On Phasing and Hubs

By Jake Brennand

[Brands mentioned in this article: Hope Tech, Industry Nine, Project 321, Race Face, Hadley, Factor, Chosen, Spank, Novatec, ARC, Koozer, Chris King, DT Swiss, Onyx, Qvist, Giant, Specialized, TREK-Bontrager.]

In this piece, I’m going to undertake a deep-dive into the design and engineering concept of “phasing” with mechanical bike hubs. Phasing — or, more accurately, “pawl-phasing” — refers to the deliberate effort by hub manufacturers to increase the engagement of a hub without machining more teeth into a rear hub’s drivering. The drivering, located in the Driveside (DS) shell of a rear hub, is what accounts for the usual number of Points of Engagement (POE). Driverings are usually steel inserts factory-threaded into alloy hub shells (only DT Swiss seems to make available to the public the tool needed to remove one). Take the number 360, the degrees in a circle, and divide that figure by the number of teeth featured in a drivering and the result is the nominal “degrees of engagement” (formally, the Engagement Angle [EA]) of a hub design, between activation clicks. POE and EA then become the performance calling cards for a given hub design, in the same way that cylinders and horsepower are for automotive engines. Collectively they express pickup or oomph.

So, for example, Hope Tech uses 44 machined steel teeth inside their large rear hub shells in the Pro4/RS4 models, producing an EA of 360/44 = 8.18 degrees between engagement clicks (or 44 POE). However, even more engagement than the figure provided by this elemental math is sometimes desirable, and many brands will pursue it. The careful calibration motivating this choice encompasses a number of factors: goal consumer and rider type and perceived demand, a brand’s strategic perspective on market innovation, the ability to machine conceived parts, the weighing of resulting effects on durability, engineering and production costs, finished product weight, suitable bearing availability in terms of sizing, etc. The practical choice for designers becomes a matter of seeking this increase simply by laser-cutting more teeth into the ring itself or by making the existing drivering work harder and go further as is, or perhaps doing both in the case of the most gucci “superhubs” in MTB. Machining more teeth is more expensive and a fair bit more challenging. There’s also a limit to how many teeth you can reliably fit inside a shell typically measuring less than 50 mm wide in diameter. And it’s easy to screw up the extra machining in terms of ride durability if not done extremely precisely, repeatably, and strategically.

This is where phasing comes in. Phasing pawls can virtually double or even triple — or multiply by six, in the case of the industry’s leading superhub, the Industry Nine Hydra — the number of POE without any change to the number of drivering teeth permanently slotted inside the hub shell. (“Effectively” is an even more apt term than “virtually,” since phasing absolutely works as a concept mechanically, and thus I will use the words interchangeably in this article.) It’s a brilliant and popular design choice among many notable high-end (and even among quality value-oriented) hub companies these days. The most advanced brands tend to phase.

What, exactly, is phasing in the operation of a hub?

Phasing, in a sentence, is arranging the pawls attached to a freehub in such a manner that not all engage at one moment — done deliberately and with the aim of achieving faster engagement via more available (really, more proximate) Points of Engagement. Phasing is only possible on a hub with 4 or more pawls — because a minimum of two groups of at least [2] pawls per is needed for dependability — and is most commonly used with 6-pawl freehubs. It typically features on mountain-bike hubs, where the highest engagement possible is usually advantageous for the technical, staccato-like pedal motions essential in this type of riding. Phasing is factory-executed by strategically staggering or offsetting the cut pawl slots inside of the freehub body, so that each individual set engages deliberately out of sync with the other set. Engineering software is used to arrive at the required staggering dimensions, before the freehubs are CNC’d for the 4–6 or even 8 pawl slots.

With a 6-pawl phased hub, the pawls are commonly designed to work in nodes of (3) pawls per, in two alternating phases. While one set of three engages the depths of individual drivering teeth, the other set of three is left “between teeth” at that split-second— that is, those pawls sit compressed against their leaf springs, temporarily immobilized into a “floating” or glide position between two adjacent teeth (see FIGURE 1). When all of the pawls release into a freewheeling mode, there’s every chance that when once again exiting this mode back into a fresh positive activation the second set will take over locking duties this time (depending on which set happens to be “front of the line” beside waiting drivering teeth) and the first set in turn assumes the gliding position. What this achieves at all times is to locate half of the pawls, from whichever set, in a half-way or head-start location between drivering teeth. The head start thereby created physically shrinks the distance, by half, that the nearest pawls are required to move before grabbing, versus a hub without phasing. One set of the pawls is always on more proximate standby to engage than the others. This is how phasing virtually or effectively increases POE and reduces (speeds up) the Engagement Angle.

