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White Industries teases Micro Spline compatible freehub & Super Boost hub

Written by Zach Overholt
33 Comments
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The new Shimano XTR isn’t even available yet, but already people are making plans for their hubs. The reason? A new freehub body design that is required for the XTR cassette called Micro Spline. At the time of the initial launch, Shimano was offering their own hubs with compatible freehub bodies, and they had worked out a deal with DT Swiss to allow them to produce their own as well.

White Industries teases Micro Spline compatible freehub & Super Boost hub White Industries teases Micro Spline compatible freehub & Super Boost hub

But that leaves a lot of hub companies out in the cold trying to figure out how to allow their hubs to be used with the new cassettes. Without a deal from Shimano, there aren’t many options… unless you play with the number of splines on the freehub body. Since White Industries makes their freehub bodies out of titanium, they were able to go from 22 splines of the Shimano hub, to just 12 splines which supposedly allows them to get away with the design.

White Industries teases Micro Spline compatible freehub & Super Boost hub

The freehubs will uses the same pawl and ratchet kit as other White Industries hubs, and will be backwards compatible to their hubs for about the past 20 years. The freehubs will include a required axle kit, and should be available around the time that XTR hits the market.

White Industries teases Micro Spline compatible freehub & Super Boost hub

Another new standard that White Industries has in their sights, this raw hub is a prototype of things to come. Specifically, a Super Boost + (or just Super Boost, same thing) 157 x 12mm hub to fit modern bikes with the wider rear hub spacing. The hub will use their 3 pawl, 48t engagement system with Centerlock brakes only, and will be offered in 28, 32, or 36h options. White Industries will have more information on prices, colors, and availability soon, though expect it about the start of, or early next year.

White Industries teases Micro Spline compatible freehub & Super Boost hub White Industries teases Micro Spline compatible freehub & Super Boost hub White Industries teases Micro Spline compatible freehub & Super Boost hub

Finally, White Industries will soon be offering colored versions of their BSA 30 threaded bottom brackets. Originally just available in silver, they will now come in black, yellow, blue, red, pink, and purple. Silver BBs will start at $120, black bumps up to $127, and the other colors will come in at $140, and all will be available next month.

whiteind.com
Zach Overholt
5,776 articles

Zach Overholt is the Editor in Chief of Bikerumor. He has been writing about what’s new in the bicycle world for 12+ years. Prior to that, Zach spent many years in the back of a bicycle shop building and repairing nearly every type of bike, while figuring out how to (occasionally) ride them.

Based in Ohio, Zach is now slowly introducing a new generation to cycling and still trying to figure out how to fit the most rides into a busy schedule as a new dad.

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Myles
Myles
6 years ago

I love innovation – but I love a simpler time when hubs were 135mm- bike shops made money and you stood when the president walked in. “ it was Super boost 157 commander, 3 to beam up”

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AngryBikeWrench
AngryBikeWrench
6 years ago
Reply to  Myles

Simpler times weren’t as good. They might’ve been less confusing, but things are better now. 135 worked OK with 26″ wheels, but made for really weak 29er wheels. So you want to give up your big wheels? Or just deal with weak wheels? It’s like my dad, bitching about fuel injection because he used to be able to tune a carburetor in the garage.

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Dave Parkins
Dave Parkins
6 years ago
Reply to  AngryBikeWrench

So true! Funny thing is, now most mechanics don’t want to touch carberators because they are a hassle compared to f.i.

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Rustilicus
Rustilicus
6 years ago
Reply to  AngryBikeWrench

135mm? What a newbie!

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Slacker
Slacker
6 years ago
Reply to  AngryBikeWrench

I have 5 29ers w/135 spacing (2010 is the oldie in the group and it’s a SS) and I’ve never had one issue with my “weak” wheels……

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uzurpator
uzurpator
6 years ago
Reply to  AngryBikeWrench

My 29″ wheels built around 135mm standard hubs hold just fine.

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chadquest
chadquest
6 years ago
Reply to  uzurpator

Are you hitting 20-30 foot gaps and big drops at 20+ mph down 4,000+ foot mountain descents like many of us are on our 29ers?

