Bitex touring hubs are the best bang for the buck touring hub out there. Big Enduro sealed bearings, rebuildable steel freehub, adjustable bearing preload... About half the cost of White. I don't know why anyone would build a nice wheel without butted spokes. Sapim force or race spokes go on even our most budget oriented wheel builds. After multiple mud seasons, the bitex hubs we run on our personal bikes are still spinning smoothly. Yearly tear downs reveal only the most minimal contamination. The main difference in 'ride quality' is going to be engagement and ease of coasting. Shimano FH bodies are not rebuildable, and have a relatively short service life in my experience (19 years building wheels). Coasting with Shimano FH bodies is often sort of sticky, with the chain lagging and sagging when you go rapidly from pedaling to coasting. That, plus the slow engagement, are all the 'ride quality' differences you are going to have between a nicer hub and a Shimano. Bitex hubs use 48t engagement with 6 pairs of pawls. White by contrast, uses 3 pawls, no pairs. The White hubs are nice, and they look better. That's the main draw, besides slightly lower weight.
Re: Rim widths. If you don't care about Tubeless, the Atlas rim is fine, but get it with machined sidewalls for more consistent braking. Really though, the Cliffhangers feel fine with 38mm tires even on really rough terrain, and why run a tire smaller than that ever? Plus you can run tubeless, which for the desert, has gotta be helpful. For whatever it's worth, we stopped selling Atlas rims and Shimano hubs about 3 years ago. Bitex touring hubs are that much better, as are cliffhangers. A bit more scratch, but not a ton! -James / Analog Cycles / Wheel builder On Wednesday, October 9, 2019 at 9:20:43 AM UTC-4, Steve Cole wrote: > > I'm building up a new-to-me MIT Atlantis. My best guess is that this is > my final build short of deciding to have a custom frame built for me, which > is unlikely. As a result, I'm willing to spend somewhat more on components > that I otherwise would. I've been thinking about the wheels I want and > would be grateful for advice. Are Velocity rims and Deore hubs more than > sufficient -- in other words would I notice any difference in the short- or > longer-term if I use more upscale hubs such as Phil Wood, Chris King, White > Industries or Shimano XTR? For rims, I've been thinking about using > Velocity Atlas as I'll be riding on and off-road in the desert southwest. > Are there other rims I should consider? Thanks for your input. > > Steve Cole > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/6e5f0fdd-f0f2-4a76-940b-cd69944c5a51%40googlegroups.com.
