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Submitted by
JP
a Cross Country Rider
from Boulder CO
Date Reviewed: July 29, 2004 | | Duration Product Used: | More than 3 years | | Purchased At: | LBS & Cambria | | Strengths: | Simple construction
Inexpensive- now that the company folded
Light | | Weaknesses: | Requires some basic mechanical skills to get them to work well | | Similar Products Used: | Chris King, Hope, Oynx, Shimano | | Bike Setup: | Maverick | | Bottom Line: | I've been using real hubs for about 4 years now. I'll admit they aren't flawless out of the box but it doesn't take much to get them working properly. I've used mainly the front hubs (King rear) but have 2 sets of cross wheels built exclusively with Real hubs. I fixed the spacer issue with the freehub on both and have never had problems with ghost shifting.
Bottom line: work flawless if you put some time into them. Can't beat the close-out deals. | Value Rating: Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Sean
a Cross Country Rider
from NY, NY USA
Date Reviewed: November 8, 2003 | | Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month | | Price Paid: |
$170.00 | | Purchased At: | cambria | | Strengths: | Lightweight, front hub works as it's supposed to. cheap. | | Weaknesses: | Rear hub is terrible. play in free hub. cant be fixed. ghost shifts, inconsistent shifting. Totally useless. returning and buying different ones. | | Similar Products Used: | sun ringle R.P.M, other mavics | | Bike Setup: | stumpjumper '03, xtr, avid mechs, thomson, race face, marzocchi, etc | | Bottom Line: | I bought these for pretty cheap from cambria...about 170 after a faster method of shipping. The real disc hubs came with mavic 223 disc only rims. Rims are weak. 2 hard rides, cross country type stuff and both times major truing required. rear hub made a horrible creaking noise first time out. 2nd time out shifting degraded and i noticed major play in the cassette. tightened lock. didnt help. took to shop and they said it's trash and cant be fixed. don't buy these even if you think they are cheap and worth a shot because they are a lot lighter than XT disc hubs!!! they are terrible! | Value Rating: Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Gary
a Weekend Warrior
from Liberty Lake, WA
Date Reviewed: July 31, 2003 | | Duration Product Used: | 2 Years | | Price Paid: |
$90.00 | | Purchased At: | Cambria | | Strengths: | Light weight, cheap | | Weaknesses: | The grease was 'hard' in the bearings. It looked like a hot glue gun was used to apply a thin ribbon of grease, none of which had worked its way into the balls. Rode them for 150 miles, and they never realy seamed to break in, so I rebuilt them. | | Similar Products Used: | CK, Shimano, Stout | | Bike Setup: | Built them around a set of Open Pro rims for my road bike | | Bottom Line: | After greasing the bearings, have not had a problem in over 1,500 miles. Nearly as light as the CK hubs, look the same, and cost 1/4 as much. Considering that I only ride on the road, I like them. | Value Rating: Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Mike DaPimp
a Downhiller
from boulder,co
Date Reviewed: April 14, 2003 | | Favorite Trail: | all huge gaps | | Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month | | Price Paid: |
$30.00 | | Purchased At: | cambria bike | | Strengths: | not a f'ing thing | | Weaknesses: | freehub body has more play than duece bigelow, causing many a ghost shifts leading to more than enough bailouts trying to torque out of turns. | | Similar Products Used: | a steaming pile of dog poo. (actually the dog poo is much more reliable) to classify other products as similar would be such an unfair put down for them. | | Bike Setup: | foes zig zag ss, hope hubs & brakes, middleburn cranks, marzocchi DJ1, planet x rims, azonic bars & stem | | Bottom Line: | i know, i know, my fault for trying originally trying to run this cheap rear hub on my bucket. at least i didn't get taken for the retail price on this thing. freehub had play straight out of the box, but thought i could fix it. first i installed an extra spacer that i fabricated. initally worked fine, then the internal gearing on the inside of the hub just stripped out like plastic, locking up the freehub and pulling the chain around ripping off the rear derailleur and taking out it's share of spokes with it(try to figure out how to fix that) less than a month old!!!! stay away from this product. moral of this story - YOU GET EXACTLY WHAT YOU PAY FOR. so fork over a few more bucks for a real (not - real designs) hub. | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
derby
a Cross Country Rider
from San Anselmo, CA USA
Date Reviewed: November 23, 2002 | | Duration Product Used: | 3 months | | Price Paid: |
$100.00 | | Purchased At: | Cambira | | Bike Setup: | Tracer, coils in x-fly 100, Vanilla-R, XTR 8-speed, Sram/Sachs chain, RaceFace ISIS Turbine, Avid disc, x3.1 Mavic rims, various 2.3 - 2.4 tubed tires | | Bottom Line: | Update to previous post a few down here.
