Earlier today Hayes launched a new unified mountain family across each of their sub brands with the new Enduro Collection. One of three big tech highlights is the rebirth of the standalone Ringlé name, with the return of a premium Super Bubba hubset featuring a unique, customizable pawls-to-engagement ring setup.
Ringlé Bubba & Super Bubba Clock’D mountain bike hubs
By getting their Hayes brake, Manitou suspension, ProTaper cockpit, Sun rim & Ringlé hub engineering teams all innovating on the same riding discipline and the same three-year development cycle, Hayes says their designers can better create integrated solutions with more shared expertise.
The new Ringlé Clock’D hubs are a perfect example of that Enduro Collection, developed to take the abuse of enduro racing, yet be light enough to pedal to the top. Then they are also adjustable to balance engagement, drag & durability depending on rider weight & riding style. Both Bubba & Super Bubba hubs offer that same adjustable tech inside, just with either J-bend or straight pull hub flanges, respectively.
So what does Clock’D engagement mean?
Inside the premium Bubba & Super Bubba rear hubs, are two rows of steel engagement rings that slide into the alloy hubshell and engage with three pairs of pawls on the freehub body. Each engagement ring has 45 teeth, and when lined up grab all of the three pairs of pawls for 8°/45 engagement points.
But the interface between hub shell & engagement ring is adjustable. The engagement rings have four lobes that slide into four of five of the grooves machined into the hub. Rotate – or Clock – the top engagement ring over one groove, and the two rings end up offset by half of a tooth.
Each set of three pawls alternately engages their ring at the same time, making for 90 points of engagement, or 4° engagement.
The benefit of course of having the toothed rings offset is faster engagement, with only a tiny bit more freewheeling drag. But if you are a heavier rider, ride super aggressively, or just tend to blow up hubs, aligning the two toothed rings gives double the durability, double the load carrying capacity, and a bit less drag – all at still fast 8° engagement.
Once you set the outer engagement ring, a thread-on retention ring keeps them locked in place, so you can still swap freehub bodies freely. Swapping from Shimano to SRAM for example must still be done carefully as the pawls are just held in place by their spring – like a standard pawl-hub, but are easier to pop out-of-place if the engagement rings are offset from each other.
Pricing & Availability
The adjustable Clock’D hub internals are available in Ringlé Bubba J-bend, and Ringlé Super Bubba straight-pull hubs. The Bubba’s are available on their own for $165/175€ for the front hub and $335/355€ for the rear. The Bubbas are Boost only (well, plus Super Boost 12×157), get 6-bolt interface, 28 & 32 hole drilling, and any color as long as it is black. Front hubs use two sealed cartridge bearings with a weight of 160-180g. Rear get four bearings with alloy HG or XD bodies and a weight of 340g.
If you want the fancier looking straight-pull Super Bubbas, you’ll need to buy one of the complete Pro-level premium Sun Ringlé wheelsets.
Duroc Pro 35 wheels for example, will set you back $360/381€ for a front, $540/570€ for the rear. The complete double-wall, welded alloy tubeless wheels are available in 27.5 or 29″ rims with a 31mm inner width and add 28 straight Wheelsmith DB14 spokes & alloy nipples. Rim weights are 495g for 27.5, 515g for 29, with wheelsets at 827g+999g for 27.5 and 847g+1019g for 29ers. Wheels are factory taped, bundled with sealant, valves, hub adapters & both freehub bodies.
All of the new hubs & wheels are in final production now, or are already making their way to distributors, with retail availability by the end of May 2019. Oh and yes, purple ano on those complete wheels looks like it is going to be possible, with a rumor of a turquoise ano set with carbon hoops in the near future as well!
