Posts
171
Joined
10/11/2013
Location
Goodrich, MI
US
Edited Date/Time
4/8/2015 7:07am
Picture this, you have the power to eliminate ALL axle standards EXCEPT yours, so what standard would you have for front and back? This does not include fat bikes but for all other bikes including: road, cyclocross, xc, trail, enduro, free ride, dh, and dirt jump, you must choose the axle standard!
You can stick with the standards or choose new ones!
Current front: 20x110, 15x110, 15x100, and qr
Current rear: 150, 148, 142, 135x12, and 135x10
Let the axle wars begin
You can stick with the standards or choose new ones!
Current front: 20x110, 15x110, 15x100, and qr
Current rear: 150, 148, 142, 135x12, and 135x10
Let the axle wars begin
I am also a fan of 15mm axles. I've ridden 15mm and 20mm back to back with the same front wheel and I honestly can't tell the difference. 15mm allows for lighter bearings and a lighter axle assembly, so I choose it over the 20mm standard.
I like that current standard of providing a "shoulder" for the hub flanges with thru axles, so that's a must.
Add that together and my unquestionable choice is Boost, or 15x110mm front and 148x12mm rear.
If I were creating my own standard, I'm not sure I would deviate from Boost. Two reasons for this: despite what we/I want to believe, there are some really smart people whose only job is to improve bikes, so if they came to the conclusion that 15x110 and 148x12 are the right dimensions, I trust them -- they unquestionably know more about this than me. Secondly, my custom standard would likely involve wider flanges, but I already clip my heals on the chainstays of the DH standards (157 and 150), so there is definitely a limit and we are very close to it. I do not clip my heals on 148x12.
In the case of the Fox 36, where both the 15mm and 20mm options use pinch bolts on the axle, no it isn't that big a deal. But most 15mm axles don't use pinch bolts, they use 15QR where the axle floats freely in the dropout. This arrangement is complete horseshit for aggressive riders, and yes I can totally feel it.
It could be that we were on two different companies' forks as well. My experience is with RockShox. It sounds like yours is with Fox. I'm sure there are differences between the two 15mm thru implementations that would contribute to the different experiences -- axle bore tolerances, for example -- not to mention lower leg designs and castings, or CSU designs.
Rear: 12x142
I completely agree though with Nicholast, the people who make these standards know what they are doing and we as a mtb community need to understand that and let change happen!
We need every dumb piece of crap marketed to us because we've already made it obvious we're gullible as shit.
And if half a millimeter in flange helps me stiffen up my 6" wide tire filled with my own farts you can be damn sure I'm going to notice it. Because that's what wheels with a marshmallow stuck on the outside of it are all about.......PRECISION.
If the Fox 36 came out with a swappable fitting that allowed 15x110, I wouldn't mind running it. I honestly think the Lefty Supermax's axle is best, but unless their damper gets better creds I wouldn't really consider running it.
I want wide hub flanges.
I want thru axle 20mm with a clamping mechanism at the least on one side.
Do it with 110mm front, and somewhere wider than 135mm and narrower than 150mm and don't change it again.
If the Q factor was widened to say 160 or 165 then 150 rear axles wouldn't be a problem.
So for me it would be 150x15 rear and 120x15 front, but i would also widen the bottom bracket to 90mm and increase the Q factor.
Which is exactly why screwing with solid, proven and available standards just so they're compatible with plus sized bullshit deserves a knife in the eye.
Fat bike hubs, fat bike forks, and fat bike frames......keep them together and separate from the rest of the world that wants to roll at an acceptable pace, as well as not have to buy a new set of wheels every time someone comes out with a frame or fork that looks good.
There's a reason you keep seeing the same answer of 142/20 over and over again. Because they're solid, ubiquitous and proven. No one wanting high performance mountain bikes gives a crap about fat bike compatibility. If they do they can buy fat bike parts.
A good read for why we should have wider hubs
More like cause all consumers to have to switch to a new standard just so they can make more money off them. All producers these days are trying their best to squeeze every last cent out of their consumers because they know there will be people who give into the bs
2.15mm was a PR project to sell thru axles to XC riders.
3.In vast majority of cases 15mm saves no weight to 20mm. In best case you save 56g (Tune hub + this stupid red anodized axle)
4.150 was never really necessary as DH and huck bikes never needed wide cassette. In 150 A big chunk of hub spacing is wasted on non drive side due to regular width of the freehub. Specialized proved that with Hill/Brendog Demo.
5. As Team Robot Pointed out, clamping type (pinch, vs threaded) has dramatic influence on stiffness and strength - basic understanding of structure is necessary to grasp that wide a tight clamped 12mm axle will be stiffer than threaded 25mm. If you get both, pinch bolt clamping and 20mm it's win win + micro win for bearing life.
6.threaded axle clamping is done for easy wheel removal (XC race - like, Enduro race , DH race, Strava challenge, all day trip - Who cares?). Then it is lighter off course. wheel removal bit is solved by a very clever and elegant solution in Fox 36, and used to exist on Z1 Marzocchis.
7.Wider flange spacing is irrelevant for bikes with "regular" 2,2-2,5" tyres, you just cannot benefit from it, particularly in the era of carbon rims.
8.Boost is not necessary to fit 2.5" tyre with decent tyre and chain ring celarancy while maintaining stupid short chainstay lengths - look at Enduro 29 or Kona Honzo. Again: especially with use of carbon, allowing high stiffness and durability at tight sections. It is necessary for fat tyres.
9.we can't do anything about Industry making lots of different shit and companies like Hope will always provide an easy and cost effective way around such issues. So blabla bla good night.
10.If majority of components on your bike are from 2010 up, you are highly likely owning something that is not behind 2016 bike of same type, nothing that cannot be compensated with tiny bit of deliberate practice and trainig, or just riding with a faster guy you can learn from.
YOU KNOW THAT I KNOW THAT YOU KNOW THAT YOUR CURRENT BIKE IS AWESOME.
11.Do not take anything from the text above seriously, please go and buy new bike with new bells and whistles, respect people called sheep and trend sluts - I enjoy a fruitful second hand market.
12.Is Vital having traffic issues to start this topic?
13.Hey Vital, fix your shit! Spell check underlines the word "Enduro".
20
Pretty much works for all applications that I'm interested in, therefore it should be the only standard.
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