FIGURE 1 — Schematic showing phasing around a starting 40-tooth example drivering, using a 6-pawl freehub. Triangles (like honeycombs) are some of nature’s strongest inherent shapes. Thus, phased pawls in a sixer freehub design should activate in two groups of triangles — or pawls 1,3, and 5 in the diagram, for phase one. Pawls 2,4, and 6 become phase two.

Therefore, in the hub example mentioned above, the venerable Hope Pro4, which is NOT a phased hub, employing a simultaneous 4-pawl design, phasing would hypothetically create an effective 88 POE and halve the Engagement Angle to a sprightly 4.09 degrees (from 8.18, hardly shabby). Note that Hope does indeed make an 88 POE phased hub product: the Single-speed/Trials version of the Pro4. The design is basically the same, from the use of 4 pawls total to the 44-tooth ring. What changes is the introduction of phasing. In trials riding, faster engagement is critical. The newest Hope hub, the Pro5, phases to achieve 108 POE/3.33-degree EA.

Who phases, among the hub makers?

The short answer is most reputable companies now phase. Hope (Pro5), Industry Nine, Project 321, Race Face (Vault hub), Hadley, TREK-Bontrager (Rapid Drive 108 hub), and Factor are just some of the high-end Western-based hub companies offering phased designs. Industry Nine is a bit of an unusual case with their class-leading Hydra hub, which is technically a six-phase design, at (1) pawl per. Under torque, this system is designed to nearly instantly cause all six pawls to engage, in most riding activations, for the sake of durability; the Hydra does as much with the engineered marshalling of torque and canting forces during riding. The first pawl locks in, and then, in theory, in mere nanoseconds the remaining pawls follow suit in a dominos-style sequence. The Hydra is much more phased than non-phased, but it’s best described as a kind of hybrid design. The other companies noted all offer conventional phasing arrangements, using either phases of (2) or (3) pawls. Hadley, the somewhat cryptic and minimalistic but renowned precision hub maker, uses two phases of (2) pawls per (the pawls themselves being extra wide, chubby affairs), while the formerly Oregon-based (now Mississauga, Ontario-based) Project 321, with their recently discontinued Gen2 hubs, offered both 2 x (3) (2.5 degrees) and 3 x (2) (1.7 degrees) phased options. Among reputable value hubs with phasing, Novatec (on better models), ARC, and Koozer, each manufactured in the Far East, stand out.

Who doesn’t phase and why not?

The most noteworthy companies NOT phasing their hubs have made this choice for the simple reason that they don’t have to — because they don’t use normal pawls in their designs. DT Swiss, with their Star Ratchets, Chris King, with helical splines, Onyx, with their sprag-clutch drive mechanics, and some proprietary hubs from big OEMs like Giant or Specialized (using usually a version of the splined-ratchet concept) are all companies that don’t use conventional sprung, individual pawls and therefore shirk phasing. But there are a few companies who make standout conventional pawled hubs and still avoid phasing. Hope, as noted, is one such company, whether with the 4-pawl Pro4 or 2-pawl sister RS4 road hub. Spank, and interestingly so, is another company. Their high-engagement Hex Drive hub — offering 102 POE/3.53 degrees of engagement — is based on a simultaneous 6-pawl concept. Spank achieves its brisk EA and high POE the old-fashioned way: by cutting 102 tiny teeth into a large drivering.

The main justification for not phasing, whether avoided by the non-pawled hub makers or by Hope and Spank, is durability. It’s not hard to appreciate the (moderate) increase in durability that comes from all of the pawls connecting positively to waiting tooth structures at once. It’s a basic principle of mechanical design that greater surface areas spread loads more and more evenly, reducing and slowing eventual wear. DT’s Star Ratchet hubs, even in the 54-tooth iteration (as long as it’s cleaned and maintained), offer legendary durability. Chris King hubs are also famous for their longevity. Hope prides itself on making a hub that lasts, offering probably the best DS sealing in the entire industry (the iconic green, plastic weather seal deserves much of the credit for this). Hope gets at some of its durability overall by limiting its drivering tooth count and doing so within oversized hub shells, which make for larger and hardier teeth, and by employing a simultaneous pawl design to balance out and spread ride torque (FIGURE 2). Spank, in turn, really has no choice but to avoid phasing. By offering a drivering with 102 tiny teeth, Spank is forced to spread loads across six pawls with the Hex Drive hub (hence the lineup’s name). (By the same analysis, so, effectively, is Industry Nine with the Hydra.) Otherwise, these tiny clickers and the tiny teeth that they click into just wouldn’t last. Spank goes even further by adding additional teeth to each pawl (or “multi-toothing” their pawls — also done with the Hydra), but more on what that achieves later on in this piece. It’s not what many people might think.

