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Exclusive: Tune teases new Princess Skyline in lightweight mountain bike hub wars

Tune Prince Princess carbon alloy ultralight mountain bike hubs
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With word of premium, light DT Swiss 180 EXP MTB hubs with a unique new Star Ratchet, Tune ups the ante again in the lightweight department. Their superlight Prince & Princess Skyline hubs were updated last year with a move to Centerlock, but look to shed even more grams this summer. We got a sneak peek at the actual lower weight of the new Princess front hub, with some interesting details in side for her and her Prince…

Tune Princess Skyline ultralight mountain bike hubs

Tune Princess ultralight mountain bike hubs 78g actual weight

In reality Tune is staying mostly quiet on the details for their next generation Prince & Princess Skyline lightweight mountain bike hubs, but they did let us put this new Princess on their scale. Moving to centerlock already dropped the Princess to 84g, but now this one looks to drop another 7% or 6g off the hub to 78g. It’s incremental gains when you get to this level, but remember that even the DT 180 EXP is still 92g.

So how did Tune keep shedding weight off their already light Princess Skyline? They say it comes down to further optimization of a “reworked” machined 7075 alloy hubshell, “more carbon bits”, new bearings & more. It looks like at least a new carbon weave in the driveside spoke ring, but where are those extra “more carbon bits”? Could those new endcaps be carbon? They aren’t shiny anodized like the alloy caps we’ve seen from Tune in the past. Update: Yeah, confirmed that they are carbon! The bearing option is probably a return to ceramics, since the 6-bolt hubs are also available in a CeramicSpeed hopped up version.

Tune hasn’t mentioned dropping the weight of their Prince Skyline rear hub, but at 180g for centerlock (even machining out the middle of the rotor mounting teeth!), it already has the same claimed weight as DT’s new 180 EXT. And add in those new carbon endcaps, and surely it drops a few more grams.

Tune Prince Princess Skyline carbon alloy ultralight mountain bike hubs

Interestingly, those carbon axle endcaps also do look like they get a similar, easier-to-remove design with a flange you can grab ahold of like those new DT hubs. Plus, they feature a chamfered internal edge that should make aligning your thru-axle a little easier, an issue on some bikes.

No official word back from Tune yet confirming that the next gen straight-pull, centerlock Prince & Princess Skyline hubs do add a Boost option (as is already available with the 6-bolt interface Prince/Princess). But word from one Tune retailer says that Boost versions of the latest centerlock hubs are already available, adding just 15/30€ to the price of front/rear hubs, and making them well suited for weight weenie MTB, not just road disc, gravel & cross like when they first debuted.

Pricing & availability of the entirely made-in-Germany Tune Prince & Princess Skyline hubset won’t be set until later this summer it seems. But expect the hubs to be at least the same ~350€/555€ of the current Princess/Prince, plus several hundred euros more (~350-555€) for a complete CeramicSpeed hubset upgrade.

en.Tune.de

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Marc L
5 years ago

Are those composite/CFRP end caps? The matte finish jumps out as different- it looks kind of like steel but I’d be surprised if that was the case here.

Ole Blokhus
Ole Blokhus
5 years ago

Extralite have had their 6-bolt hubs on the market for many years now. The boost-version veighs 78g front and 161g rear. Other than requiring a yearly service,they are both strong and durable.

Miroslav Janota
Miroslav Janota
5 years ago
Reply to  Ole Blokhus

Furthermore the 6-bolt system uses much lighter discs than centerlock. So Extralite is still unbeaten!

Maus Haus
Maus Haus
5 years ago

Gucci component tweekers aka Tune designers. Very pretty Germany “stuff”… cool to see such highend refined bike parts.

Hamburgi
Hamburgi
5 years ago

I had the first generation oft those hubs. Yes they’re really light but not longlasting… the bearings are crap… and the rear hub broke in two pieces… after the replacement i had only problems with the freehub…

Tom G
Tom G
5 years ago

Can’t share the above opinion. I have had the very first generation of those hubs on two bikes including a jump bike and the newer straightpull version on a mid travel trail bike, all hubs have been great, easy to service, long lasting and extremely low friction bearings. Will consider getting the new hubs for a nice fresh new wheelbuild! 😉

Hamburgi
Hamburgi
5 years ago
Reply to  Tom G

Okey. And yes thats true the bearings are really low friction (:
But yeah, i changed to Dtswiss hubs and never had any issues (:
But i run the new Tune stem cap ony bike

RobertW
RobertW
5 years ago

The most exotic German I’ll go is Syntace. They make nice hubs, reasonably priced, light, but not cutting design corners. You can also get light-ish centerlock rotors; factor in the difference in weight of the hubs and it’s a wash.

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