I recently removed the thin shim/washer I sandwiched with the Teflon washer just inside the free hub. Perhaps the axle cylinder spacers (tubes) have broken in and the shim I used isn't needed now. So I don't recommend machining or filing the axle/freehub cylinder spacer (tube) any more. If you have side to side play just use a thin washer/ shim (I cut one out of a Coors aluminum beer can, that's how thin it was. And it didn’t wear noticeably while I had it in).
Also like I said in my review below check that the bearings in the freehub are centered properly, my inside freehub bearing was loose and I needed to press it to the inside position, flush to the edge (seems like a poor design, not having a fixed a seat). It came loose again after a couple months and I had to do it again. I may have loosened out of posision possibly due to an overly tight chain problem that I discovered I had in the big/big gears when suspension cycled to lengthen the chain stay. Hopefully that bearing will stay put now that I've lengthened the chain to not bind the hub and other bearings (BB and suspension bearings).
Seems like a very good (tight, free spinning, and quiet) hub when everything is broken in, I just wonder how difficult it will be to find the correct bearings when they need replacing.
Good luck,
- ray
| | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Colin Quinn
a Downhiller
from Tysons Corner, Va
Date Reviewed: November 2, 2002 | | Favorite Trail: | anything fast without slow moving obstacles, you know who you are.... | | Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month | | Price Paid: |
$50.00 | | Purchased At: | online | | Strengths: | Havnt used it YET. ( There isnt a 'not yet' field for length of use ).
Good Looks: They are Black, have nice lettering, The hub body appears to be stout.
I have yet to hear anything bad abou them from fellow mtnbikers. Granted I havnt seen many bikers riding them. Being an anti conformist by nature, I must use what others are not. So I decided to give them a try. | | Weaknesses: | FRONT: None that I know of yet. I wish it had a 9mm skewer like my ritchey hub, and a larger axle.
