# Chris King Hubs



## kdc1956 (Feb 5, 2010)

Price for a set of Chris King Hubs for my BD build will run 568.00 and free shipping.
Would you spend this much for a set of hubs?It would be nice to know you have the best hubs out here but man the price but I guess you get what you pay right.Has any one else spent this much for hubs on there BD or am I spending to much?:madman:


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## Keener (Feb 25, 2005)

Every body who put a rohloff on there BD spent almost 2 X that for "just" the rear hub. 

And I for one and happy I did


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## kdc1956 (Feb 5, 2010)

Keener you are so right I forget about that part on a BD.Well guess it's time to save a little more money you know what they say easy come easy go.Man the money I am spending on my new ride oh well it's mine and my last build too so I know I will have a lot of fun on this BD.Thanks for your input.This has help me out more than you know.


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## sfuller (Jan 14, 2007)

I would say that if you want something nicer than standard XT hubs, look at DT Swiss. With the cheap 32 pawl upgrade added, they are just as nice as Kings and cheaper (IMO). I have XT on my BD and Fargo, I have Kings on my La Cruz and DT Swiss 240s on my Dos Niner.


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## 3fast3furious (Dec 10, 2010)

I love my kings man. Best hubs I've had and they are easy to service


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## Leopold Porkstacker (Apr 21, 2010)

I just bought a Hope II rear hub to replace an ailing Shimano XT rear hub (less than 300 miles and it’s doing the naughty pawl thing), $212, yes, I am learning the hard way; ought probably have gone the Chris King route instead.


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## kdc1956 (Feb 5, 2010)

Leopold Porkstacker said:


> I just bought a Hope II rear hub to replace an ailing Shimano XT rear hub (less than 300 miles and it's doing the naughty pawl thing), $212, yes, I am learning the hard way; ought probably have gone the Chris King route instead.


Man I hate to hear that about the Hope pro 2 hubs I was thinking about them too.But just a few more dollars and I can have what I hope to be the best hub out here.How much weight do you have your BD loaded up with? I have heard only good things about the Hope pro 2 could it be your chain line is out to far? My LHT was like that until I went with a 118mm BB it came with a 117mm BB stock.Let me know what you find out about your hubs.My LBS was little help with my LHT so that alone made me learn how to work on my bikes after I learn it is now so easy and I feel so much better that I don't need any help on doing work on it.Hope you get your hub problem work out soon I am like you I hate to wast money over and over but like you I am learning too.Good luck man.:madman:


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## ChrisJ (Aug 15, 2005)

I have a set on my Air9 worth every penny I think.....my commuter has some beat to death no name Specalized road wheels.


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## cowboygrrl (Jan 20, 2011)

Keener said:


> Every body who put a rohloff on there BD spent almost 2 X that for "just" the rear hub.


But offset, some, by not having to buy shifters and derailleurs.


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## TheTwanksta (Feb 26, 2011)

Love my kings, especially helpful with a low bottom bracket when you need to "ratchet" up some technical climbs where big pedal strokes are not possible.


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## sfuller (Jan 14, 2007)

TheTwanksta said:


> Love my kings, especially helpful with a low bottom bracket when you need to "ratchet" up some technical climbs where big pedal strokes are not possible.


'Cause when I'm ratcheting a technical climb, it's almost always on my cargo bike.


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## TheTwanksta (Feb 26, 2011)

sfuller said:


> 'Cause when I'm ratcheting a technical climb, it's almost always on my cargo bike.


Sorry for the bad terminology.. :thumbsup:


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## Toff (Sep 11, 2004)

I have 2 sets of King hubs and love them.

One set is old, the classic version and a set of the ISOs.

Yes they are pricey but if you appreciate well engineered items that last and are user rebuildable then they are well worth the money.

They are safe to buy used as well if you can find a decently priced set.