FIGURE 2 — Inside a Hope Pro4 hub shell and drivering. Notice the depth and size of Hope’s ring teeth. These, plus corresponding longer-than-typical pawls, mean that Hope hubs don’t require multi-toothing.

It should be noted, though, that in deciding not to phase companies are actively settling for a reduction in the maximum possible engagement speed from their hubs. The highest engagement non-phased hub that this writer is readily familiar with is the Spank Hex. The Taiwanese company Chosen offers a hub design with 150 machined teeth inside the drivering, activated by what looks like (3) multi-toothed, unphased pawls, but the author has never seen or tested one of these in person (I would very much like to). European newcomer company Qvist, who have now prototyped and plan to release a genius two-sided splined-ratchet hub offering 120 POE and a mere 3 degrees of engagement, can’t be included in this section. While using ratcheting splines, Qvist’s is actually a phased design as well: each side of the two-sided ratchet mechanism engages separately. Thus, in phasing, Qvist is saying that non-phased construction just isn’t palatable for them — they wanted even more engagement. In their words:

Until now, small engagement angles (<5°) were only possible with pawl[ed] freehubs and roller / sprag clutches. While fine pawls lack robustness, roller and sprag clutches are soundless and heavy. The patent-pending DOUBLE RATCHET SYSTEM provides fast engagement with the proven and robust ratchet technology as well as a unique stereo freehub sound — without breaking the scale.

In offering two sets of 60 teeth alternating, Qvist have reached the 120+ POE/<3 degree super-engagement benchmark. They’ve done so by phasing.

Advantages and Disadvantages to Phasing

Advantages:

1. Faster engagement without the added costs and technical difficulties of machining more teeth into the physical drivering.
2. In theory, greater durability than a design that achieves especially very high engagement speed solely by cutting out more drivering teeth. Further, phasing allows for durability-focused driverings with as few as 30–36 machined teeth; the high engagement then comes from doubling this base number.
3. Phased designs are proven as effective, across numerous hub brands.
4. In theory, allows for unique design iterations and further engagement increases. Project 321, for example, has already done this, with their “tripling” 3 x (2) phases on an optional version of their Gen2 hub (now discontinued, with Gen3 on the way).

Disadvantages:

1. Ostensibly less durability on the whole than a simultaneous 4–6 pawl design, where torque loads are spread wider and more evenly. The loss is fairly minimal in reality, if at all, in Hogtown’s experience.
2. Could possibly increase machining costs with certain designs, as phased designs require the offsetting of CNC-cut pawl slots. CNC’ing these slots, if re-tooling or re-designing existing files is required, could lead to higher production costs, particularly with titanium freehubs, which are already a little costlier and more involved to machine.
3. Limits hub designs to traditionally pawl-based drive mechanisms (meaning more small parts). (Newcomer Qvist will soon provide the only exception to this rule that I’m aware of.)
4. Freehub dimensions usually allow for a maximum of (6) pawls per, at present, with only the nichest exceptions (an increase to 8).

Advantages and Disadvantages in NOT Phasing

Advantages:

1. Ostensibly greater durability, since these designs employ conventional pawls engaging all at once or helical or Star Ratchet splines where as many as 54–72 spline teeth engage simultaneously with the receiving (female) spline structures. More contact spreads and evens out loads.
2. Typically more convenient to service (Chris King arguably excluded), with no pawls and leaf springs — in the case of sprag, helical, or ratchet designs — meaning no risk of the pawls and leaf springs flinging out and getting lost or misplaced during servicing. (Hope, which does use pawls and springs, is just as inconvenient in this respect as phased pawled hubs, since it has no retainer covering the pawls and springs. Spank, however, smartly does for the Hex Drive.)
3. Lower drag in some cases, mostly due to lessened engagement — less mechanical resistance — versus phased hubs. Note, though, that even very high-engagement phased hubs can have low drag — light leaf springs and good bearings and smart seals being key.