REAR: I am going to take a close look at freeplay in the freehub body when they arrive. | | Similar Products Used: | Shimano xt HUBS, Ritchey hubs, Hadley hubs, GT hubs. all similar in physical appearance. Have had excellent service from them all. | | Bike Setup: | GT avalanche set up for freeriding, MRP and 100mmfork, and a Team DHi, xvert, XTR, hayes. I use for downhill and freeride. I have another GT hardtail I use for cross country. No need to run off product names. | | Bottom Line: | I thought these hubs seemed like a decent value. I hope they hold up to freeride abuse. I have hammered an old set of shimano LX hubs for years and they are still smooth (!!). So I think that if I pay close attention to the issues listed by other reviewers I should get decent service life from these hubs. | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Kurt
a Cross Country Rider
from Atlanta, ga
Date Reviewed: October 1, 2002 | | Duration Product Used: | 1 Year | | Price Paid: |
$158.00 | | Purchased At: | Supergo | | Strengths: | I bought a disc wheelset with these hubs and Mavic wheels for $158 . | | Weaknesses: | Cartridge bearings in the front are a little weak . | | Bike Setup: | Sugar 2 with Avid Discs | | Bottom Line: | Replace the bearings with Phil Wood spec'ed bearings . The stock bearings lasted a year up front . As for the rear hub don't sand the sleeve till it works . It may work but it won't be right . Take it to a machinist and have them cut it square on a lathe . The machinist can mike it all up and get it right . Keep the ratchet full of grease and it will stay quiet . Once the freeplay is right and the bearings are replaced with Phil wood bearings the hubs should last a long time . 4 chillies for value , 3 chillies due to the quality control problems tht make taking them to a machinist sometimes nessassary. | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
derby
a Cross Country Rider
from San Anselmo, CA
Date Reviewed: September 19, 2002 | | Favorite Trail: | Tamarancho | | Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month | | Price Paid: |
$100.00 | | Purchased At: | Cambria | | Strengths: | Looks, quick engagement | | Weaknesses: | stock rear hub freebody slop (fix described below) | | Similar Products Used: | White Industry hubs | | Bike Setup: | Tracer | | Bottom Line: | Unless you are mechanically minded, better not buy these rear hubs. Cambria gave me no warning about the defect (probably the sales guy didn't know, and I knew I was taking a risk but remember hearing good things in past years about the Real hubs). Otherwise they ride very well with quick engagement and are easy to work on.
I too bought some close out Real hubs from Cambira (under $100 for front and rear) and just started riding on them. And noticed after this post's heads up about the rear hub that my cassette freebody was a bit loose (I was wondering why my rear shifting was sketchy the last ride).
Well the problem is there is an axle sleeve that isolates the freebody that is shimmed on both ends by a Teflon washers. Either one of the washers is too thin by 1 mm or the axle sleeve is too long by that 1mm amount. The best fix would be to file or grind the axle sleeve length down 1mm (which I may do later if my cob fix doesn't last).
I cobbed a fix by cutting out a shim spacer out of an aluminum soda can the same diameter as the inner Teflon shim, and stacking my shim with the stock Teflon shim. This tightened up the freewheel side to side play and it still turns rather freely. But my shim may wear out, so I plan to check it after a few rides.
Also be sure the freewheel bearings are seated (the inner bearing was floating loose in mine). I tapped it carefully with a punch bar into place flush to the inside plane surface of the freewheel assembly.
- ray
| Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Kory
a
from Long Beach
Date Reviewed: October 15, 2001 | | Duration Product Used: | 6 months | | Bottom Line: | This is a follow up to my post earlier. I too developed slop in my rear hub. I pulled them apart, put them back together, etc, and nothing worked. I ended up buying a new hub and then taking this one to the Cambria Bike Store in Redondo. The mechanic said that one of the nylon washers was missing from inside. He added one in there, tightened it up and now I'm going to rebuild it and try it on my wife's bike. We'll see. I am not too pleased with it at the moment, but am glad it seems to be fixed. I sure was bummed when I discovered the play in it. I think there's a reason Real went under... | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Gary Lunsford
a Racer
from Batesville, IN
Date Reviewed: September 24, 2001 | | Favorite Trail: | All of them!!! | | Duration Product Used: | 1 Year | | Price Paid: |
$175.00 | | Purchased At: | Cambria Bike Outfitters | | Strengths: | This is a follow-up review thanks to the help of reviewer Tom Vial. I believe his fix was the answer I couldnt find. Thanks Tom!! I think I can get my use out of them now!! | | Weaknesses: | Front hub has none that I can find. I still think the freehub is suseptible to mud contamination too easily. | | Similar Products Used: | see review below | | Bike Setup: | see review below | | Bottom Line: | This is a follow-up review to one I wrote earlier. I want to thank Tom for Emailing me with his ideas for repairing the free play in the rear hub. I measure the amount of play in my hub and then machined the steel sleeve down by that exact amount in a lathe. It now has .09mm of free play. PERFECT!!!! I still think people should be mindful of the fact that items such as seals, sleeves, freehub bodies are no longer available before buying. with that in mind and to be fair I am giving a higher rating than before to offset my previous rating. If you are having freehub float problems, Tom's idea is the ticket!! | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Heatstroke
a Cross Country Rider
from Miri
Date Reviewed: September 14, 2001 | | Duration Product Used: | 1 Year | | Price Paid: |
$50.00 | | Purchased At: | 2nd hand | | Strengths: | Light, cheap, ratchet ingages quickly .