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## Guest (Oct 20, 2011)

I've recently discovered the lightweight, high quality White Industry hubs. They are competetive with weight and for the price you can't beat them for high quality, made in USA hubs. 
I've had a few king hubs. They are nice but pricy, and I feel like I was always working on them. 
My favorite hubs are phils but they are even more expensive.


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## trevorrr (Feb 9, 2011)

White Ind are my favourite for road - best combination of quality weight and price. Haven't tried the MTB hubs though.


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## kdc1956 (Feb 5, 2010)

miwuksurfer said:


> I've recently discovered the lightweight, high quality White Industry hubs. They are competetive with weight and for the price you can't beat them for high quality, made in USA hubs.
> I've had a few king hubs. They are nice but pricy, and I feel like I was always working on them.
> My favorite hubs are phils but they are even more expensive.


Thanks for the heads up I have look into the White Ind Hubs and they are not to bad of a price For the MTB Hub in black is about 255.00 about half of a King Hub Now I need to do a real good search about them before I make up my mind what next hubs I will be buying.Thanks for all the input ever one put in to this forum.


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## Plum (Sep 14, 2004)

kdc1956 said:


> Thanks for the heads up I have look into the White Ind Hubs and they are not to bad of a price For the MTB Hub in black is about 255.00 about half of a King Hub Now I need to do a real good search about them before I make up my mind what next hubs I will be buying.Thanks for all the input ever one put in to this forum.


White makes a tandem rated hub too, I think it's the M16. Would be worth the premium over the regular model IMHO, all you can do to get beef in the rear hub is worth it. My XT's have been fine so far, but are probably the weak link in my drivetrain..

Plum


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## gmats (Apr 15, 2005)

Aloha,

Have you considered buying a used wheel set and dismantling and building up with the new spokes and rims? 

There are a lot of options out there when it comes to excellent hubs. I have been using Kings for many years on many of my builds. It's very muddy and wet here in Hawaii and I have yet to ever replace a bearing on any of the hubs. But yes, they are very expensive. 

Good luck with the decision and search.


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## bdcain (Oct 26, 2009)

I own a over 10 year old front
and yet to sevice it
and I pull big heavy loads
like this
homemade bike trailer in lovetrain action handmade bicycle trailers - YouTube

rear is spot first year disk

and never had to service either!
see my other vids for more trailers


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## customfab (Jun 8, 2008)

bdcain said:


> I own a over 10 year old front
> and yet to sevice it
> and I pull big heavy loads
> like this
> ...


I love it when people buy nice stuff and neglect it!


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## Mendobikesprite (Nov 19, 2009)

*Whats the first thing people do to there cargo bike*

Over load it! Not good for high performance hubs! I have broken XT hubs at the cassette and would recommend a Phil Wood for more weight carrying or use mid level hubs and repair as needed, cheaper.:thumbsup:


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## Acrophobe (Oct 29, 2011)

industry nines for me..tho no cargo bike experience, here is my findings:

There ia huge difference in engagement, depending on how and what you ride it can be worth the extra $400. I have had $100 hubs, no more tho. I ride alot of AM, XC and some DH.

fwiw, Have had or currently own Hope, Shimano XTR, Hadley, I9, and Chris King. 

CK's are pretty reliable, tho in my experience they have more drag than any other of my wheels, unless I go really light on the preload, which induces a ever so slight wobble. When preloaded correctly(by me or even my lbs), they have more drag that I like, tho its negligible on the trail. The XTR stuff had the shortest over all life, ie. after 6 years the races in the hubshell were pitted. My hadley is on year 7. Same as new.

My I9s have the least complexity and a few bearings and can be serviced at home easily. Not so with the kings. I havent had to touch my hadley or i9. King needs a periodic bearing adjustment even after 4 years of 'break in'.

Would I buy CK again yes but I'd put I9s first. XTR? no. Cleaning the freehub on XTR is a pain.

That said, Hadley, I9 and Chris King are worth every penny if you ask me.