135mm hubs are still fine in select scenarios, sure, i’ll warrant that.

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Eggs Benedict
Eggs Benedict
6 years ago
Reply to  chadquest

I warm up on 20-30 foot gaps. When I’m going balls-out and firing on all cylinders I’m launching 40-60 footers, hitting drops (small cliffs to some) at 40 mph and have to look out of state to ride my favorite 8,000 foot mountains.

As a matter of fact my insurance policy states that if I ride less than 148 Boost rear hub it won’t payout if I “eat it”.

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John Schott
John Schott
6 years ago
Reply to  chadquest

I’m still having a hard time faulting the 135mm hub for weak 29″ wheels. It was more likely the asinine 400 gram 21mm wide rims we were lacing those war pigs to in combination with how clumsy we all were. Strength is the sum of a plethora of variables.a Anyone remember Sanjay who use to boost bigger steeper lippier jumps than what most of us would dream of on an old schwinn letour? Stop blaming the bikes for how talented you are! You can do this!

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comrad
comrad
6 years ago
Reply to  chadquest

This is a silly argument since the heyday of hucking monster gaps and drops was all done on 26″ 135 wheels

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chris m
chris m
6 years ago
Reply to  Myles

I agree myles.good comment

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satanas
satanas
6 years ago

What rims do we use with the 34° hubs?!? 😉

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Collin S
Collin S
6 years ago

Super boost +? Is this different then Super Boost? If so someone needs to fire their naming department. People on forums can’t figure out what spacing they have now.

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Paul S
Paul S
6 years ago
Reply to  Collin S

No, it’s not different. Just Pivot’s actual tongue-in-cheek name for a 157mm hub with flange spacing consistent with the Boost148 standard.

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Shafty
Shafty
6 years ago

This will just be a repeat of SRAM’s XD driver introduction. “It’ll only come on these couple hubs”…”oops, we didn’t realize people might want to buy our stuff”…give it a year and they’ll likely cave. If they can’t bring most of the 12 speed benefits to an HG body, their 12 speed will be doomed. This needs to hit SLX and Deore level ASAP, because SRAM is KILLING THEM with current GX/NX groups. Riders have no Shimano options to compete.

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Jeff
Jeff
6 years ago

What I can’t figure, why doesn’t anyone make a 11 or 12 speed cassette with a 10t cog that fitsf onto a HG cassette Bobby, by using the lock ring that is also a 10t cog?
I hate the SRAM XD ( and probably the new Shimano body)because it forces you use a $300 cassette. With my new wheels, I opted for the HG body, so I could run a 11-42, 11-46 or a 11-50 cassette from SunRace. While the SunRace cassettes are heavy, they are also less that $80. As far as the 10t cog, I really don’t miss it much.

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Paul S
Paul S
6 years ago
Reply to  Jeff

I’m pretty sure you would need a new frame design to clear the chain if the HG locking ring were also the 10t cog. That’s exactly what XD is… Just a shortened HG so that the lockring can be inboard enough to clear the frame. (I think. Haven’t spent that much quality time with an XD freehub.)

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BLS
BLS
6 years ago
Reply to  Paul S

Paul is right on the money- But if we went back to a 7spd freehub it would certainly give enough room for a 10- or 9- tooth cog to nest in and clear the frame. Shimano Has already figured out a way to fit a 9 tooth cog, check out the Capreo group for folding bikes. Or, drumroll… design a new freewheel!

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Padrote
Padrote
6 years ago
Reply to  Jeff

SRAM 11-speed GX cassettes are like $100 and fit on a XD driver body.

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Shafty
Shafty
6 years ago
Reply to  Jeff

The only reason the few Micro Spline cassettes are so expensive is because they’re as of yet limited to XTR level. It’s easy to see versions below $100, once it reaches SLX.

As for your lockring/sprocket idea, they already did that with their IG Dura-Ace cassettes. It’s a nice idea, but the problem is removing that sprocket can be difficult, since pedaling forces tighten it, and tooth wear wont help.

