• What are the seals like on the XT hubs? LBS didn't seem to think much of them

    That's because they want to sell you £100 Hope hubs rather than £30 Shimano ones. The labyrinth seals on XT hub main bearings are probably better than the cartridge bearing seals on Hope or any other hub which uses standard industrial cartridge bearings. The weak spot on Shimano hubs from a sealing point of view tends to be the freewheel bearings, but they have to be rode hard and put up wet to be a real problem, and it's cheap to buy a new hub and do a guts transplant when they do fail.

  • Yep, I understand that the shop will try to upsell me. Its as much my own preconceptions that cartridge bearings are longer lasting than those used in the XT. Partly down to negative experience with the kinesis hubs themselves, which are poorly sealed

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