# Inexpensive 130mm disc hubs



## AndrwSwitch (May 28, 2009)

I found some cracks in the rear rim on my Trek Portland recently. D'oh! It's a low spoke count, paired-spoke, 130mm disc wheel. Kind of a funky combination. The hub is drilled for paired spokes, and not that many of them. I'd like to do a 32h rim with conventional lacing. Being conservative about my wheels has served me well in the past, and this is my commuter.

Anything out there cheaper than the Velocity road disc hub, without completely giving up quality?


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## gregnash (Jun 30, 2011)

Take a look at bikehubstore.com hubs... Dont know if they make a disc capable 130mm but have seen good reviews of their road and mtb hubs.


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## brucew (Jun 3, 2006)

I went with the Velocity hub when I replaced the wheelset on my Portland 2½ years ago. It's been flawless.

I went with the now-discontinued Velocity VXC hoops, DT Competition spokes, and Avid G3 rotors. The build weight was less than the Portland's OEM wheel, yet it's 32 spokes laced 3-cross. Hasn't needed truing yet.

It's makes the sort of wheel the Portland should have had in the first place.

Pics & stuff here.

EDIT: If budget is a real problem, I still have my Portland's OEM wheels and I'd be willing to sell them--with rotors and a spare hoop--for about the price of the Velocity hub. That could buy you time to save up for a proper replacement set. PM me if interested.


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## tednugent (Apr 26, 2010)

SRAM X.9 hubs are fairly inexpensive

I'm using them to build a set of wheels using notubes arch ex rims


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## AndrwSwitch (May 28, 2009)

It's more that the point of this bike is to save me money, and that I lock it outside. I also find it offensive that Velocity wants more for one rear wheel than my entire "plain brown wrapper" race set.

I talked it over with my shop on my way home today. I'm probably just going to shove a 135mm disc hub I already have on hand in there and call it good. It wasn't too much harder to get in there, and as long as the chainstays and seatstays on the bike are, I'm not too worried about a 2.5mm lateral deformation on each side. Should keep the budget under $100 and it's a 36h hub, so it'll be a bomber wheel. Once I've got a cassette and a rotor on it, maybe I can even figure out a spot to narrow it a little. With the current hub, there's precious little clearance on the cassette side and I don't think I can move the caliper to the left without removing material from the adapter. I'm more inclined to be conservative about that.

I found out that Bontrager is actually doing an aftermarket 130mm disc wheel, but it's still really stupid - 24 holes. At least it was reasonably priced. If it was 32, I'd probably have gone and bought it. I love the bike, but I feel like the guys at Trek maybe don't quite get what people do to their commuters. Not that I put low spoke count wheels on any of my other bikes either.

At least if I kill the front wheel, it'll be easier to replace.


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## brucew (Jun 3, 2006)

I'm wondering how you ended up with a Portland if you find $139 for a hub to be offensively expensive.


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## AndrwSwitch (May 28, 2009)

I bought it used. The price on the hub actually doesn't bother me so much. I know that when worthwhile ones are cheaper, it's because they're overproduced. But I can build a better wheel than Velocity's myself for what they're asking for it. Usually, the difference in access to good prices between me and a commercial wheel builder makes that impossible. If the Bontrager wheel had been a more conservative design, I might have just gone and bought it yesterday.

Plan 'B', if I don't like what I see when I open up my hub, is to go ahead and order the Velocity hub, a more reasonably priced rim, and DT Comps for less than the upcharge they add to use them. It'll take me some time to build the wheel but hey, just hit spring break.


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## brucew (Jun 3, 2006)

I see.


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## AndrwSwitch (May 28, 2009)

Sorry, didn't mean to be offensive about your purchase. Right now I'm not making any money, so when I can kick in a little extra time instead and save some money, I'll often make that choice.


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## brucew (Jun 3, 2006)

No offense taken. However you could have summarized your budget with just one word: Student.

Spring break is what clicked.


