Okay, so for general mtb & commuting purposes, out of the following, what would you choose and why?
I will be building it up with rim brakes, but I guess it’s good to get Centerlock for a bit of futureproofing.
Does SLX win the bang for buck contest?
Deore FH-M615
Pros- Reliable steel axle and large bearings, Cheapest, functionally 99% same to SLX??**
Cons- Not that much cheaper than SLX
SLX FH-M675
Pros- Reliable steel axle and large bearings. Presumably more polished races compared to Deore??**
Cons- Heavy, is it actually different to Deore, is the freehub the same?**
XT FH-M785
Pros- Lightest with alloy axle, freehub has quicker engagement
Cons- Alloy axle means small bearings, therefore shorter life??**/ Unproven design
Just about to build a set of general riding wheels with S500 dynamo & FH-M665.
Picked SLX coz not much more expensive than Deore & wanted centrelock for matchy matchy to Alfine.
I wouldn’t use Deore for off-road because of what Dice said, but for road riding/commuting duties they are fine. Jono - XT hubs are great, my friend is still running his 1991 XT hubs, inbike that has pretty much been used daily for over 20 years, with only semi regular servicing (ie only service when hubs start to “feel” rough).
CRC have XT non-disc hubs going pretty cheap at the moment.
the XT aluminium axle is actually bigger than 10mm it just steps down at the ends cos of the dropouts.
My aversion is partly due to the material itself (it’s softer, weaker and less stiff than steel) which can cause problems when you are dimensionally constrained, although this is only at the drop outs in this case. to make Aluminium work for an axle it needs to be bigger, unfortunately given the standard freehub limits outside diameter you start running out of room to put things like bearings and freehub pawls.
Also i can imagine the Al axle being more susceptible to hamfisted mechanicing (and mechanicing may be required to service/adjust loose balls)
old XT hubs used to made in Japan and run forever. Newer XT hubs are made in Malaysia or Indonesia and are not as good in my opinion. As has been said, commuter Deore, any type of MYBing SLX, performance XT.