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## customfab (Jun 8, 2008)

nugjug said:


> Over load it! Not good for high performance hubs! I have broken XT hubs at the cassette and would recommend a Phil Wood for more weight carrying or use mid level hubs and repair as needed, cheaper.:thumbsup:


Yeah, cargo bikes should really be using tandem rear hubs.


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## Chuey83 (Feb 2, 2010)

Check out Hadley's...American made goodness!


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## johnny settle (Mar 10, 2011)

I'm already too nervous leaving my BD anywhere with full XT on it, I use two u-locks and a cable w/padlock for the Brooks saddle. Putting a $600 pair of hubs on it would make my hair fall out, and break out in blisters! By all means buy some Chris King or DT or Hope hubs, but put them on your niner.


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## BungedUP (Aug 18, 2003)

I have a set of ISO CK hubs, and they are ok. I'm not particularly impressed by them - they look sorta cool, but even then, I sometimes look at them and don't find them very attractive. They are fine, don't get me wrong. They are well made, but I don't think that they are worth the asking price based strictly on performance and maintenance. I do like US made products, and that was one of the original motivations for me when buying them. Heck - I'll sell them (150 x 12 rear, 100 x 20 front) laced to some Mavic 729 rims for the price of the hubs - I'd be happy to be rid of them. 

In my mind, for a heavy duty hub, the Shimano Saint is where its at. They are the go-to hub for just about all my MTBs. They are tough, not super heavy, VERY attractive (IMO), and not super expensive, though not cheap. They don't get cassettes jammed into the freehub like Hope's do (I have 2 sets of those, which otherwise I like, though very loud) also.


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## Lone Desert Walker (Sep 15, 2011)

*$500 for a hub?*

I'm sorry but F that. Maybe its because I couldnt afford them if I wanted to but $500 for a hub? You could buy a complete Yuba Mundo for the cost of those hubs and do everything and maybe more than you could with the BD. Of course this is just personal opinion. But what is the marginal benifit of the 400 extra dollars spent on a $500 hub Vs. a $100 hub? To me after you spend about $100 the little differences in quality are nominal and mostly in your head. Just saying...


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## ThreeD (Feb 7, 2008)

I've got a set of Phil Wood hubs for my SS and love them. Expensive, YES, but I believe it to be worth it. It's your bike, if you want to spend $5.00 or $1000 on hubs then do it. It's a passion is it not.


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## Lone Desert Walker (Sep 15, 2011)

*Well....*



ThreeD said:


> I've got a set of Phil Wood hubs for my SS and love them. Expensive, YES, but I believe it to be worth it. It's your bike, if you want to spend $5.00 or $1000 on hubs then do it. It's a passion is it not.


Well I guess we all have our passion.:thumbsup:


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## SSSasky (Mar 17, 2004)

I'm going to side with the minority here and say that high performance hubs are not the same thing as heavy duty hubs. No way would I run something like Chris King on a cargo bike.

I'd take some Shimano XTs or SLX for sure. Proven durability, completely rebuildable, and not too expensive / borderline cheap. 

Are they as light or as fancy as Kings? Nope. Lightning fast engagement? Nope. Tough as hell? Yep.

A car analogy - just because a Ferrari is faster or more expensive doesn't make it a suitable workhorse vehicle. If you are going to overload and pound the s**t out of a work vehicle, you are way better off with an old mechanical pickup or SUV.

So, is your BD a sports car, or a utility vehicle?


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## kdc1956 (Feb 5, 2010)

SSSasky said:


> I'm going to side with the minority here and say that high performance hubs are not the same thing as heavy duty hubs. No way would I run something like Chris King on a cargo bike.
> 
> I'd take some Shimano XTs or SLX for sure. Proven durability, completely rebuildable, and not too expensive / borderline cheap.
> 
> ...


I like the way you think:thumbsup:


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## Kev-Bot (Jun 7, 2010)

I'm going to disagree with you. 
King hubs have one of, if not the most durable - highest torque carrying hub engagement designs of any brand. They also feature some of the highest quality bearings I've ever seen in the bike world (I work with industrial bearings of all types and grades). Paired with a HD stainless bolt on axle, and stainless drive shell, it's really hard to find a better high load hub for any cargo bike.