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## krisdrum (Oct 29, 2007)

Unless you can get the DT Comps for under $0.40 each, including brass nipples, I'd humbly suggest you go with Sapim Race spokes instead from DansComp. Yes they are a BMX store, but they will cut and thread spokes to length for you for the cheapest prices I've found.


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## AndrwSwitch (May 28, 2009)

I've already got parts on order. My shop's name is on my shorts and my right shoulder, so they're inclined to be nice to me. I'll probably still pay more than that for my spokes, but I don't think it'll be enough more to justify shipping.

Those are some impressive prices. I'll have to keep it in mind.


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## AndrwSwitch (May 28, 2009)

Finished my wheel earlier today. I ended up letting my shop upsell me a CXP33 rim instead of going with something cheap, but oh well. My last commuters have cost me money due to breaking stuff, not being stolen, so with this one I'm trying for a slightly longer view on parts. Beginning with buying an '05 bike with a decent component group to begin with. Anyway, it still came out a lot less than buying a complete wheel from Velocity, although I wonder if I might have done better on a single 29er wheel from somewhere, now that I know it fits.


cxp33 wheel 001 by Andrew183, on Flickr


cxp33 wheel 002 by Andrew183, on Flickr

I had to realign my disc caliper, but the cassette was lined up close enough to the same that that's working fine, and it shifts great. I was afraid there might be enough funkiness around the dropouts to need to get the derailleur hanger tweaked.

The wheel build was one of the easiest I've done. It helps that I have a few behind me at this point, but I think part of it was just the rim being nicer than a lot of the ones I've used in the past.


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## gregnash (Jun 30, 2011)

So what all did you end up using for the build Andrew other than the Mavic CXP33?


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## aclinjury (Sep 12, 2011)

Andrew, you're ahead of the game with DISC BRAKES! You've been riding disc way before the Colnago C59 Disc prototype was released! Nice.

I wonder if you could have just take a wheel with 135mm hub (mtb hubs) and just shove it in there! I've seen people doing this if their frame is steel (apparently steel allows this sort of thing).


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## gregnash (Jun 30, 2011)

Hey Andrew did you end up replacing the crank on your Jake with a double or triple? How do you like the double for commuting. I live in a hilly area and have been contemplating adding the crank on the Jake to the upgrade list.


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## AndrwSwitch (May 28, 2009)

gregnash said:


> So what all did you end up using for the build Andrew other than the Mavic CXP33?


The hub is a Shimano M-475 hub that came stock on my Hardrock. People trash-talk it, but they're actually a perfectly good hub. Spokes are DT Comps. The nipple is whatever comes with a comp, so brass I think.

aclinjury - yeah, I talked it over with my mechanic and just shoved a 135mm hub in there. I'd given it some thought, and a 2.5mm lateral deformation in something as long as a chainstay seemed like it should be okay. I didn't have to use that much force to get the chainstays open and it doesn't induce a permanent set. I guess you can ask me again in a year (or five or ten, hopefully) and see if I still think it's alright. At least I'll have a wheelset that I can drop into a 26" mountain bike or a disc bike with more standard spacing if I have to.

The big difference is that steel can be cold set a few times - resized so that it's permanently spaced a little wider between the dropouts. Depending on which aluminum alloy and heat treatment you're working with, aluminum will sometimes just break if it's deformed far enough to fail this way.


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## AndrwSwitch (May 28, 2009)

Oh yeah - the crank....

This is a compact crank, the default 50/34 configuration. I think the cassette is 11-25, but to be honest, I'm not totally sure. It's what my friend was using. It's fine, but my current commute doesn't have extended hills, let alone with extended climbs.

It's a little bit of a pain to test for yourself if you'd be happy with those ratios... I guess look at a gear calculator and figure out the equivalent gear on your current crank to the lowest one you'd get with the compact, then ride up the steepest hill in your regular route with it. I'm actually somewhat fond of the triples on my main road and my mountain bike. I hope that the double on my Jake will be more reliable on race days.


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