HED Disc Brake Cyclocross Wheels Coming Spring 2012

Those hubs look amazing!

I think 135 and discs will soon become the standard for road bikes, especially if the UCI weigh limit stays in place. 130 hasn’t been around forever and 135 makes more sense, especially now that we’re cramming 11 cogs onto the rear wheel. Would also allow mortals on budgets to have one set of wheels for road and ‘cross.

I like the polished finish and see others returning to polished alloy. Personally, I always feel cheated when companies paint alloy parts. They only do it because it’s cheaper and over time it always ends up looking like crap.

Likely some great hubs, and Im excited to see things going this direction, but damn theyre ugly! From looking at the picture they dont look polished they appear to be plated, and not a quality looking job at that. Im also not really into the oil drum look, but to each their own! No matter what I say, HED is a great company and I suspect these hubs will function brilliantly!

@turbofrog
the only problem i see with a do all wheel set is it wont be good at any one thing
It will be to heavy for road racing
to narrow for mountain biking well
changing tires a lot
changing rotors a lot
over build for road riding
under built for mountain biking
changing cassettes a lot

“just because you can does not mean you should”

“Not really a fan of center lock at this point. It’s too limiting. There are a lot of good rotors out there that aren’t available as center lock.”

CenterLock hubs trivially take ANY 6 bolt rotor and they do so better than any 6 bolt hub. Yes, they use an adapter but the hubs are lighter and the bolts are eliminated. Weight is close anyway. The only problem with CenterLock is most hub makers don’t support it. There is no downside.

2 cross spokes with a carbon rim would make me nervous about the different stresses disks put on wheels.
Maybe a manufacturer should just make the jump to 150mm spacing with a 15×1 set up, one less shifter, mech, chainring, etc. A wider cassette body with wider chain wouldn’t go amiss…

@Mark W:

Too heavy for road racing is a small concern given that well under 1% of cyclists actually race. The other 99+% of us are smart enough to realize that a few grams isn’t that big a deal.

Doesn’t need to be too narrow for MTB, wider rims are (again) becoming the norm on road bikes.

@Mark W.

A wider hub lets the flanges be farther apart. This stabalizes the rim better and reduces the dish of the wheel, making it stiffer and stronger. It’s like the legs of a stool, the spoke elboes are the feet and the further apart they are, the more stability you get.

So if the standard stays 130, the drive side sokes will remain nearly verticle. Then the disc rotor will force the nondrive flange further inboard decreasing their angle as well. Those feet are now really close together. This forces higher spoke tensions that decrease the life of the wheel. The options to detune this stress are higher flanges on the hubs (heavier) and/or deep section rims (expensive carbon).

A wider standard would net a lighter system with more available options. 135 exists now and is good but going to 140 could net innovation in all areas of bikedesign and get you that versatile wheel others are seeking. It’s a balance though, going too wide will widen qfactors or cause heel clearance issues. so there’s the rub.

Bummer about the “no disc specific rims”. To make the most out of having disc brakes it would be great to have a lighter carbon tubular rim that doesn’t have reinforcement for the braking surface.