Best budget mtb hubs

hey people :] im thinking about making the switch from a track to a mtb rear hub and was wondering what the best of the budget hubs came to mind? thanks

Will you be re-spacing your frame too?

yep thats the plan - got a quote from my lbs and it seems decent. im thinking about the shimano deore m525?

They're gonna cold set it? Are you still going to be singlespeed? You might run into chainline issues, seems like an odd thing to do unless you have a very specific reason.

All the shimano stuff is fine, although I recently picked up an XT for not much more than the deore.

yeah ive been checking the XTs unfortunatley they're way out of my price range, but ill have a look on the 'bay...maybe ill strike lucky! Oh n yeah, indeed I am going for a cold setting job. Its an steel frame and he reckons it can be donw quite easily. im still going to be running ss but it all depends if i can find a hub on the cheap! have you had any experience with novatechs?

If you are still running singlespeed and want to do things on the cheap, why do this? I do not understand your reasoning.

Not personally, but they make a lot of other peoples stuff so doubt they can be too bad.

Wheelies do XT for £33ish or SLX for £29, deore are about £20 ain't they? Probably worth the extra few quid for the better seals and (not 100% sure) quicker engagement on the freehub.

thanks man! youre right, i need to be spending a bit more on a hub for sure. Ill have a look at the links you listed. cheers otter! :]

Still want to know why you are doing this, you could probably spend less on a decent freewheel. WI or suttin.

well the frame is a old steel type thats been hanging around in my shed doin nout but takin up space :[ its quite thin (think genesis) and i thought, why not do somethin with it. Ive already got a ss mtb conversion kit from years back that i want to use but it will only fit onto a mtb hub freewheel. im only going to use it around my area, nothing too taxing like offroad stuff - prolly a bunnyhop or two, but thats it! hopefully it will be fun to ride :]

Why will it only fit on MTB freehub? Sure it won't fit on a road freehub too? I'll admit I don't know a lot about modern MTB freehubs, but older stuff is entirely interchangeable.

If you go retro, you can pick up old Deore hubs for next-to-nothing, and they're excellent quality - forged hub bodies with nicely sealed cup-and-cone bearings.

thanks for the headsup! in answer to your question about fitting; its b'coz the ss cog and spacers have teeth, that slide over the freehub body, rather than screw threads that go onto a track hub (might be wrong but i believe theres no other way around this?)

A lot of road freehubs have the same fitting.

really?! /facepalm.jpeg
well ive ordered the hub now (!) hoping i havent made a massive mistake here (but it should work?)

but thanks again for the recommendations fellas

snottyotters like a terrier that won't let go isn't he

just answer the question sulaco

why do you want this why WHY ?

thanks for the headsup! in answer to your question about fitting; its b'coz the ss cog and spacers have teeth, that slide over the freehub body, rather than screw threads that go onto a track hub (might be wrong but i believe theres no other way around this?)

As snottyotter said, the majority of road and mountain hubs use the 'freehub' system, and AFAIK even modern Shimano stuff is interchangeable (i.e. you can put a mountain-bike cassette on a road freehub... for base models anyway, perhaps not fancy Dura-Ace stuff). Screw-on freewheel/sprocket stuff is old technology, basically - only used on the track and on vintage bikes.

Yeah I think dura ace and some of the saint/zee stuff is different, although part of that is probably the 150mm spacing on some of them. Also, WHY?

Ooh, screw on stuff is still very common, probably more so than freehub stuff, it's just on all the budget bikes people on here tend not to ride or the track stuff they do.

Budget road hub with shimano freewheel is the way to go. Better chainline, and less bending of the frame.

Mmhmm. I would say search around on here or retrobike for a cheap 80s/90s road wheelset, something like MA40 rims on Deore hubs, for about fifty quid. You might get lucky and find some handbuilt ones. Then you can either use your existing SS kit, or buy a freewheel, depending on whether the wheelset is freehub or screw-on freewheel. Older road freehubs are 130mm and will sit in a 126mm frame with only the very slightest amount of cold-setting required.

Advantage of a freehub is that you can tweak chainline by moving the sprocket/spacers around. Plus it's inherently stronger, but not much of a concern unless you're racing or touring. Screw-on freewheels don't have much going for them, unless you can find a decent secondhand screw-on wheelset for significantly less money than a decent secondhand freehubbed wheelset.

why do you want this why WHY ?

Also, WHY?

d'oh! i wasnt clear at all, was I? basically im planning on turning my old track frame into a sort of hybrid (fat mtb tyres / without the added weight etc)....Ive got an old mtb rigid fork that fits and a front mtb wheel (so that ends all sorted), all thats left is the rear... then I heard bout cold setting. I wanted to keep the front and rear running on a 26" rim hence I thought Id need a rear mtb hub...also Furry, I hear about what youre saying about chainline...I guess an added concern is wether the cold setting will spread the frame way too much and affect this....but seeing as the frame was never going to be used I thought I may aswell experiment a little! [:]

@ lae - thanks for the clarification n info :] makes it clearer to be able to see both types of fittings.
I honestly didnt think about lacing a 26" mtb rim to a road hub! this would make more sence surely!

So the only requirement was a 26" rim?

Just lace a 26" rim to a track hub and run a standard freewheel. No need for any of that cold-setting malarkey.