Disadvantages:

1. Lower engagement than high-end phased hubs. The current maximum engagement for a truly non-phased hub seems to be around 3.5 degrees (with Onyx being the major outlier — Onyx engagement is virtually instantaneous; but again, Onyx uses a very unique sprag mechanism). The most competitive phased designs, by contrast, routinely achieve engagement ratings below 3.6 degrees. The Bontrager Rapid Drive 108 hub, for example, gets here in a big-OEM package. Industry Nine leads the phased pack with an effective 690 POE offering a blistering and nearly unbelievable 0.52 degrees between engagement clicks at the hub.
2. Sometimes more expensive initially. DT Swiss 240 or 180 hubs (or even 350s upgraded to the 54-tooth Star Ratchet) certainly aren’t cheap. Chris King hubs last forever but cost a small fortune. Onyx is a stud of a hub from an engagement perspective, but as well as being silent — a polarizing feature — Onyx hubs also require a very premium initial investment. Hope and Spank are notable dissenters here. These are strong-value branded hubs that typically run less than $500 CDN dollars shipped for a pair.
3. More expensive later, potentially. In the quite-rare cases of major internal part wear — proprietary Chris King bearings or drive-shafts going, DT Swiss Star Ratchets stripping or axles marring, Onyx sprags falling apart — replacing these items, assuming non-coverage under warranty, could prove more expensive than with pawled and phased hubs. Even more pertinent for the rider in this unfortunate situation, the number of distributors offering replacement parts may be more limited globally. Certain parts the rider may only be able to source directly from the manufacturer or from a handful of focused dealers.

What about “multi-toothing” of pawls — does this count as phasing? Does this affect engagement?

I want to address this ask because it’s painfully misunderstood too often in the mass and even more specialized cycling media. Even hub marketers themselves occasionally goof this up — with their own products, no less.

Adding more teeth to a pawl is categorically NOT a phasing or engagement feature. It’s simply, and wisely, a durability feature, for the reason noted above with the Spank Hex hubs. Industry Nine does this with the Hydra, splitting its pawls so that each has two teeth. Smaller drivering teeth are more prone to wear (as are finely cut pawls themselves), so it’s a smart move to spread loads by causing each pawl to grip more than one tooth during activations. This also reduces the risk of fine-count drive mechs “skipping” under load. But since the size of and distance between each tooth is the same (at least in the same phased set), and because each tooth sits flush with the receiving drivering teeth, all the prongs of such pawls still engage simultaneously. Quite erroneously, the opposite is often stated or implied, even among better reviewing sources in the bike industry. The implication tends to be that multi-toothing phases the activation. This is incorrect.

FIGURE 3— Single-tooth (left) and “tri/multi-toothed” pawl (right). Adding more teeth is common with high-engagement hubs, but the choice doesn’t affect Engagement Angle. Instead, multi-toothing just ensures that the tiny drivering teeth have more purchase on them, and on the pawls as well, at all times. Hope doesn’t do this with their hubs because with 44–54 teeth in an oversized drivering, each tooth shape is already large enough that a single-prong pawl structure provides sufficient durability. Hope pawls are also longer, burrowing deeper into deeper drivering tooth cavities. Pawls, from Hope and others, are always made from steel that’s usually heat-treated and tempered. Other companies multi-toothing include Industry Nine (Hydra hub, but notably not with their 1/1 second-tier hub) and Spank (Hex Drive simultaneous 6-pawl design). Numerous industry examples abound of this practice.

Here’s a telling such misstatement, from the often-admirable NSMB “tear-down hub series.” The author of the piece in question is speaking about the Race Face Vault hubs, which deliver — as per Race Face’s own information — a 2 x (3) phased design around a 60-tooth drivering. “Race Face uses a unique six pawl inverted driver,” writes the author of the review. “With two teeth per pawl hitting the 60-tooth driver for 120-points of engagement, it delivers a tight 3° of rotation between bite points.” This may just be poor, vague syntax, but the writer ought to know better. His implication is that multi-toothing relates to phasing. It doesn’t. If you can take a hub apart, you should be able to grasp accurately how it actually operates — and if you have a regular media presence, you must be able to then articulate these mechanics unequivocally. Vault hubs split their pawls for purchase and durability, correctly highlighted by the NSMB author overall as a main focus for Race Face with their Vault product. Pawls being split is entirely aside and apart from the design effort aimed at high engagement.