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## Acrophobe (Oct 29, 2011)

Industry Nine boasts the highest torque in the Industry...


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## anotherbrian (Mar 18, 2005)

*Cargo bike == utility bike or garage queen?*

If the bike is going to be a utility bike, and you run errands that require you to leave the bike unattended, I think it is foolish to put any high zoot components on the bike. You're either going to have to haul around enough chains and locks to keep everything secure or you'll have to suffer the angst (and potential replacement cost) of the parts being gone when you come back.

I've always bought/built expensive wheels for my bikes (CK, DT Swiss, Hadley), and I had a very hard time bringing myself to put a ~$100/pair of wheels (pre-built, bought at Performance, Deore M525 hubs, Rhyno Lite rims) on my Big Dummy. I did though, and am very happy with the decision. No more worrying about locking it up for an hour out of sight in front of Home Depot or Walmart, and no more lugging around a chain long enough to reach the wheels.

The M525's are very low end Deore hubs (~$35 for rear hub mailorder?), but I haven't bent any axles riding off the curbs, and haven't broken any pawls wrangling 400lbs+ of bike+rider+passengers up the hill that leads to our house. They look so cheap (at least the rear is hidden by the bags) and weigh so much (not in comparison to everything else though), but that's been forgotten.


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## SSSasky (Mar 17, 2004)

Kev-Bot said:


> I'm going to disagree with you.
> King hubs have one of, if not the most durable - highest torque carrying hub engagement designs of any brand. They also feature some of the highest quality bearings I've ever seen in the bike world (I work with industrial bearings of all types and grades). Paired with a HD stainless bolt on axle, and stainless drive shell, it's really hard to find a better high load hub for any cargo bike.


I definitely believe you about the strength of the King hubs. I guess my car analogy is a bit of a stretch in that regard. However, I do think the cost / benefit ratio is a bit off for King hubs in the case of a cargo bike. As 'anotherbrian' said, most cargo bikes are left outside, locked for long periods of time, and generally abused (in the best possible sense of the word). I just don't see the point in putting a super high-zoot hub on a bike like that.

The XT/SLX hubs have proven themselves to be extremely durable in a cargo application. A replacement BD wheel thread a while ago showed like 80% of people using XT hubs. Whatever the strength / torque gains a King / I9 / ??? hub may offer don't seem to be enough to make it noticeable.

Something to consider - part cost is a 'feature', especially in the world of utility bikes.

I bet the majority of cargo bike owners who are active on MTBR have at least some experience with high end hubs, and I bet most of those people choose to run more affordable hubs on their cargo bikes (I'm guessing here, obviously, but from the posts I've read around here, I don't think I'm far off).

All that being said - if you have the personal resources to run beautiful, strong, USA made hubs on a utility bike - more power to you. While I don't desire a lot of bike bling, I certainly can't fault others for getting it. It's hawt!


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## SSSasky (Mar 17, 2004)

Here's the thread I was talking about:

http://forums.mtbr.com/cargo-bikes/wheelset-big-dummy-733253.html

2 Rohloffs, 1 Phil, and a whole bunch of Deore/XT hubs. (I count 10 votes for Deore / XT, which puts my 80% guess not far off)

A number of the folks posting on the thread have some pretty high end bikes and bling, and could probably afford higher end hubs if they wanted.

Look at Devo for instance. He has a custom Hunter 29er, a Puglsey, and a BD (and more?). He's got some pretty high end stuff on all of his bikes, and has certainly shown a willingness to invest money where it's deserved. He's also got more mileage on his BD than most owners combined probably do, and he has settled on XT wheels as his go-to.


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## mcphoto (Nov 23, 2011)

Hi
New here but have a 1996 AC APX Chub hub which they (Adventure components ) make. I do a lot of work on bikes but this rear hub has me stumped on how to pull it apart? The rear free hub is slipping plus making noises still works...just. Has anyone worked on these hubs..


