Tairin Wheels of British Columbia are ready to release their silent Mugen hub following a year of designing and testing. The Mugen is a modular hub with roller clutch drive mechanism, housed within the freehub itself along with the main load bearings. Not only is it silent and fully serviceable, it is also Micro Spline compatible, thus can be run with Shimano’s 12 speed cassettes with the 10-tooth top cog. We have the details.
Tairin Mugen Silent Hub
What is special about the Tairin Mugen hub isn’t that it is silent, though bravo. It is the fact that they’ve managed to design the hub to accommodate much larger bearings than you might expect to find in a hub. Especially, on a Micro Spline compatible hub. The Mugen load bearing is 6001, measuring 12mm x 28mm x 8mm. More frequently found in aftermarket Micro Spline compatible hubs are 6902 bearings, measuring 2mm smaller than 6001. Why should you care? Because generally speaking, the larger the diameter of the ball bearings, the better the longevity.
The Tairin Mugen features their “Overlapping Bearing Interface” (OBI) construction. What now? This is what allows Tairin to house the main load bearings inside the freehub itself. The freehub sits deep into the hubshell, through the oversized bearing and is tethered-floating on two balancing support bearings, becoming part of the structure that carries the rider’s load. This means that the furthest bearings are carrying the rider’s weight and forces (left disc side bearing, and the furthest right side bearing sitting inside the freehub).
On standard four sealed bearing hubs, the two bearings inside the shell take care of the rider weight and forces, and the two bearings inside the freehub take care of the driving forces from pedaling. Tairin say the OBI design has more leverage support from the hub to the rim, as the virtual line of the normal forces extends further outwards towards the endcap-to-endcap.
Inside the Mugen, the 6001 freehub bearing sits directly onto the frame thru-axle. The hub’s body axle does not protrude each side’s end caps, it butts against them. The axle also butts against the 6001 bearing that sits directly on the frame’s thru axle.
The Tairin Mugen roller clutch drive gives rise to instant engagement. Great, if you’re an XC racer looking for marginal gains, not so good if you’re more interested in descending. A hub with instant engagement can exacerbate the feeling of pedal kickback on certain suspension designs, that’s why Tairin have opted to make the Mugen’s engagement customizable to suit your riding style. They plan to release roller clutch cages that are color coded yellow, red and blue, signifying 0 deg, 2.5 deg and 5 deg engagement.
All Tairin Mugen freehubs are made from steel, including the Micro Spline, HG and XD drivers. Its modular design means Tairin have the freedom to design other non-silent freehub mechanisms around it.
Pricing & Availability
As with all Tairin Wheels, the Mugen will be available as hubs or complete wheelsets. Choose from their DH rated Duty MK2, the Lite, or the GRS. All wheels are hand laced in house with Tairin’s Yield Point Wheel Build technique. Tairin say the technique guarantees no need for truing, re-tensioning, or seat-in periods for up to two years. If the wheel goes out of true, they will sort it out.
The Tairin Mugen weighs a claimed 450g. It is a 6-bolt rotor mount design for J-Bend spokes only. From June 1st, the Mugen will be available in Boost spacing (12mm x 148mm). A superboost adaptive kit will be available separately for DH bikes, as seen for the Shogun hub. A non-boost Mugen will also be available at a later date. Prices start from CAD 550 per hub.