Front has been perfect.
Rear has only had minor problem with a torn rubber seal . | | Weaknesses: | need to carefully assemble to remover the play on the freehub. | | Bottom Line: | Like the reviewer below I had similar probs with the freehub slack after dissassembly. I suspected the same problem - the steel sleeve was too long and was just about to get out the sandpaper. However I carefully examined the steel sleeve which goes around the spindle and I noticed that the ends were slightly different. One end is machined flat while the edge of the other end is slightly concave/bevelled. If you install the concave end in first , there is negligible slack as the sleeve sits in slightly further.
The manual or / web site should say something bout this. | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Tom Vial
a Cross Country Rider
from Bay area, CA, USA
Date Reviewed: August 25, 2001 | | Favorite Trail: | McKenzie River, OR | | Duration Product Used: | 2 Years | | Purchased At: | aardvark | | Strengths: | light, sometimes inexpensive | | Weaknesses: | rear has huge reliability issues | | Similar Products Used: | XT, XTR, American Classic | | Bike Setup: | tracer/Z1 | | Bottom Line: | OK, first lets seperate the discussion into Front and Rear.
I've ridden a Real front hub for nearly 3 years, including mutiple brutal trips to Moab, Fruita, Bend, and Downieville. I've never had any problems, the hub and bearings still spin nicely. For such a lightweight hub, I'm really happy.
Now for the rear. I bought a Real disc rear hub for $10 at a swap. The bearings were trashed. I hoped I could save the hub, and so far I think I have. For those of you out there that already own a Real rear hub, maybe you can salvage some life. First of all, like the review below notes, my hub had outrageous amounts of side-to-side play in the freehub cassette body. You can grab the splined freehub and literally slide it back and forth by 1 mm or more. Secondly, there is no means of adjusting preload on the bearings. If I assembled the hub to the torque settings on the Real website, the bearings would nearly seize up. To fix the preload issue, I just tightened the axle caps to minimal torque, just shy of where bearing tightness occured. This seems to have worked thus far. Next, the freehub play. I disassembled the hub and removed the stainless steel cylinder which the freehub needle bearings run against. This cylinder is essentially too long -- this causes the play. Real probably got a bunch of off-spec cylinders, and never noticed or never cared (or god forbid, their designers suck so bad that they actually spec'd it wrong). So *carefully* using sandpaper, I sanded one end of the cylinder, then reassembled to check play, then sanded again, then reassmebled ... after about 5 or 6 iterations I was able to shorten the cylinder by about 1 mm, and there was just the slightest hint of freehub play when reassembled. At his point I've got 50 miles on the hubs and they seem to be working perfectly. No ghost shifts, bearings running nicely.
I also swapped the old bearings for Phil Wood bearings, which are available in the exact same size. So now I have a disc rear hub which is just slightly heavier than King, runs as smooth as Phil Wood, and (I hope) will be reasonably reliable.