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Mark H
Mark H
6 years ago
Reply to  Jeff

You mean like pre-hyperglide when the outer cog was threaded on to the outside of the cassette body? But now thread it on the inside.

Besides not having the hyperglide ramps work on that first cog, I’m not sure the threads on the inside of the cassette body can take the torque, especially when usually only a few threads are engaged. And yeah, you’d need a slightly shorter cassette body and various different spacers.

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Bazz
Bazz
6 years ago
Reply to  Jeff

SunRace make a 10-50t 12 speed cassette and a 10-42t 11 speed cassette but the freehub is a slightly modified standard design. There’s no restriction on people using the design but only Sunrace make a hub using it at the moment. I have seen a Novatec hub which uses it and apparently DT has one too. There was one at Sea Otter but the only pictures of it were taken down off a website very quickly. It looks like Box will be using this design too.

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BMX
BMX
6 years ago

So Ti alloy has a Vickers hardness around 3 times that of billet aluminium so it’ll will wear a lot better on that free hub. But that still is a fairly small bit of material to support a load considering what my old alloy freehub looks like after a sram cassette has a old good gnaw on it. Maybe better off with tool steel in this application?

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JNH
JNH
6 years ago
Reply to  BMX

Best off using Shimano XT cassettes, SRAM are notorious freehub chewers and always have been

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Mark H
Mark H
6 years ago
Reply to  BMX

For other peoples’ benefit, the whole point of Shimano going to more splines was to spread the load out over a larger surface area so the cogs wouldn’t dig into them so much.

White’s efforts to get around potential patent issues by using fewer splines just puts them back where they were with the current style of cassette body.

It’s not so much of a problem with steel cassette bodies (or at least steel spline faces), but softer aluminum (and potentially titanium) can get quite deformed by the cogs. This is not so much of a problem with cog spiders that spread the load over more of the spline, but individual cogs are worse, especially if they’re thinner, such as when going from 11 to 12 speed.

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MJ
MJ
6 years ago
Reply to  Mark H

15 years servicing White Ind. hubs and I have never seen a cassette chew into their freehub body. That doesn’t mean the micro spline design won’t but I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

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Smokestack
Smokestack
6 years ago

My question is of spline profile. New microspline looks to have trapezoidal shaped splines and this looks to have a more box section profile. Is that the case?

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Aaron Garcia
Aaron Garcia
6 years ago

The XD Design is far superior to this from an engineering standpoint. All the microspline patter will do is mitigate “some” of the notching that occurs with the high-torque application. My bet is that an AL version of this freehub will still notch. Can a microspline freehub be machined out of aluminum and still perform to shimano specs? Let’s face it…. Shimano never made AL freehub bodies because of this inherent design problem.

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Celest Greene
Celest Greene
6 years ago
Reply to  Aaron Garcia

The XD design is OK for the spline interface, but building a cassette that can transfer all of the force from the highest gear all the way to the lowest is expensive, requires a bajillion pins, or both.

SRAM painted themselves into a corner with XD for sure. Microspilne does a better job at anticipating and facilitating lower cost cassettes

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OriginalMV
OriginalMV
6 years ago
Reply to  Celest Greene

SRAM XG-1295 cassettes retail for $215 MSRP. Currently the only Microspline cassettes that exist are 3 times more as XTR level. When Shimano makes a 12sp Deore Microspline for less than $190-ish, then we’ll talk.

Also, who doesn’t like a cassette that stays in one piece when you take it off the bike?

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Eggs Benedict
Eggs Benedict
6 years ago
Reply to  OriginalMV

When Shimano makes a 12-speed Deore level Microspline cassette it will probably be ~$45-55.

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James
James
6 years ago
Reply to  OriginalMV

SRAM Eagle XX1 cassettes retail for $449, XTR 9100 cassettes will retail for at most $379. Even with a super low end cassette on a White Ind. Freehub there is almost no visible marking, let alone when using a high end XTR. This new freehub will only be better and leaves the design open for usage of low end Deore level cassettes at cheap prices in a few years. I like SRAM stuff a lot, but they tend to design stuff without thinking too far ahead. Shimano designs everything with the idea of trickling the tech down in the future.

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