LeveL Hubs?

Arrr I have a leVel hub and its been fine since March this year untill.....Just before November I noticed the cog had worked itself loose; so I re-tightened the bolts and applied some 243 thinking no problem, its just the torque causing the bolts to work loose. Yesterday rolling along and suddenly woomph the cog had popped a bolt (I was skidding at the time) the chain came off and duly wrapped around the cog and rear stays. My chain is now ruined, plus I have grave fears about my hub. The only other hub similar is the londonfixiebike.co.uk system with 6 bolts. Do I change my hub in the hope that more bolts means more durability? Or do I stay with LeVel and hope that changing the sprockett and bolts reguraly i.e every 5 months is the solution?
I ride around 6-8 hours a week+ no brakes.

generally a well look after fixed wheel bike won´t need to have it´s cog and lockring change every 5 months.

Vell I clean my bike and chain etc regurarly so apart from my cog popping off when I go to stop things are great!

Unlike the London Fixie system where the cog bolts onto a disc mount, the bolts on the LeVeL hub system are only there to hold the cog onto the hub, they do not carry rotational load or transmit the forces associated with peddling. This is done by the three big sections that protrude into the cog (not sure what you'd call them). I've been using a LeVeL for 4 years now without a single problem.

As noted above, they are a little heavy and overbuilt for road use, which is not surprising when they were developed for off road use in the first place.

Oh, and in answer to Pip's post: They also have a 45mm chainline, which puts me straight off.
This is only partly true. The cog is asymetric so by flipping it the hub can have a 45mm chainline or a 52mm chainline. HTH.

some one corner the market in level proprietry cogs

thats some properly good information there AdamM. Especially the chainline, i think people will find that info useful.

Damn it, I got it wrong. This is what happens when you go from memory rather than checking the facts... just double checked the LeVeL website and the chainline is 45mm or 52mm fixed, 48mm for the freewheel thread.

My bad, sorry about that.

LeVeL website here: http://levelcomponents.com/index.html

The most exciting piece of news on the LeVeL website is this: **Industry Nine **is working on our next prototype. A lighter version hub having the Level cog interface and the I9 spoke flange system.

http://levelcomponents.com/images/level%20nine.jpg

Unlike the London Fixie system where the cog bolts onto a disc mount, the bolts on the LeVeL hub system are only there to hold the cog onto the hub, they do not carry rotational load or transmit the forces associated with peddling. This is done by the three big sections that protrude into the cog (not sure what you'd call them). I've been using a LeVeL for 4 years now without a single problem.

They call it a Knuckle.

Great hub.

Hi would be interested to hear if people have any thoughts about level hubs now they have been around for a few years? How are they in terms of durability and for maintenance with changing bearings, etc. ?

Thanks

Cog availability would be my concern.

This thread is 14 years old, are the hubs and cogs still made? Is it only what the likes of Hubjub have in stock that’s left?

The website and Instagram page still seem pretty active

I’ve corresponded with the owner a few times this year. He’s still actively selling and having the hubs/sprockets/etc. produced. They’re machined in a small machine shop in Massachusetts where they’ve been made since the beginning and he does the final assembly.

As for sprocket availability, just buy several. They’ll last and last.

I tried to buy a rear hub recently but got there too late. They’d just sold out.