Many people who run pneumatic tires use hubs made out of some kind of plastic, especially from MBS or Trampa and there are a bunch of options in aluminum with more coming soon. Other than aesthetics and cost, what are some of the benefits and downsides to each?
I was thinking that the additional weight is the main issue with metal hubs (with an impact on handling?). I can’t think of anything concrete in terms of benefits from the additional rigidity they offer.
What do you all think? What are some reasons to use metal hubs over plastic?
If you are gonna be beating up the board then metal is better, for general use the plastic hubs will works, but TB hubs tend to have poor tolerances, MBS hubs are pretty decent
I can also vouche for mbs hubs. They yet to fail me in any aspect. Kaly’s hubs are great as well. Have a set of his wides and love them. Again yet to fail me. Trampa hubs are an option as well. Have 2 sets but cant speak on them as I havent ridden them.
I’m curious about that too. MBS seem to handle jumping and everything else people throw at them, and maybe they’re preferable because they make it marginally easier to jump? @Andy87 might have some advice to impart as well.
I’ve had a couple MBS hubs sidewalls crack from running low PSI and hitting cracks. Not a fault of the hubs- they are otherwise good… But definitely a plus for metal hubs that probably wouldn’t crack from this.
I would only purchase metal hubs for the aesthetics factor. Otherwise, I just dont see the point on spending extra on something that has more parts and is heavier. This is just comparing trampa hubs, idk about other metal/plastic hubs.
Not a big deal and probably quite rare - I had a mild bearing failure (steel, 7 ball) that I thought I’d be able to ride ~0.5 miles back on. Rode back just fine with clicking noise, but it ended up melting the bearing seat pretty bad to the point it was no longer useable. Evolve plastic hub I believe.
If you are staying on terra firma, then metal has some real advantages. Metal eliminates any tire and tube offbalances. It eliminates much of the need for precision trucks. It MUCH better keeps side tweaks out of the bearings. It will roll MUCH easier. It makes the ride smoother, as there is some heft to move up and down. Wont heat up as much. Will wear far better. And the possibility of going tubeless in some future. Tires roll more correctly central. IT works, to make off throttle smooth and sustain a coast. Not so jumpy.
Keeping the bearings square to the wheel, has many advantages. Sloppy squareness causes friction, and wobbly wear. It is for the same reasons, you use speed rings, and spacers.
As much as I’d like to agree, wobble still exists in metal hubs. The tire will cause it, the valve will cause it, the wear on the tire will cause it. It does help, but that due to the precision work done to the hubs and not their constitution
I feel like even a plastic hub spun on a CNC will run true as well, since any tolerance issues with plastic wheels generally come from the casting process, and a cast metal wheel would likely behave similarly. We don’t really see any CNC GFN wheels though, even though I feel like they should exist.