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G-Sport Monkey Front Hub
by emilydickinson | 30 Jul 2005 1:53 pm
G-Sport Hubs cost an arm and a leg, there's no denying that. Is any hub worth this money, especially in a street riding context, as opposed to racing? Let's find out.
The Monkey is a 48 hole front hub, with designed to fit 3/8" dropouts and weighing a scanty 355 grams. The first thing you'll notice about this Monkey, is how light it is. After picking up the Monkey for the first time, I wondered how something so beefy could feel so light. There are few huge differenes between this hub and just about every other one on the market.
The first being, there is no axle per se, here. In it's place are very strong 3/8"bolts which thread into a helocoil made of steel. This means the axle is basically a threaded, hollow 20 mm tube , which is a great idea for disspating the loads from hard landings and peg slams. When the bolts are flush with your sropouts, there are a lot of threads engaged in there. It's not going anywhere. The bolts were also lightly greased as they should be, nice.This is a great advantage, as steel is much stronger in this context than aluminum. Since the bolts thread into a steel reciever, you can really crank them down for a snug fit, without worrying about the threads getting chewed up. In addition, the bolts are just standard 3/8", which can be purchased anywhere for pennies should you wreck one. I doubt I will need to exercise this option anytime soon.
The helocoil threads into a 20mm sealed bearing on each size, which is basically overkill, but ensures the Monkey can really take a beating like Larry Holmes, but still keep on rolling like John Fogerty. The hub shell is made of anodized aluminum (Red was the only color I could get my hands on), machined by hand in Sheffield by George French and company. It's nice to get a hand made product in this day and age, and the love shows. The shell was perfect: shuny and bright, and the grain of the aluminum was smooth. One of the spoke holes was a little manky, and actually looked like someone had spoked it before, but it was just one hole, and had no effect on the wheelbuild at all.
Amazing concept, but how does it work? Ispoked the Monkey up to a Hazzard Light rim with DT Swiss spokes, using a 4 cross pattern. For informational purposed, I run one peg up front and ride 95% street, maning my front wheels tend to get abused. There's no issue with how smooth the hub rolls, it's as good as any I've used, even the Phil Woods on my trackbike. After several months of peg pounding, and wiring nosepicks on ledges, the axle and bolts are still straight as an arrow. I was pleasantly suprised, in the past 3/8" axles go south pretty fast on my bike. The sides of the hub are a little nicked up from missed grinds. The hub seems to suffer impact damage just like any other. Missed grinds take little bits of the color and Al off. That's a natural result of Al meeting concrete at high speeds. It's the resilence of the axle and bearing assembly that's stands out. My Monkey rolls perfectly straight. I removed the bolts and bearings, and nothing at all is amiss.
(The Hub from above wit h 3/8" bolts visible. Look at those mothers!)
(Here's a shot of the hub in my hand for size comparison)
The Monkey is a completely overbuilt hub that is perfect for street riders, because it can take a pounding and not suffer a bit, even with pegs. Since also this over engineering produces far superior strength, and still manages to be lighter than most other hubs on the market I would say this is a rare gem. Is the shell indestructable? No, but it is very well made, and as strong as others I've used. I can unhesitatingly reccomend this hub for riders who destroy axles, and don't mind shelling out major cash for an amazing product. They sem to be getting a tad hard to find too, so get one now before you're forced to buy a Taiwain made version due to the Ody buy out of G-Sport.
(And pre wheelbuilding...Can you spot what doesn't belong here?)
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