LordMersey Posted August 13, 2009 Report Share Posted August 13, 2009 I was just wondering if Chris King are really worth that much more than some of the other hubs on the market?Jack Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psycholist Posted August 13, 2009 Report Share Posted August 13, 2009 Not to me so I haven't bought one... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr ailsbury Posted August 13, 2009 Report Share Posted August 13, 2009 When they work they're really really good, but on the rare occasions where they do break they cost a f**king bomb to fix, the one i'm running has been going for around 4 years now and has had 3 previous owners. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Gibbs Posted August 13, 2009 Report Share Posted August 13, 2009 IMO no there not really, dont get me wrong they are good hubs, fantastic build quality, good pick up and uber bling. Some riders swear by them and wont use anything else on their bikes. But you can get just as many EP's as a king with a good freewheel and fixed hub for half the price. I would say hope hubs are worth it though. I never got on with their brakes but i have had several of there hubs front and rear and all have been fantastic. But if you have silly amounts of cash then get em just cuz you can! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alex-trials-boy Posted August 13, 2009 Report Share Posted August 13, 2009 When they work they're really really good, but on the rare occasions where they do break they cost a f**king bomb to fix, the one i'm running has been going for around 4 years now and has had 3 previous owners.Wow your doing well there mate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Revolver Posted August 13, 2009 Report Share Posted August 13, 2009 Wow your doing well there mateThe king on my bike must be 4 years old, and hasn't skipped yet.I don't like your pet apple, and1+2+3 = 6, not 5. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psycholist Posted August 13, 2009 Report Share Posted August 13, 2009 (edited) For very small values of 3, 1+2+3 = 5 ... And 9 x 6 = 42 - I have proof... Edited August 13, 2009 by psycholist Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lankyri Posted August 13, 2009 Report Share Posted August 13, 2009 ive just got my first king and im in love very quiet and much better response as well but pro2t is like half the price and its made especially for trials Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrex Posted August 13, 2009 Report Share Posted August 13, 2009 (edited) I'm currently designing my own hd axle and normal bolts to save a few quid. I'm gunna make a few test axles out of different materials. Hopefully I can pull it off. It's a nice little project though. I'm only doing it though because some of the parts are so over priced.Edit 1: Just look up about the drive shell and they are well expensive and they don't even include the bearings!Edit 2: if you have a really broken king like mine, its cheaper to buy a new king than the spares!!! Edited August 13, 2009 by Andrex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo Limbo (Trials Chimp) Posted August 13, 2009 Report Share Posted August 13, 2009 Yeah they are great hubs, i think ive had mine since 2002, all ive ever had to do is clean and grease it once. Once you get used to the engagement you never want to go back to a standard hub!I would say that as there are a lot of other good hubs around now that are cheaper then the King, (whereas when i bought it, it was pretty much King or Hope) it is probably not as good value as it used to be, but if i had the choice i would still buy one today Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gage-mann Posted August 13, 2009 Report Share Posted August 13, 2009 buy one thats around a year old that way it should be all bedded in and service it if the last owner dent get it serviced for a while and you have an amazing hub and you save money Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scary_jeff Posted August 13, 2009 Report Share Posted August 13, 2009 I got quite an old one with a bike. Before riding it I was a sceptical, but having all those engagement points really is superb for increasing your confidence going into any pedal-related move. I haven't tried a pro 2 trials... the extra ~50% engagement points on the CK might not be that noticeable compared to the p2t, but I would say if you can get a second hand CK then go for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forteh Posted August 14, 2009 Report Share Posted August 14, 2009 (edited) My king must be at least 5 years old or so now, I bought it from ben travis in 2005 and he had it for a while - still going strong on the original axle and driveshell, never skipped on me Edited August 14, 2009 by forteh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laurence--Trials Posted August 14, 2009 Report Share Posted August 14, 2009 The king on my bike must be 4 years old, and hasn't skipped yet.I don't like your pet apple, and1+2+3 = 6, not 5.HAHAHA! sorry made me laugh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike W Posted August 14, 2009 Report Share Posted August 14, 2009 Yes ive had 2 bmx ones and they are the best hubs available imo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie905 Posted August 14, 2009 Report Share Posted August 14, 2009 They are good hubs, but if they do break, they cost a bomb to fix, and King won't warranty their hubs for trials use, unlike Hope or other Trials-specific Hub Manufacturers do. You could nearly buy 3 Hopes for the price of a King, and Pro 2's are are wickid! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trials Punk Posted August 17, 2009 Report Share Posted August 17, 2009 I've used kings for the past 5 years now, would never go back.Its like anything expensive, you could compare it to cars really. Imagine you own a Ferrari, if that engine isn't looked after and serviced when needed, it will die and cost a bomb. Compared to your average family car, you can thrash the guts out of it and it asks for more. Kings are awsome when their kept well, you let that slip and they'll burn money in your pockets. Make sure you bed them in properly, service them reguarly they'll serve you well. The front kings, arn't worth it though. As long as the front hub is light, and relivtavly strong it dosen't matter about the brand. Anybody, who says they have broken a king have either not bedded them in properlly, not serviced them enough or have stamped the absouloute guts out of them. Unless its a very rare occasion where a king has not be machined to the precise tolerances they are usually made to.Also, warrenty issues, you only ride XC don't you?................................................. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sayshell Posted August 18, 2009 Report Share Posted August 18, 2009 (edited) Don't buy them for trials. With a normal freewheel you have offset pawls, so if the engagement slips you go back to the nearest offset and it engages, so 95% of the time is skips you don't even know it skips and when you do feel it its just an extra half inch in your pedal stroke. When a king slips your dead. You can pedal half a crank spin before it engages. Mechanically speaking it is a poor design for trials. Next off the axle is poor design as well. The axle will always be too loose or too tight because they are 40 years behind on technology and still use a cup and cone system. Even on a 20$ fixed hub you don't get those these days. Using a 2.5mm allen head bolt to lock a rear axle is the dumbest thing ever. Next off they are mechanically unfriendly.... as they claim...all you need to take them apart is an allen key and penknife.... well thats true except you also need a special tool to disassemble the driver... a special tool which only chris king makes and sells for a billion dollars. Who would want to take apart the driver?? I mean nobody cares about improving engagement... I had one after the third major slip I decided to never use one again... was a great decision. People will tell you you need to ride the hub for about 2 years before it engages... no thanks... I was just reading a thread on here a couple days ago about someone who broke both their wrists because their king slipped... get a hope pro 2 that is a real hub. Edited August 18, 2009 by sayshell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thewoomaster Posted August 18, 2009 Report Share Posted August 18, 2009 (edited) WoW you guys are mad, King hubs are bloody mint!! Me & mate both brought kings like 3 years ago now and not once have they skipped/broke etc Has been the best buy for are bikes! Other mate got a Pro2 at the same time and his has been mint too lol, as for Pro2 are better there not a hope hub has 42 points a King hub 72 you do the math .Really though its all down to you dude Pro2 hubs seem just as good for Trials half the bloody forum use them too .. i'd say Kings works smoother and sound alot better Edited August 18, 2009 by thewoomaster Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forteh Posted August 18, 2009 Report Share Posted August 18, 2009 Don't buy them for trials. With a normal freewheel you have offset pawls, so if the engagement slips you go back to the nearest offset and it engages, so 95% of the time is skips you don't even know it skips and when you do feel it its just an extra half inch in your pedal stroke. When a king slips your dead. You can pedal half a crank spin before it engages. Mechanically speaking it is a poor design for trials. Next off the axle is poor design as well. The axle will always be too loose or too tight because they are 40 years behind on technology and still use a cup and cone system. Even on a 20$ fixed hub you don't get those these days. Using a 2.5mm allen head bolt to lock a rear axle is the dumbest thing ever. Next off they are mechanically unfriendly.... as they claim...all you need to take them apart is an allen key and penknife.... well thats true except you also need a special tool to disassemble the driver... a special tool which only chris king makes and sells for a billion dollars. Who would want to take apart the driver?? I mean nobody cares about improving engagement... I had one after the third major slip I decided to never use one again... was a great decision. People will tell you you need to ride the hub for