-
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
chrismanc-
my own preconceptions that cartridge bearings are longer lasting than those used in the XT. Partly down to negative experience with the kinesis hubs
Don't the Kinesis hubs use generic industrial cartridge bearings, just as Hope do?
Cup and cone bearings allow more and/or bigger balls in the same space, so leaving the sealing arrangements aside for the moment, they last longer given the same manufacturing quality because they run at a lower fraction of their maximum load. Hub manufacturers who tout their cartridge bearings are mostly trying to make a virtue out of a necessity, because they lack the resources to manufacture bearings so they buy them in as cartridge assemblies which are easy to integrate into simplified hub shell designs.
gbj_tester
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.