Bottom line -- don't be afraid of using the front hubs, but stay away from the rear ones unless you already own one or you've got patience and reasonable technical skill to save it. At a minimum, check for the side-to-side freehub play BEFORE buying. | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Gary Lunsford
a Racer
from Batesville, IN
Date Reviewed: August 23, 2001 | | Favorite Trail: | All of them!!! | | Duration Product Used: | 6 months | | Price Paid: |
$175.00 | | Purchased At: | Cambria Bike Outfitters | | Strengths: | Neat looks -design was in the right direction but never fully thought out. (My opinion as a professional mech. engineer)Probably why the went under. Laced with d/b spokes and alloy nipples to Mavic x-221 32 hole rims in a 3-cross pattern, they are extremely strong and true!! | | Weaknesses: | Rear hub is super susceptible to dirt mud and grime more than any other hub I have seen in 25 years of competitive cycling. Cannot eliminate the Floating freehub body problem. Tough luck for me in getting replacement parts. I just spoke with Cambria and REAL is real out of business!!! | | Similar Products Used: | I have either owned, borrowed or demo'ed about everything out there. | | Bike Setup: | Two Cannondales, A superV and caad4 hardtail. both identical setups all top of line SRAM, xt/xtr and Fatty ultra forks. 24 and 22 pounds respectively. | | Bottom Line: | For all the world and my deep bag of tricks and fixes I cannot eliminate the side to side float of the freehub(and attached cassette). This freeplay results in ghost shifts which results in oral soil sampling during out of the saddle hammer sessions. I have tried an xt, xtr, and even a Real designs brand cassette. all 9 speed, with the same result. It is not in the cassette. Even with everything as tight as it will go, the problem still exists. This freehub is not a shimano unit bolt to a real hub. Instead it is made in Tiawan as a Hadley knock-off copy. another hub company. I have asked Cambria for help, but the just want me to send the wheel back to them. I am disgusted that they didnt tell me until today that these were never going to be able to be warrantied. They bought out the entire Real warehouse stock and sold it to us consumers for that all mighty dollar. Bottom line is unless you are the guy who bought the Real Designs supply off spares and warranty parts at their bankruptcy auction, DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY!! | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
john holmes
a Cross Country Rider
from las vega nevada
Date Reviewed: June 22, 2001 | | Favorite Trail: | rockledge | | Duration Product Used: | 3 months | | Price Paid: |
$69.00 | | Purchased At: | cambria,,i think | | Strengths: | everything | | Weaknesses: | nothing | | Similar Products Used: | slant-eye-junk-shimano | | Bike Setup: | k2 carbon fiber, xmo fork - almost everything on this bike is made in the USA !!!!!! | | Bottom Line: | OOOOOOEEEEEEE, have we got a kick a** product here. What a shame that we all go like sheep to shimano....The hubs are SWEET, I got the all aluminum model. These things rock. I cant afford bike parts at full price, so Iam constantly looking for stuff on sale. These hub are a GREAT buy for the price, I think they were around 175.00 when company went belly-up. if we wouldnt blindly buy shimano junk and
support the guys here in the USA, we would have more choices
in products.....OOOOO well, I got mine, hope u got yours. | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Kory
a
from Long Beach, CA, USA
Date Reviewed: June 18, 2001 | | Duration Product Used: | 3 months | | Bottom Line: | I got a great deal on these from Cambria Bicycle Outfitters. I got both hubs for under $100.00. I've been riding them since March. I have had no problems with them. As I tend to tinker quite a bit with my bike, I decided to pull them off and check the bearings to make sure they were well greased. There was a bit of grease on one side of the front hub. The rest of the bearings were pretty much dry. I packed them full of grease, put them back together and they are ready to ride. If you buy these, check to see that there is grease in them. They are nice hubs but they it appears they aren't being put together well. They sure are easy to get into! | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Christophe
a Cross Country Rider
from Boulder, CO
Date Reviewed: May 28, 2001 | | Favorite Trail: | Walker Ranch, DH at Winter Park | | Duration Product Used: | More than 3 years | | Price Paid: |
$120.00 | | Purchased At: | Denver bike swap | | Strengths: | Light, high quality bearings, nice and LOUD when new, very little friction, smooth spinning, fairly cheap for a high quality hub | | Weaknesses: | If put together incorrectly, (which is easy because it is possible to put spacers in the wrong place) the hub will be too tight and will 'eat' the spacers. Free hub body sometimes loosens and has 1mm of play even when tight. | | Similar Products Used: | 97 XT rear hub | | Bike Setup: | Trek 7000 with Mavic CrossMax front wheel, 1.25" slick tires, deore/lx and various cheap parts | | Bottom Line: | An excellent hub as long as you are carefull when taking it apart. I think I lost a spacer and that is why I am having problems with the loose free hub body. It probably has 3500 miles on it and is showing very little signs of wear; there is still no play in the cartridge bearings.
