I've been waiting to see the talked-about White Industries high-flange single-fixed splined track hub set, and we got a pair in the shop last week. Very nice piece of kit. The idea is that they take a special high-quality splined cog made by White Industries that fits on the hubs, like a puzzle piece. So you can't spin the cog off, cross-thread it, or through urban fixed gear acrobatics, damage the hub shell threads by rocking back and forth on a loose set up. You line up the splines of the cog with that of the hub; tighten the lock ring, and get spinning. You don't need a chain whip. You need only a lock ring tool to tighten the ring. Oh, and they are really pretty. I look at bike parts morning, noon, and night. It brings me much happiness to look at high-quality pretty hubs.(Jump for more photos, info about materials used, technical info, as well as wheel building hub measurement specs.)
Photos by Wheelgirl
White Industries Track Hub & Cog Material and Technical Info.
The hubs attach to your horizontal dropout with brass track axle nuts. The rear hub is available as a single fixed. They run on Enduro
sealed-bearing cartridges, which are easily replaced if you thrash them
for about $8.00 a cartridge. The hubs were designed to be taken apart
with allen wrenches and serviced easily. I am assuming, like the ENO
hub, the splined track hubs take a Dura Ace lockring. (The ENO hub I wrote about a little less than a year ago is
White Industries eccentric fixed/free hub that work with vertical
dropouts, since the eccentric part allows you to tension the chain.)
The track rear hub does come with a lock ring and both hubs come with axle nuts. The hubs and the splined
cogs that fit them are made in Petaluma, California and are currently
available in 24H, 28H, 32H, and 36H drillings.
The hub shells are CNC'd 6061 aluminum. They are available in silver
only. The splined cogs are made of the same material as the famous and
crazy long-lasting White Industries freewheels. (Lynette from White Industries has stories of
people riding the White Industries freewheel for five years before
wearing them down.) The splined track cogs, like the freewheels, are
made of 8620 steel, They are case hardened, and electroless nickle
plated. The main thing Lynette stressed, when I spoke with her, was for fixie riders to get your
42mm chain line on your single-speed / fixed gear bike set up correctly. Most of the wear
they see on freewheels has to do with out-of-whack single-speed
chain lines.
White Industries are making the splined cogs to fit the track hubs
in 14T, 15T, 16T, 17T, 18T, 19T, and some 20T in both 1/8th and 3/32nd
thicknesses. So you can race on these hubs as well as commute on them. (Dura
Ace cogs are less expensive, for example, but they only go to 16T.) Very cool. They did run short on 17T cogs, and you
need to be prepared to wait for about a week to three weeks at the
longest for the cogs to restock. White Industries can make the cogs in a week. But the plating sometimes adds a week to delivery. That is fine with me. It is not like I have to wait 6 months for something to come on a cargo ship. If you know your favorite ratio, buy an extra cog. But they are expected to run for thousands of miles.
White Industries and Phil Wood Weight Info.
I surfed around trying to find more info about the hubs. And according to PricePoint, the hub set weighs Front = 324 grams and Rear = 430 grams? (Small boutique bike part manufacturers sometimes have to put their gear up on a site like PricePoint to reach a larger buying audience. The hubs aren't at bargain prices.) Weight is not the biggest issue for track riders. Drag is your personal daymare. However, when putting the new hubs in the glass case, they seemed much lighter than the set of SLR Phil Wood single fixed hubs I had just picked up. The measurements I got for the track hubs are as follows.
White Industry 32H single fixed high-flange track hubs, according to Wheelgirl inexpensive gram scale from IKEA:
Front with axle nuts = 221 grams
Rear with axle nuts= 291 grams
Lock ring = 15
Total for White Industries single fixed high-flange track hub weight with lock ring = 527 grams (I didn't weigh the cog, since the larger tooth sizes will obviously weigh more.)
Phil Wood 32H single-fixed SLR (windows cut of out the flanges like the White Industries) high-flange track hubs weighted on same gram scale:
Front with axle bolts and sleeve=249
Rear with axle bolt and sleeve = 353
Lock ring = 19
Total for Phil Wood SLR (single fixed high-flange track hub weight with lock ring = 621 grams
(Weightweenies site, please feel free to correct any errors. Post a comment with a link the the weight you get.)
White Industries Track Hubs Hub Measurements for Wheel Building
If you are building a wheel with the White Industry hubs:
White Industries track hub front: Flange diameter is 65mm. Center to flange is 33.5mm
White Industries track hub rear: Flange diameter is 72.5mm. Center to flange drive side is 29mm.Center to flange non-drive is 34mm.
White Industries Track Hubs Lockring & Fixed Gear Lock Rings in General
If you finger-tighten the lock ring, the cog will have a slight bit of play. (It needs to be a bit bigger than the splined carrier in order to slide onto the carrier.) When you use a lock ring wrench and tighten the lock ring down tightly and properly, there is no play in the cog. Remember to grease the threads for the lock ring. And you can't cross-thread the cog, since it is splined. But make sure you tighten the lock ring by turning it to the left (counter clockwise). If you are new to track hubs, lock rings are reverse threaded, so if the cog decides to spin off (looser= left) againt the lock ring, the lock ring holds it on (tighter= left). Left is tight for lock rings. And for new fixie riders, lock rings are not interchangeable. Your hub takes either what amounts to a Dura Ace or "JIS" threaded lock ring or an "ISO" or Campagnolo threaded lock ring. (Paul Components = ISO, Campagnolo = ISO, Phil Wood = ISO, White Industries = JIS, Dura Ace = JIS, Formula = JIS.) The exception is Mavic track hubs, which take a French threaded lock ring.
White Industries Customer Service Perk
And here is another great customer service perk from White Industries: If you don't want to mess with your hubs, and you need to have the bearing cartridges replaced, you can mail the hub or the entire wheel to White Industries. They will charge you for parts and for return shipping fees. But they won't charge you for labor. Nice for those customers living in places that do not have access to local bike shop mechanics.
You stock the hubs and the cogs. (I found the hubs on Pricepoint. But the price is just about normal retail.) And we are happy to build you a set of track wheels.
Photos by Wheelgirl