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## gregclimbs (Sep 21, 2006)

as the owner of one of those expensive wheelsets (rohloff/son dyno hubset)...

Let me see if I can address some of this discussion.

The original question was "are CK hubs up to the task?"

I think most agree they are and that you might want to consider the HD axle and/or stainless cassette body.

As to the cost of my dummy, well, I can/could afford to do it. Or, more importantly, I chose to spend what I did on my dummy because *I* valued it and wanted it. I made it my priority.

Do I worry about it being stolen? Not much. It is garaged. When I lock it somewhere, it is on a new york chain.

And honestly, the rohloff is buried under the freeloaders. And how many folks know what a son28disc dyno hub is anyway? Much less what it is worth. Hell, most cyclists I know don't know what it is or what it is worth much less a thief.

That said. Anything can be stolen. You just have to make your bike the less available target (hence the NYChain). Add to that the fact that the dummy is so unusual (probably difficult to turn for a theif) and that mine is custom colored, makes it easy to identify/unique.

And worse case scenario? I have homeowners insurance that covers the bike.

So, to the OP, if you want to run CK hubs and can...go for it.

If you are one of the people *****ing about others with spendy bikes/hubs/parts, you just sound petty and jealous.

Spend as much as you can/want to afford on your bike. Whatever kind of bike that is. As long as it makes it into something you want to ride. And then ride the poop out of it.


g


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## Agent Koala (Feb 17, 2011)

Totally agree with you, _gregclimbs_.

If it makes you wanna ride (& if it doesn't prevent you to buy food), do it !


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## mtb143 (Aug 26, 2007)

+1 for Hadley hubs. Best hubs I've ever used. Very interested in White Industries stuff too - they were recommended by a highly reputed wheelbuilder as a bargain high-end hub. Nothing wrong with CK, DT, I9 etc. - all good choices. It's nice to live in a time when there are so many good bike options out there


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## nubcake (Nov 16, 2007)

Chris Kings in my experience are the most durable hub made right now. I have had to replace parts in every single other brand of high end up, especially I9, their bearings just do not hold up well.

The only times there have been problems with a king hub it was almost always due to lack of maintenance and reviving it only took cleaning and greasing, no replacement of parts at all.

With that being said I did not put kings on my Xtracycle because at this point in my life it was out of my budget, I looked for a killer deal on ebay to no avail though... I ended up buying a wheelset with mavic 321(?) rims and sram x7 hubs. I wanted cartridge bearings and have had bad luck with shimano freehub bodies in the past so I did not trust the shimano's to heavy loads up big hills when I have a 22x36 gearing option.

I would say if you have the cash go for it, they will be the last hubs you ever "need" to buy. Get the stainless axle and freehub as well, then you could save a little cash down the road running cheap cassettes.


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## Leopold Porkstacker (Apr 21, 2010)

Finally got my Hope II Pro + 65mm wide Surly Large Marge build back from the local reputable wheelbuilder here in San Jose, CA. Wow, this rear freehub is NOISY! I like it, since I won’t have the always rely on nailing the 120psi truck/marine horns before passing people on the local MUT; they’ll hear the clickety clicktey clickety clickety clickety noise long before I am within collision distance of them.


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## nubcake (Nov 16, 2007)

Leopold Porkstacker said:


> Finally got my Hope II Pro + 65mm wide Surly Large Marge build back from the local reputable wheelbuilder here in San Jose, CA. Wow, this rear freehub is NOISY! I like it, since I won't have the always rely on nailing the 120psi truck/marine horns before passing people on the local MUT; they'll hear the clickety clicktey clickety clickety clickety noise long before I am within collision distance of them.


Funny you say that because before I got a bell and didn't feel like saying on your left all the time I would just coast or back pedal on my bike with kings. Not quite as loud as hopes but it was usually enough for them to look back before I am close.


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