Thus, it should be stated that multi-toothing obviously can and does also appear on phased hubs, such as Race Face, and very frequently in fact. The Asian company ARC’s wonderful MT-009 Boost hub provides an additional example (shown in FIGURE 4). The value-oriented MT-009 achieves 114 POE or a speedy 3.16 degrees between engagements by using a two-phased, 6-pawl design orbiting a 57-tooth drivering. Each pawl has split teeth (is “tri-toothed”). Again, the goal is high-engagement through phasing, but separately from the multi-toothing of the pawls, a durability addition.

(Lest anyone doubt Asian manufacturing overall, the following is taken verbatim from the “About Us” section on Spank’s website: “SPANK HQ is in the heart of the city of Taichung, TAIWAN. Taichung is a buzzing, modern harbor city of approximately 2.5 million people. […]// Our factory, FRATELLI INDUSTRIES, is situated snugly between high-grade export guava plantations and picturesque village temples. Our factory staff are all local to the village area and commute locally to FRATELLI by scooter and bicycle daily.” Westerners need to get real sometimes and keep an open mind.)

FIGURE 4 — Freehub from the highly underrated ARC MT-009 Boost hub, an Asian value product. The ARC delivers a 6-pawl, two-phased design resulting in 114 POE/3.16 degrees between engagements. It’s a fine example of phasing with tri-toothing, two separate concepts and ends in the design of a hub.

Can you impose a phasing effect through an after-modification of the hub?

Yes, if done expertly and with certain brands only. Most phasing — and all factory phasing — is done by minutely staggering the pawl slots around the freehub. But there’s a go-around in certain cases to achieve the same result.

Credit goes to Tarty Bikes UK and YouTuber Ali Clarkson for demonstrating this idea to the wider world. They’ve produced an excellent joint video on Clarkson’s channel laying out the concept as applied to Hope. What they’re doing here is essentially creating the Hope SS/Trials version of the Pro4, but by starting from the regular Pro4 internals. They do this by modifying (2) of the pawls to be a little over 1 mm shorter than the stock remaining two, leading to the half-way between or phased effect detailed in this article. The mod certainly works, and the result is to double POE to 88 and halve the Engagement Angle to 4.09 degrees. I myself have since expertly performed the mod on one of our Hogtown custom retail wheelsets (FIGURE 5). (To watch the Hogtown mod operate up close, click here.) But there are some important caveats to be aware of. This article is not per se advocating the modification. Do so at your own risk!

Firstly, the mod is only possible on oversized freehub designs such as Hope, with their incumbent longer pawls and deeper drivering teeth. Hope pawls are nearly 12 mm long, allowing for lots of extra room to trim 2/4. Many hubs are not so generous, and if trimming the already shorter pawls the risk would then present of going too short and causing improper pawl-tooth engagement; this can lead to hub damage including “pawl suck” inside the drivering (never good). Second, the pawls need to be expertly shortened with precision grinding, and then they must be smoothed for flatness and uniformity. Otherwise, they won’t mate properly with the drivering. The correct length to shorten the pawls is nominally half of the measured distance between each tooth on the drivering. But I find that a better way to proceed is to cut and grind incrementally, while periodically refitting the pawls into the hub and testing for the sought-after phasing. In other words, one should proceed by tinkering like a nineteenth-century machinist. Third, the effect of the mod is to create two phases in the Hope drivering: phase one still engages all four pawls; phase two engages just the shortened pair. So it’s not like the Pro4 MTB hub strictly becomes a 2-pawl design. It doesn’t. This only occurs 50% of the time. Nevertheless, there’s a very modest decrease in durability from performing this modification. Anyone attempting it should be aware of the consequences. Needless to say, making such a modification to your Pro4 hub voids the warranty.

I strongly disagree with Tarty and Clarkson on one point: that a steel (versus the stock alloy) freehub body is needed to do this mod reliably with the Pro4. For trials, sure thing. Trials hubs take huge torque loads, not least from the use of a single-speed gear and chain. For other riding, their claim is doubtful. The biggest risk with reducing pawl count on alloy freehubs is causing “pawl stretch” to the cut internal pockets that hold the pawls inside the freehub. But this risk is usually overstated. Industry Nine, for example, uses a phased design with an alloy freehub. Under really large rider loads, I’ve seen moderate slot stretching with the Hydra — but which has long since stabilized for that real-world rider, with seemingly no enduring effects for the safety or reliability of the hub overall. This is probably as bad as pawl stretch gets, a tiny bit of play, for the vast majority of users.