Not the best rear hub but for the price, weight, and durability, I give it 4 flamin chilis | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Curtis
a Weekend Warrior
from Rockville MD
Date Reviewed: April 25, 2001 | | Duration Product Used: | 3 months | | Strengths: | Simple and light | | Weaknesses: | Out of production - see Jan '01 review. | | Similar Products Used: | See 1/14/01 | | Bottom Line: | Since my review of Jan '01, I was contacted by Jeff of Q. Roo, who went to the effort to send me brand-new parts. I replaced the 130 mm axle with the 135, and re-dished the wheel. The hub rebuild was very easy. It was assembled a little "dry" at the factory. This could explain some of the "seal drag" mentioned in other reviews. Thanks also to MTBR reader Doug, who offered me an axle of his own. The hub is light, works well, and lets you know it's there with the freewheel buzz. Fellow MTBR's helped me out and saved my wheel. What better karma than that? 5 chilis for everyone. | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Jon
a Racer
from State College PA
Date Reviewed: April 23, 2001 | | Favorite Trail: | Scotia | | Duration Product Used: | 3 months | | Price Paid: |
$30.00 | | Purchased At: | MTBR | | Strengths: | fairly light, esp. compared to the big S hub
nice finish
seals seem good so far | | Weaknesses: | some seal drag is still present after about 200 miles.
no customer service, but it's a front hub, so no big deal. | | Similar Products Used: | N/A (first disk hub) | | Bike Setup: | Sun DS-1XC rim, Wheelsmith DB14 spokes, alloy nips, 2001 Clara front disk | | Bottom Line: | Basically, I needed a disk hub, and wanted something not too expensive, but still lightweight. This was a great deal, and as others have said, it's a front hub, what's to go wrong?
I did notice a lot of seal drag at first, but this is good, as it usually indicates tight-fitting seals. They have broken in quite a bit over the last few months, but there's still some drag. I'll probably take the axle out, and relube the bearings, and see if that helps.
Other than that, no problems to report. It's a hub, as long as it rolls and nothing breaks, I'm happy. | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Curtis
a Cross Country Rider
from Rockville, MD USA
Date Reviewed: January 11, 2001 | | Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month | | Purchased At: | Quality | | Strengths: | Light weight, good finish, appear to be well designed. | | Weaknesses: | Poor QC at factory led to hub with 130mm axle spacing being shipped as a 135mm hub. | | Similar Products Used: | Shimano LX | | Bike Setup: | Custom Jamis Dragon hardtail ('98). "Minimum Shimano", e.g., Raceface crank/rings, SRAM 9.0SL shifting, Aheadset, Speedgoat/Paul/R.S. front fork, aftermarket no-name f. hub. | | Bottom Line: | I bought this in order to build a pro quality XC rear wheel. I used the Real "135mm" rear hub 32h, Mavic 517 rims, DT 2.0/1.5/2.0 spokes, DT alloy nipples. The hub built up well, in part due to worrysome drag keeping the wheel still while tensioning. Resetting the torque on the endcaps (may have) helped. After building, I noticed excessive space at the rear dropouts. Real shipped this hub with a 130mm axle! I got no response from E-mail, the phone is disconnected. Quality tells me they are out of business. These hubs are not worth the risk under any circumstances. My spiffy custom wheel is junk. Please E-mail me if you have a 135mm axle! | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
David
a Cross Country Rider
from Menlo Park, CA
Date Reviewed: September 22, 2000 | | Favorite Trail: | San Francisquito creek south side | | Duration Product Used: | 1 Year | | Price Paid: |