about 2 years before it engages... no thanks... I was just reading a thread on here a couple days ago about someone who broke both their wrists because their king slipped... get a hope pro 2 that is a real hub.So the fact that you if you put more force through the chain it engages harder is a bad point for trials? If it skips its because its either dirty or f**ked, the only hub Ive heard of that skipped all the time was nick woods, that had all the internals replaced and it still skipped - just an unlucky bad one.There are no loose bearings in the hub, I havent a clue what youre talking about with cup and cones The lockring is to apply preload to the bearings, something that happens on all hubs when you tighten the wheel up, its just that king hubs are more reliant on correct bearing preload so need a seperate lockring.You also dont need the tool to strip the hub, it just makes it easier. Ive never stripped mine further than the drive shell, its never skipped and its the oldest component on my bike bar the 12 year old rear magura slaves and the headset Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psycholist Posted August 18, 2009 Report Share Posted August 18, 2009 Cup and cone bearings are a much better idea for bike hubs because they deal with misalignment and side loading better than cartridges and no hub is stiff enough to not misalign as the axle flexes under load. That's why Shimano have stayed with that design - I've got 6 years and counting and over 10,000 miles out of the XTR hub on one of my XC bikes for example. A Hope XC lasted about a year on it, a Deore lasted less than that due to cheap bearings. It's easier for a company getting into making hubs to just pick cartridges off the shelf and shove them into machined spaces than to go to the trouble of cubic boron nitride coating the bearing surfaces after lapping them to a mirror finish and designing their own hub seals specific to the bicycle application. King hubs are not cup and cone either, but cartridges with an angular contact component AFAIK.I agree 100% with the comment that when Kings skip they really skip though - I wouldn't swap my ENO for one (Except to sell it for profit and buy another ENO of course )... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sayshell Posted August 18, 2009 Report Share Posted August 18, 2009 I don't know everything about kings I only owned if for 3 weeks or less. Every 4-5 minutes I had to take the wheel off and tighten the cone because I ran disc brakes and the wheel was jiggling in the frame causing the brake to rub the caliper. Eventually I had to file flat points on the cone so I could tighten it with a wrench in which it stayed tight maybe a week then the wheel started jiggling again. I am just saying my experience with them. Profile and hope are much better. Engagement points don't matter so much as reliable engagement. Think of the math. If you have 72 engagements it will engage every 5 degrees. To move a driver 5 degrees its like roughly 3-4mm of distance. With 48 its 7.5 so roughly a mm more which is about 0.6 degrees extra rotation on your crankarm. What I am saying is if its around 50 or over its pretty hard to even tell if their is more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greetings Posted August 18, 2009 Report Share Posted August 18, 2009 I have one which is well over 5 years old, had it for 3 and it's skipped twice. It's the best thing in the world since you don't have to worry about the drivetrain at all.But... I wouldn't buy one now. My mates have had endless problems with them, one broke his axle TWICE despite being a completely novice rider, the other broke his axle a few weeks ago, another one of my mates completely f**ked the internals and the hub kept skipping on him to the point that he couldn't even ride along. To be honest, they're shit hubs but some of them work well. Definitely not worth the risk. If you want one, get an old one from the US off an XC/road rider.I think that soon we're going to reach the stage where a good but used King hub will cost as much as a brand new one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Revolver Posted August 18, 2009 Report Share Posted August 18, 2009 ProfileThing about profile is, a lot of their stuff seems to break. They don't have very high tolerances. Chris king do, I think, but it's a much more sensitive mechanism.My mate said this about profile, that their stuff is designed for BMX racing, and only to last a single season, after which it will be replaced. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aener Posted August 19, 2009 Report Share Posted August 19, 2009 Got mine off Boumsong who neglected to tell be it had a snapped axle, that he'd welded but not treated.Obviously I broke that after a bit, and got the HD axle as a replacement.Last night, I ripped the driveshell apart.Currently searching for a cheap ProII, or 16t Try-All freewheel and Revolver hub.Answer your question?Though - to be fair... When it wasn't broken, they really are a pleasure to ride. Quiet compared to pawl hubs, and really good, strong engagements. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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