In theory, you could modify any 4–6 pawl hub coming with longer-length factory pawls, provided that you’re not starting with an overly dense drivering. Probably the maximum tooth count you could do this with is a 57–60-tooth drivering; in truth, less than this is much more comforting. Any higher than 60 tops and the modification tolerances become too fine and thus unpredictable. Tread cautiously if at all with this mod, and only if fully aware of the consequences, fully assuming of the risks to yourself or others in performing it, and only if you possess a lot of confidence in your fabrication/machining abilities.

FIGURE 5 — Modified Hogtown Spokes Hope Pro4 freehub, creating phased pawls. Top-left and bottom-right pawls are untouched from the factory length. Top-right and bottom-left pawls have been precision-shortened. This customization doubles POE to 88 and halves Engagement Angle to 4.09 degrees.

So, what do we suggest — phased or not?

To phase or not to phase, that is the ultimate question. And it’s an ultimate question not answered easily. Most subjects requiring detailed, catered thought aren’t quickly dispensed with.

For the rider who wants all-out durability or who values the unique brand cache of a Chris King hub, a DT 240 or 180, or an Onyx hub with the last’s sprag-clutch mech, non-phased and non-pawled hubs are clearly the way to go. Even more than the brand prestigers, those with painful histories with hub durability should focus here. For hard-charging and/or heavier riders after long-quested durability — as well they might be from a hub — Hope or Spank’s simultaneous pawled designs are easy to suggest.

Riders shirking phasing just need to be comfortable with lessened engagement. For what it’s worth, my experience is that the jump between 10 degrees and, say, 5-6 is much more noticeable than the jump between 5 to 0 (very high engagement to instantaneous). In other words, riders on the marquee non-phased designs will hardly lack for noticeable and ride-enhancing improvements in engagement if moving to a Chris King or DT Swiss from slower-engaging hubs (hubs rated at over 10 degrees/<36 POE).

For the rider who wants engagement more than anything else, phasing is the way to go. Except for Onyx, phasing is the choice of all the key hub brands really pushing the envelope with engagement speed. It’s a brilliant concept that works and nicely balances the pluses and minuses of any sound and holistic hub design (the tradeoffs between Engagement Angle, durability, weight, cost, engineering concerns, and the like that go into designing and producing a quality hub). At Hogtown Spokes, we feel that faster engagement only helps the mountain biker or gravel rider, with everything from sprinting to navigating techy single track. And if you can get even higher engagement with few to no substantive trade-offs, then why not? To us, it’s a no-brainer. Go for it. Companies such as Industry Nine, with the stunning Hydra hub, or Project 321, with their Gen2 and soon Gen3 hubs, make incredible products that work and will last. We recommend phasing. Run from marketing materials or the odd shop mechanic who tries to spin phasing as a supposed “drawback” or disadvantage in a rear-hub design!

Newcomer Qvist, if their hubs prove as effective in the wild as the design suggests that they might be, may soon offer the best of both worlds. We hope to thoroughly test a set of Qvist hubs, in the coming seasons.

Wandering into the dreamy and hypothetical to close, our ideal hub design would look like this. Alongside the requisite completely oversized (as big as 6806 ISO sizing), high-quality Japanese-made bearings, superlative sealing, oversized and anodized axles, knurled and press-fit end caps, and numerous brilliant colourways, the hub would feature a 72-tooth drivering precision CNC’d from hardened and tempered tool steel. Hardened, large steel pawls in groups of (3) would deliver a two-phase, effective 144 POE or 2.5 degrees between engagement clicks. Each pawl would have (3) teeth, and the freehub superstructure would be cut from quality titanium billets. Each pawl and spring would be secured by a press-in retaining cap, along the lines of what Spank uses for pawl and spring-retention with the Hex Drive (FIGURE 6). Internals would be exclusively lubricated with Dumonde Tech grease and/or oil (the best hub-lubrication products in the business). Finally, the leaf springs would be extra gentle, for reduced drag while coasting, along the lines of those employed in the outstanding i9 Hydra.

FIGURE 6 — Clever and easily serviced Spank Hex Drive internals.

Who knows, maybe someday we’ll start producing our own superhubs…

-Jake Brennand