$3500.00 | | Purchased At: | Was Spec in xtr group from Santa Cruz | | Strengths: | They got Santa Cruz to spec em | | Weaknesses: | Very poor resistance to dirt, Loud free wheel even after rebuild. Strange sounds. 1/8 inch free play of the cassette body. When contacted Real sent instructions on how to break down and clean the hub and said that they basically cant be rinsed off unless you are willing to break them down. So I went without cleaning external dirt for 6 more months when 2 spokes broke. When fixing that problem found the lateral freeplay in the cassette and that I could barely turn the axles with my fingers. Santa Cruz says no refunds | | Similar Products Used: | Hadley Disc front and rear hubs experienced the exact same treatment not a single problem. And Quiet! Cant tell when you stop pedaling from the sound. | | Bike Setup: | Santa Cruz bullit (still like the frame) magura louse front and rear Marzzocci qr20 Mrt (xcellent) | | Bottom Line: | Never buy these | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Zeus
a Weekend Warrior
from Mt. Olympus, NY
Date Reviewed: June 12, 2000 | | Favorite Trail: | Whiteface Mt. | | Duration Product Used: | 6 months | | Strengths: | Light
Solid Design
Easy Clean/Disassemble
Ti Freehub
5 Catridge Bearings In Rear Hub
Look Great | | Weaknesses: | I bought the set for $315 and now they are $248 from Cambria, so the deal is better now.. wish i had waited another 6 months! | | Similar Products Used: | Spin Wheels
Hayes/Hugi DT | | Bike Setup: | Trek Y-Glide Deluxe, Full XT, Hayes Hydro Discs, Custom Everything | | Bottom Line: | Amazing hubs. A tad pricey.. But still reasonable as compared to other disc hubs on the market. Gotta love the weith, and the full Ti freehub setup. I would recommend this to anyone going dosc brake, or anyoen in the market for new hubs. They are worth every penny.. If you have the pennies to spend on them. | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Tim Andersen
a Cross Country Rider
from Orem, UT
Date Reviewed: June 1, 2000 | | Favorite Trail: | amassa back | | Duration Product Used: | 2 Years | | Strengths: | Relatively cheap. Stiff. Relatively light. Reliable. Easy to service. Quick engagement (rear hub). | | Weaknesses: | None that I can think of. | | Similar Products Used: | XTR, Chris King on bontrager race lites, shim lx. | | Bike Setup: | I've used these hubs/wheels on 3 different bikes. | | Bottom Line: | This is one of a few component purchases that I have been completely satisfied with. I got a great deal on these through Aardvark Cycles a couple years ago ($230 for the entire wheelset with a bontrager mustange ceramic rear they had lying around the shop). I have had the front hub re-laced once (pinch flat at 40mph toasted the first rim). I really like the quick engagement of the rear hub, which while not as fast as the Chris Kings is still about twice as fast as a shim xtr hub. Overall an excellent hub and well worth the money. | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Haoming Chang
a Racer
from Troy, MI USA
Date Reviewed: April 7, 2000 | | Favorite Trail: | anything urban assult | | Duration Product Used: | 6 months | | Strengths: | very smooth, very nice finish quality, GREAT price for what u get, very stif hubs, i have the disc w/ alu free hub body | | Weaknesses: | none right now, no lust factor in comparison w/ the kings on my road bike, but still they are pretty damm good looking | | Similar Products Used: | king, hope, real, ringle, hugi, white industries, spinergy, xtr, xt, lx | | Bike Setup: | spooky METALHEAD!!! 23" tt
z-1 QR 20 130mm travel
yeti Dh bar
ringle 40mm dh stem
ringle HS
ringle 20mm thruaxel front hub on mavic 217
esp 9.0 sl 8 speed w/ half pipe and xtr cass. pc-91 chain
rf bb
