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Current state of Novatec hubs?

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#122 ·
Can’t speak for anybody else, but my hub never came loose. The bearings were always tight and smooth. Then in the middle of a climb, boom, pop, and the engagement ring for the freehub cracks in multiple places. Definitely not a maintenance issue.
 
#123 ·
stinkydogfart said:
Can't speak for anybody else, but my hub never came loose. The bearings were always tight and smooth. Then in the middle of a climb, boom, pop, and the engagement ring for the freehub cracks in multiple places. Definitely not a maintenance issue.
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Same here. Never got a loose wheel/skewer and the axle broke in the middle of the trail.

The SRAM 900 that I'm using now have the exact same concept with loose endcaps, but outlasted the novatecs by a good margin. Maybe it's all about the steel axle, but who knows.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6013 using Tapatalk
 
#124 ·
mLeier said:
The hubs are the D162SB 12-148 Boost hubs and not one of them has lasted more than a couple of weeks.
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D162SB are hot garbage. They mimic lowest grade Shimano hubs and have only two pawls in them. They are equivalent of Altus/Acera level hubs. Those things _will_ break, eventually.

Guy.Ford said:
Having read several, because there are literally tons of people on this forum alone who have complained about their Novatec hubs, threads I knew the issues and was able to take preemptive measures to make sure my hubs worked flawlessly.
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I'll disagree out of principle. New stuff should work fine. Loctite should not be required and expecting customers to know intricaties of a particular part is not reasonable.

Guy.Ford said:
Axle doesn't break, see this is just more of the same bs. You say axle break and now people think that's a thing.
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Not really. The axle breaking off somewhere around the shell inner bearing is a classic failure mode of those hubs. And all rear hubs that share that bearing layout. So DTs, Hopes, I9s as well. That is because those hubs are, essentially, screw-on freewheels in a nicer package.

Chinese/Taiwanese hubs suffer from this problem the most, because they often chase low weight at any cost, and end up not testing their products to the full extent.

Novatec in particular had a run of bad aluminum freehubs, which would self destruct, or axles which were too thin.

But. Novatec, or Joy Industries ( brand owner ) is a major producer of OEM stuff, so their hubs are, literally, everywhere. So the number of failures reported is very likely also tied to the volume of wheels sold with their products.
 
#125 ·
I did the loktite thing. But then I couldn't get the endcaps off anymore without mangling them.
So that method may extend the life a bit, or may just be snake oil. But it has a good chance of making service or warranty claims impossible.

Life is too short for bad hardware.
 
#126 ·
BluePitch said:
Apparently my freehub body is cast aluminum. The pawls are harder than the aluminum and its causing deformation of that aluminum. My inner ring is wearing where the aluminum is being pushed out.

View attachment 1207540

View attachment 1207541

View attachment 1207542
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Chalk up another unhappy novatec owner, d462 hub blew up on me last night after 200km of riding. Low grade aluminum in the free hub broke away, causing chunks of aluminum to float around and the pawls to not engage.
 
#129 ·
shoots said:
Yes, but to get one shipped to Canada it's $100 and I'll have to wait forever. I'm thinking I'll just go to a local shop and replace the whole hub. I may just order the steel cassette body just to have this hub as a back up.
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Can't tell if this is steel or aluminum body. The color looks different than yours so maybe? Not sure what their shipping to Canada costs but I've ordered from them in the US and it was $5 and less than 1 week to get an xd driver for my fat hubs.
https://www.bdopcycling.com/Wheel Parts-FREEHUBS XD642SB-B12 and XD642SB-X12.asp
 
#130 ·
Does anyone have an update on the D792SB. I was leaning toward ordering for a lightweight wheel build for my wife, but am hesitant because novatec's 2018 catalog shows it as a road hub. Given her weight (under 110) I think it should be ok with an aluminum axle. Any opinions?
 
#132 ·
Desertride said:
Does anyone have an update on the D792SB. I was leaning toward ordering for a lightweight wheel build for my wife, but am hesitant because novatec's 2018 catalog shows it as a road hub. Given her weight (under 110) I think it should be ok with an aluminum axle. Any opinions?
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Should be fine. In my case, it broke pretty early but I'm very big at 270 lb, and I don't ride easy.

Just make sure it fits her bike.
 
#133 ·
fmendes said:
Should be fine. In my case, it broke pretty early but I'm very big at 270 lb, and I don't ride easy.

Just make sure it fits her bike.
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It shouldn't be a problem fitting her bike. On the other hand I'm still a bit worried given that it is listed as a road bike component and your experience. Did you have a steel axle and freehub body?

In the end I decided to take a chance on a set straight from aliexpress for about 76usd. This is an experimental attempt to build a set of decent light and wide wheels for well under $200 and if they come out well I'll be happy to have used hubs with interchangeable axles so I can keep them long term.
 
#134 ·
Desertride said:
On the other hand I'm still a bit worried given that it is listed as a road bike component and your experience. Did you have a steel axle and freehub body?
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No, it was a completely stock hub. When it broke I decided to go to a solution that would be good out of the box. As someone said, life is too short to use bad parts. Just what was bad for me not necessarily will be bad for someone else.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6013 using Tapatalk
 
#135 ·
shoots said:
for anyone thats looking for a steel freehub body for the d462 hub you can find the entire hub or just the body on aliexpress.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33029549744.html?spm=a2g0o.cart.0.0.37ad3c00pk2BIm

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32988408732.html?spm=a2g0o.cart.0.0.37ad3c00pk2BIm
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both of my novatec hubs rear hubs ( 2009 20015) have steel axle/ and steel freehub--and man both of the free hubs still look totally shiny new.
and other then some bearing changes( original bearings suck) they work just fine.

yes they are heavier--but not a weight weenie here.
 
#136 ·
My novatec hub on my smuggler is alloy, and has quite a few bite marks from the cassette. This is because the ratchet ring has numerous chipped teeth and skips/jumps teeth occasionally. Only approx. 400-500kms old.

Emailed Novatec, they replied within a day and have sent out replacement parts under warranty. So for me good customer service.

Hopefully the replacement parts last longer [emoji120][emoji1696][emoji2369]
Image


Sent from my INE-LX2 using Tapatalk
 
#137 ·
JB450 said:
My novatec hub on my smuggler is alloy, and has quite a few bite marks from the cassette. This is because the ratchet ring has numerous chipped teeth and skips/jumps teeth occasionally. Only approx. 400-500kms old.

Emailed Novatec, they replied within a day and have sent out replacement parts under warranty. So for me good customer service.

Hopefully the replacement parts last longer [emoji120][emoji1696][emoji2369]

Sent from my INE-LX2 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
How did you press out the ratchet ring?
 
#138 ·
With my fingers [emoji2369] mine didn't have any slop/play. But when I put even pressure either side of the ID with my fingers I was able to ease it out. The OD is missing some of it coating, maybe this is why mine wasn't a tight fit.

Sent from my INE-LX2 using Tapatalk
 
#139 ·
So bit of an update. As I said my existing ratchet ring just pulled out using my fingers.

The new one had to be pressed in. Hydraulic press handy at this point. Just goes to show there was something really wrong with my original ratchet ring.

Sent from my INE-LX2 using Tapatalk
 
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