I found a hub on Danscomp.com called the ECLET TECK FRONT HUB. I was wondering what the benefit’s or possible “fails” are of having a hub without flanges were.
From what I can speculate is that it would virtually eliminate any “flanges warping” (duh!) that some of the KH '07’s had. Then on the negative side I would guess more of the force would go directly into the spokes causing more chance for breaking and going out of true. But I really have no idea . What about you all, have any idea?
I am guessing that you have to take the hub shell off the axle to lace. That would be a pain to do with a unicycle as you also have bearings to deal with.
Having it removable like that would introduce yet another place where the hub would be likely to develop some slop over time. I could be totally wrong about removing the shell to lace though I don’t see how else to do it with that hub.
Spokes would be harder to get and you might have to have them custom cut.
In some situations it may be easier to replace a broken spoke. (spokes on the far side do not get in the way)
It would build a stronger wheel that stays true longer and does not require as much stress relieving after being built. (shorter break in period)
Seems like a really cool idea, high flanges are usually used to create a more rigid wheel so a wheel w/o flanges (or low flanges) would be noticeably more flexy than a hub with flanges similar to a normal uni hub. If you created an angled (high) flange hub designed for straight-pull spokes, all the spokes could load easily from the outside and create a strong wheel with good rigidity. The manufacturing process would require more machining, and might be slightly heavier, however the flanges could be made lighter (larger or more cutouts) due to the straight pull on the flange.
Actually, this hub does use normal spokes. They don’t come out of the hub radially, it’s designed for a 4-cross pattern (hence the offset holes… you wouldn’t need that for radial lacing). The shoulder of the spoke is the part that sits in the hole, and the spoke lays tangent to the outside of the hub. I saw one on my friend’s bmx bike a month or so ago… I think he said it’s great for not screwing up spokes during grinds.
Awesome design, but I think it’d be a little hard to make work with a unicycle hub.
EDIT: This is the one my friend has… I think it’s the company that first came out with the idea
That is a very cool Hub desing and I enjoyed the Idea.
I guess that a hub can be manufactured where an outer sleve slides on to the axle after the spokes have been interted. It could even be based on the ISIS standard! You therefore have an axle that has ISIS ridges on the whole length. You insert the spokes into the sleve, slide the sleve over the axle slide the bearings and spacers over the Axle and then attach the cranks. The radial lacing looks pretty cool but as mentioned above strait spokes would be even stronger. Once again a very cool Idea. I am still waiting to hear more about that 3 speed Fixie hub too! I think that we are going to see some really nice inovations in the next 5 years!
I dont there would be much of a difference, other than looks. You always bash your spokes some, and they always eventually seem to get a wrapped look around your flanges, so how would this be any different.
The wheel is a lot easier to lace up as the spokes just clip into the hub instead of you having to thread them through altho you can only use a 3 cross spoke pattern with the hub, the ride is no different to normal hubs