caramba double barrel cranx w/ 38 tooth ringle ring and spindoctor chainguide
syncros hardcore post, sdg bigboy saddle
real rear hub on mavic 521 w. dt 14-15's brass nips
salsa qr's 2 rears for qr 20 :P
hope O4 front disc, rear magura racline D- a hope pro will be on the back soon | | Bottom Line: | keep it REAL- great hubs, i think u can get a pair FULL price mailorder at cambria for $275-
im selling a front real disc on a 217 if anyones intersted... i had to go 20mm for my fork :(
super stiff hubs, i do alot of urban assult and dropoffs, wheelie drops etc, lots of stairs, ive been pounding these hubs for the last 4 or 5 months, and i love them, they spin smother than hell too
the rear is rather lite for a disc rear too-
email me at supermoose@hotmail.com for info
peaceout | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Gene
a Cross Country Rider
from Kansas City, MO
Date Reviewed: March 26, 2000 | | Favorite Trail: | Landahl Park , The Chubb | | Duration Product Used: | 6 months | | Strengths: | Front hub is doing fine after all I could throw at it and some might say my riding style lacks good judgement. Both hubs look great. | | Weaknesses: | Rear hub is another story, nothing but problems with it. The freehub body drags despite all attempts to adjust and/or lube. | | Similar Products Used: | Shimano XT | | Bike Setup: | Schwinn 4 Banger, Z1 BAM, XTR, Hayes. | | Bottom Line: | I work in a shop and I've spoken to the guys at Real and still can't figure out what's wrong with the rear hub. They gave me some tricks to try but nothing helped, I finally switched to the XT disc hub and it works great! I'm going to send the thing back to the guys at Real and I will update this bad review if they can fix it and if they take care of me. I can accept it may be a lemon but customer service is everything to me. Aftermarket prices are good on both hubs but for the money I'd go with Shimano. | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Uncle Fats
a Weekend Warrior
from NJ
Date Reviewed: February 17, 2000 | | Favorite Trail: | Ringwood | | Duration Product Used: | 1 Year | | Strengths: | Relatively light, strong, can hold disc's. | | Weaknesses: | none so far, but if you buy them seperate the disc hubs can be hard on the wallet. | | Similar Products Used: | DT Hugi/Hayes, XT, XTR, LX | | Bike Setup: | Schwinn Moab disc, hays hydros, XT with some LX, Titec stem/ bar, SDG saddles, Judy XL, 747's, X223 with real disc hubs. | | Bottom Line: | I'm a big boy who like to put the puttin' on the bike, and after a year of drops, longs and some DH, these hubs are holding up very well. | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Zoe
a Weekend Warrior
from Seattle, WA
Date Reviewed: February 7, 2000 | | Favorite Trail: | 911 | | Duration Product Used: | 1 Year | | Strengths: | Super machining
Light
Super duper easy to service
Super duper web site diagrams and tech help
Great seals | | Weaknesses: | Havent found one yet | | Similar Products Used: | Specialized, Cane Creek | | Bike Setup: | FSR / 5" travel link
Z1
Cane creek WAM in front
Real / Valiant rear | | Bottom Line: | I hate, hate, hate wrenching. Bleagh. However I rode this rear hub maintenance-free for eight months, and it wasnt until I took it through four hours of BB-deep puddles that the grease finally washed out and had to be replaced.
Haha, a squirrel monkey could service these. 2 allen keys and Presto! theyre apart; the website diagram and service instructions were detailed and exact, and I had a silky-smooth repacked hub before Frasier was over.
Eighteen chilies so far. | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Andy
a Racer
from Eden Prairie, MN
Date Reviewed: November 7, 1999 | | Favorite Trail: |
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