hub quandries (non-Profile)

Unicycles and Equipment
#1

i’ve noticed that when a non-splined hub is wanted,for some reason the Suzie is always chosen.is there anything about the Suzie that makes it better than a Semcycle hub?

Another question is,why does’nt anybody talk of getting the wider Semcycle Deluxe hub?

#2

Re: hub quandries (non-Profile)

Hey Jag,
10+ years ago the Sem hub was much better than the Suzue. Suzue has improved their quality and I’ve heard that the Sem hub isn’t as good as it used to be. A couple years ago there were some threads about hardness testing that people had done on several different hubs that verified this.

As far as the widness question, I prefer narrower hubs because it makes the uni easier to control. The wider everything is, the further apart your feet are and this makes it easier to wobble or harder to maintain a straight line. I also think one has a lot more control for hops and jumping when their feet are closer to the center of the wheel plane.

hope that helps.

#3

I think the Semcycle deluxe hubs are just wider flange to flange - this makes the wheels a liitle stronger but they’re more awkward to fit in chunky frames/bearing housings.

Leo White

#4

Re: Re: hub quandries (non-Profile)

boy that sounds familiar?i seem to remember a seat that was once highly prized.

thanx though,history always helps.

#5

Re: hub quandries (non-Profile)

>* I’ve heard that the Sem hub isn’t as good as it used to be. *

I’d like a little more info if anyone has it. Here’s what I remember. Geoffrey
Farraghan had tested the different hubs, and found that the old heat-treated
Semcycle Deluxes were the best. However, the maker had stopped heat treating
them (or was heat treating them poorly???). Geoffrey heat treated them himself,
and had them tested. In the “lab” his were the strongest.

Bruce Bundy was given the task of thrashing Geoffrey’s heat treated hubs as a
test. It took him some months, but he was able to kill them. This was all
pre-Profile.

I thought that Semcycle had gone back to heat treating the hubs. Does anybody
know the rest of the story?

David Maxfield
Bainbridge Island, WA

#6

I broke three XL hubs in about two years in the mid 90’s. Back then Sem was always talking about his hardened cranks and how this was much better than a hardened axle.

I then rebuilt my 20 with an old pashley cotter pin hub and it has been good since.