting a top of the line product. Add to that the fact that they come in lots of cool colors and CK deffinetly comes out on top for me.

Now if only my bike didn't have a IS headset so I could put a King one in....oh well.


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## Mike T. (Feb 3, 2004)

parkmeister said:


> Not sure what their quality control is like nowadays, but a few years ago, DT/Hugi had a terrible reputation for exploding freehubs. A guy I rode with had a pair on his cyclocross bike and he blew up his freehub. There are lots of negative reviews on MTBR for Hugi.



A few years back DT-Swiss 240 hubs had single ratchet springs which gave some problems. Around the year 2000 they came out with dual springs which cured that problem. My 240s on my mtb are over four years old and without issues.


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## Al1943 (Jun 23, 2003)

I have both and just started riding the Hugi 240S/RR 1.1/Revolution spoke wheels recently. I would say that the ride is very similar but the King hubs seemed to have more of a break-in period before they began rolling well. I think the King hubs look a bit nicer, I peeled the stickers off of my Hugi hubs because the red did not look right on my bike. 
I've had non-drive spokes break at the hub 3 times on my King hub. I suppose this is because I didn't have enough tension with the initial build.
According to the Wheels manufacturing representative who answered my e-mail the incompatability issue is with the derailleur/spoke clearance. I was told that a Shimano to Campy conversion cassette will not work on a King hub because of the flange design and lack of spoke clearence.
As soon as I have time I will compare drive-side to non-drive side spoke tension on my wheel sets and report back. That differential may favor the Hugi hubs.
I think you can be happy with either King or Hugi hubs, just don't expect to run King hubs with Campy components, and don't expect either to outperform Shimano or Campy hubs.
~Al


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## Armchair Spaceman (Jun 21, 2003)

Mike Prince said:


> Kings will not work as they only come with a Shimano spline pattern. Not even sure you can use them with a 10 speed conversion cassette according to their website - it basically says "try it with a Wheels Mfg cassette and let us know how/if it works".


I've been running a set of King Classic Road hubs with an American Classic campy-10 conversion cassette with no problems at all (though the AC cassette seems to be a little happier with a connex chain than the Campy C10. I ordered my hubs fitted with the stainless steel driveshell to be on the safe side. It's a few grams heavier but I'm very happy with the outcome.


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## ifcjti (Jun 14, 2004)

*hugi hubs*

I have two sets of wheels. One set has Hugi 240 hubs, Velocity Aerohead rims and DT spokes, I love them! Never had a problem in over three years with them. My second set of wheels purchased about two months ago are Hugi 240s hubs, DT RR 1.1 rims and DT Super Comp. spokes, I love these wheels as well! I have never owned a set of Chris King hubs so I can't comment on them. The quality of the Hugi hubs is very high, they are quiet and spin up quickly. My new set runs a dura ace 10-speed cassette with no problem or modification. I purchased my new set from Joe Young wheels, he is a pleasure to work with and builds a very nice set of wheels, hope this helps.


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## cascadebiker (Aug 17, 2004)

*DT Swiss 240s*

Just got a new set of wheels built by Mike Garcia- the DT Swiss 240s rear hub is so QUIET! It stands in stark contrast to the Campy hub I was considering. If loud ratcheting noise gets on your nerves, I'd highly recommend the newer 240s hub.

Mark


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## wooden legs (Oct 20, 2003)

*toss a quick question in here*

not exactly on topic but i'm getting another set of kings (my road bike was stolen along with my king wheelset argh), and was wondering if anyone has experience running a shimano 10 sp system on them. cassette fit ok? i've only used 9 sp systems, thinking about switching to the ulteg 10 on the replacement bike...


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## winstonc (Nov 18, 2002)

*Front hubs*

I don't know why companies charge so much for front hubs. The DT Swiss front hub is very simple; it's just a hubshell, an axle, two axle ends, and two off-the-shelf 6802 cartridge bearings. Top quality 6802 bearings can be had for something like $6-9 each, retail. So you're basically paying $100 for the other parts. Even if those parts are really precisely made and nicely finished, that still seems excessive to me.

I have a King front hub and it's essentially the same design, except with a 20mm instead of 15mm axle, and they make the (nonstandard) bearings themselves, so there might be more of an excuse for the price. Since they cost about the same, I'd go with the King up front for sure. You also get to pick your color, (DT only has black), and you support a progressive, environmentally conscious company...


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## conrad gardner (Dec 2, 2004)

I just got a set of wheels with the DT RR 1.1 rims, Wheelsmith bladed spokes and King hubs. I seriously do not think you can buy any wheel with better components for anything that touches their likely pricepoint assembled by a competent builder. Having ridden Hugi 240 hubs (the pre-"s" series) I can tell you that they both make a great hub and I'd doubt you will be disappointed with either. If you are running Campy cassettes obviously Hugi is the choice. With King you get a beefier axel, and more color choices. Either way you'll be set for a great set of wheels assuming you use a quality wheelbuilder. Joe Young, Mike Garcia, Dave Thomas just to name a few guys who know what they are doing.


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## crewman (Jan 29, 2004)

*campy compatiblity with shimano 10 speed???*

Could you not use a Shimano 10 speed cassette with campy 10 speed drive train??

How much difference is there in spacing between the two??


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## dougn (Jun 9, 2004)

i serviced a friends king hub a few weeks ago. i was like discovering an alien space craft! how the hell does that drive ring work? you can't get it out (easily) to examine it....and those bearings.....just like the headsets with the weird seals.

the king stuff is truely amazing ...i'm going to build a wheel set for my mt bike


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