Chris King Alloy Drive Shell

I'm interested in this too. Also, does anyone know a good
international dealer for CK hubs? What should i expect to
pay, and are skewers included?

Regards

Bow

"Dave" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:tyboc.300$0A.3235@localhost...

Quoted message said:

What are people's experiences with the Chris King alloy
drive shells? I have a stainless steel one, and I'm
getting another set of CK hubs, and wanted to know what
the alloy ones were like.

Thought, opinions?

Many thanks, Dave

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Dave
What are people's experiences with the Chris King alloy
drive shells? I have a stainless steel one, and I'm getting
another set of CK hubs, and wanted to know what the alloy
ones were like.

Thought, opinions?

Many thanks, Dave

I use Chris King for road, touring, and MTB.
The aluminum alloy drive shell works OK as long as you use cogs that are mounted on carriers that help spread the load. I tried a MTB cassette with the largest 2 cogs on a carrier once, and that distorted the carrier such that the shifting degraded. The carrier had significant impression from that venture. I wouldn't try it again with any less than 3 cogs on a carrier for the large cogs.
If you already have the stainless steel one I would keep it.
I know there is a weight difference, but it isn't worth it to me.

As a side note, Shimano's 10 Speed DURA ACE cassette is has deeper ridges/valleys to handle the load on the 10 speed hub.

daveornee said:

I use Chris King for road, touring, and MTB. The aluminum
alloy drive shell works OK as long as you use cogs that
are mounted on carriers that help spread the load. I tried
a MTB cassette with the largest 2 cogs on a carrier once,
and that distorted the carrier such that the shifting
degraded. The carrier had significant impression from that
venture. I wouldn't try it again with any less than 3 cogs
on a carrier for the large cogs. If you already have the
stainless steel one I would keep it. I know there is a
weight difference, but it isn't worth it to me.

As a side note, Shimano's 10 Speed DURA ACE cassette is
has deeper ridges/valleys to handle the load on the 10
speed hub.

Actually, I believe the reasons for the taller ridges on the
hub is to prevent the use of loose sprockets. This is
because the new Dura-Ace hub is the first Shimano hub to use
an aluminum Freehub body. Such bodies are notoriously
inadequate for use with loose sprockets in the larger sizes.
The soft alumiuum gets notched up and it can become very
difficult to remove the sprockets.

Personally, I consider aluminum Freehub bodies to fall into
the "stupid light" category of parts.

Sheldon "Steel" Brown +-----------------------------+
| Razors pain you; | Rivers are damp; | Acids stain you;
| | And drugs cause cramp; | Guns aren't lawful; | Nooses
| give; | Gas smells awful; | You might as well live. |
| --Dorothy Parker |
+-----------------------------+ Harris Cyclery, West Newton,
Massachusetts Phone 617-244-9772 FAX 617-244-1041
harriscyclery.comharriscyclery.comOpen ↗ Hard-to-find parts shipped
Worldwide captainbike.comcaptainbike.comOpen ↗ sheldonbrown.comsheldonbrown.comOpen ↗

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Sheldon Brown
daveornee wrote:

<SNIP>

Quoted message said:

As a side note, Shimano's 10 Speed DURA ACE cassette is
has deeper ridges/valleys to handle the load on the 10
speed hub.

Actually, I believe the reasons for the taller ridges on the
hub is to prevent the use of loose sprockets. This is
because the new Dura-Ace hub is the first Shimano hub to use
an aluminum Freehub body. Such bodies are notoriously
inadequate for use with loose sprockets in the larger sizes.
The soft alumiuum gets notched up and it can become very
difficult to remove the sprockets.

Personally, I consider aluminum Freehub bodies to fall into
the "stupid light" category of parts.

Sheldon "Steel" Brown +-----------------------------+
| Razors pain you; | Rivers are damp; | Acids stain you;
| | And drugs cause cramp; | Guns aren't lawful; | Nooses
| give; | Gas smells awful; | You might as well live. |
| --Dorothy Parker |
+-----------------------------+ Harris Cyclery, West Newton,
Massachusetts Phone 617-244-9772 FAX 617-244-1041
harriscyclery.comharriscyclery.comOpen ↗ Hard-to-find parts shipped
Worldwide captainbike.comcaptainbike.comOpen ↗ sheldonbrown.comsheldonbrown.comOpen ↗

On the 10 speed DURA ACE hub, the one with the aluminum alloy casette body, you can't fit any current cogs except the DURA ACE 10 speed. That certainy does what Sheldon says.
The deeper grooves also provide more surface to spread the load on the softer material. I guess weight savings drove them to it.
I see the front hub is acutually heavier from 9 to 10 speed however. Score 1 for marketing and 1 for engineering.
On the Chris King side of the story, using a 9 speed DURA ACE cassettes which has the largest 3 cogs on a carrier, makes only small "nicks" in the ridges of the aluminum drive shell. I pull the cassette about every 1,000 miles to give it a dunking and complete cleaning. When I do that I also clean up the "nicks" on the ridges of the CK drive shell. Everything has been working well for over 30,000 miles on one CK hub. I do regular maintenance on the hub, including the ring drive and "O" rings.
I use Chris King lube made for their hubs.
I have similar results with a 9 speed XTR cassettes on my touring bicycle, but only 16,000 miles on that hub.
If you want the Stainless Steel Drive shell from Chris King you will need to wait for 30 - 45 days as they are out of stock.
Note that not all Shimano cassettes have precisely the same width. Some are undersized enough to be loose on the drive shell. If you find one of these, there are thin washers ( 0.5 to 1.0 mm) to tighten things up. Proper torque and grease on the lock ring threads is always called for.