[el-cid]

OK, this may be a two-part question. First, some background. I'm looking to build up a stouter set of wheels for my Moots Mooto-X YBB 29er. It has a Fox F29 fork on it and is a bit noodly on the trails with my current wheelset under my 190-200lb. geared-up weight. I've been shopping hubs for a custom wheel build and came across a set of takeoff DT Swiss built Specialized hubs off an '11 Stumpjumper (see the attached picture). The front hub is an OS 28 hub with a DT RWS.

My question(s): can you use this front hub with the OS 28 end caps on a standard fork (i.e. my standard QR Fox F29)? It looks like the end caps are huge and might interfere with the standard dropouts.; and if not, can you swap standard DT Swiss QR 9 end caps on this hub?

Thanks for any input from the Specialized experts!

 

[el-cid]

OK, a little more beta. I pulled the front wheel off the Fox F29 fork and looked at the hub-end/for interface. There's a flat area machined/cast in the inside of the dropout. This flat area is exactly 1" or 25.4mm in diameter. If I was inclined I could probably dremel this flat area a little larger in diameter but I'm not so excited about this idea. It looks like the most practical solution is to determine whether the end caps can be swapped out.

 

[htj]

I believe the OS28 only fits on specialized and rock shox forks. Some of the specialized bikes comes with OS28 hubs on Reba forks at least.

If you buy a specialized wheel they will usually come with 24 mm end caps for running on fox forks, and end caps for QR15 as well.

Your LBS might be able to get some smaller end caps for the hubs. Maybe not.

 

[el-cid]

I'll check with the local Specialized dealer tomorrow and see what they know. Another thought that occured to me is that I could possibly take some off the outside edge of the front hub end caps (the difference in radius is less than 1.5mm). I may have nothing to lose trying that if I can still swap on other end caps...

 

[WR304]

You either need to replace the wheel caps, grind the wheelcaps down to a smaller diameter or flatten the fork drop outs slightly.

The best option would be to flatten the inside of the fork drop outs so that the 28mm wheelcaps fit. It looks like you could do it easily without weakening the fork at all.

The problem is that you'll void the warranty on the Fox fork. If that isn't a factor then flattening the drop out would be best.

 

[erlau]

If your goal is to increase the front end stiffness I don't think modifying the hub/fork are the best options. The OS28 setup (hub and compatible fork) are supposed to be fairly stiff but you will certainly be compromising their benefit if you get start Dremeling away material.

I would sell the fork and old wheelset. Buy a new 15mm QR fox and some 340 hubs laced to decent rims. This will certainly be more expensive but the best option for an improvement in stiffness.

 

[el-cid]

Yeah, that's a good point. I'm trying to make the most of what I have (especially since I hardly have any miles on the Fox fork and Crossmax 29 wheelset) because trying to recoup money selling parts sucks. Frankly, in my experience, that 9mm DT / Ritchey Skraxle / Specialized Stout front hub and QR setup is a very dramatic improvement over the standard QR front end setup. If I can't find quite what I want I just might sell my existing stuff off and start over with a QR 15 or Rock Shox maxle 20mm setup.

 

[Curious Yellow]

Sorry to resurrect this, but what was the outcome of this?

I am in a similar situation to you. I have purchased some Roval Control EL 26" wheels. I'm yet to mount them to my forks, but I'd like to know how you got on. The only difference is I've got an old pair of Rock Shox J1 forks on my bike.

I also saw an interesting article on this, but I cannot post it here because I'm new.

Try Google-ing Specialized, 29er, and Roval.tech interview.