Converting Mavic 3G Rear Wheel

AFAIK, Mavic 3G wheels have modular hubs, front and rear wheels are interchangable just by removing the hub from one to mount onto another.

Mavic did produce cassette hubs to use with the 3G wheels, but they are rather rare items, eBay or usenet group is probably your best bet, other than going to Mavic directly nd pay a hefty sum.

Big Wall Climbe said:

I have a pair of old school Mavic 3G wheels that I use for time trials, and the rear has a threaded hub. It currently has an 8-speed Sachs freewheel on it, but I have seen several posts suggesting that Mavic 3G rear hubs can be converted to accept modern cassettes. I'd like to convert it for 9/10 speed Shimano, so does anyone know for a fact that this can be done? If so, how do you do it, and where do you get the parts? I've tried contacting Mavic directly, but their website isn't particularly useful.

If anyone has anything solid on this, I'm all ears, and thanks in advance for the help.

Regards - Marshall Ellis ([email hidden])

Big Wall Climbe said:

I have a pair of old school Mavic 3G wheels that I use for time trials, and the rear has a threaded hub. It currently has an 8-speed Sachs freewheel on it, but I have seen several posts suggesting that Mavic 3G rear hubs can be converted to accept modern cassettes. I'd like to convert it for 9/10 speed Shimano, so does anyone know for a fact that this can be done? If so, how do you do it, and where do you get the parts? I've tried contacting Mavic directly, but their website isn't particularly useful.

If anyone has anything solid on this, I'm all ears, and thanks in advance for the help.

How "old school" are your wheels?

I'm not familiar with the 'modular' hub which "A" suggestts that that your rear wheel may have ...

OR, is your wheel's hub of an earlier, pre-Freehub vintage?

If the hubs are modular in a way which it seems that "A" is suggesting then please post a picture without the Freewheel attached because I'm curious how they are constructed.

If the latter case where the wheel has a traditional 32h (or, 28h OR 36h) rim, then I recommend that you buy a new hub & relace the rim onto it ...
[INDENT]Shimano ULTEGRA hubs are one of the best hubs you can buy with regard to quality & price ... Dura Ace hubs are lighter but not peceptibly better than Ultegra hubs ... but, I think that ALL Shimano hubs are actually pretty good if you adjust them properly.

My assessment is that DT hubs are marginally better than Shimano's hubs.

There are OTHER hubs which are pretty good and which aren't over-priced ...

Chris King makes great headsets, but their hub's pawl mechansim is overly complicated AND (IMO) noisey.
[/INDENT]

Mavic 3G wheels were made back in the early to mid 90's.
See modular rear hub at bottom right of picture:

[IMG]i124.photobucket.comDSCF1042.jpgOpen ↗[/IMG]

Larger view: [img]i124.photobucket.comDSCF1044.jpgOpen ↗[/img]

Mavic 3G wheel without modular hub:
[img]embedwerks.comimage014.jpgOpen ↗[/img]

A said:

Mavic 3G wheels were made back in the early to mid 90's.

THANKS!

Hi to all -

Thanks for the replies. My wheels are circa 1994, but when I bought them, no one said anything about interchangeable hubs, so I've just ridden them for the occaisional time trial with an 8-speed freewheel all this time. Great wheels - pretty much bombproof - but this makes for some interesting shifts on occasion. Fortunately, there is a range on the freewheel that works rather seamlessly with Shimano Dura Ace shifters.

But I've recently upgraded to 10 speed (yeah, I'm slow that way....), and it seems like the 8-speed compatibility is getting narrower and narrower. The interchangeable cartridge hubs seem to be almost mythical - the pics posted here are the closest I've ever come to one, and several inquiries to knowledgeable pro shops have gotten nowhere, and no one at these shops has ever mentioned the interchangeable hubs.

Oh well - at least now I know that interchangeable hubs exist, so my next goal is to actually acquire one. I've written to Mavic about this, but have heard nothing. But then, these ARE 16 year old wheels - not exactly something they're likely to have parts for.

If anyone sees one of these hubs looking for a new owner, please send me an email ([email hidden]).

Many thanks.