OneUp Components Hubs
Stated Weight:
- Front: 142 g
- Rear: 220 g
MSRP:
- Hub set: $369.97 USD / $ 499.97 CAD
- Front: $99.99 USD / $134.99 CAD
- Rear: $219.99 USD / $296.99 CAD
- Freehub: $49.99 USD / $67.99 CAD
Configurations Available:
- Front: 110 x 15 mm Boost, 28 or 32 hole
- Rear: 148 x 12 mm Boost, 28 or 32 hole
- XDr, Microspline, or HG drivers available
- 6-bolt rotor mount
Drive System: 44t ratchet system
Intro
OneUp’s original product — a cassette expander cog — feels like a throwback to another time, but they’ve been steadily expanding their lineup to offer thoughtfully designed parts at reasonable prices. The crew at OneUp has now turned its sights to hubs and designed their own 44-tooth ratchet inspired by the formidable DT Swiss Star Ratchet. OneUp’s new hubs are also very light but promise good durability.
OneUp says that they made the hubs that they want to run on their own bikes — so let’s see what that looks like.
Design
For now, at least, OneUp is offering a very simple set of configuration options for their new hubs. They’re available in Boost spacing only (110 x 15 mm front and 148 x 12 mm rear) with a 6-bolt rotor mount. 28-hole and 32-hole options are available, both drilled for J-bend spokes.
The hubs come in 7 colors and the bodies are made of machined 7075 aluminum — a higher-grade material with greater strength than some more common grades like 6061. Riders can choose from a SRAM XDr driver, Shimano Microspline, or Shimano HG. Driver bodies are easily swappable and doing so is a tool-free affair. OneUp also laser-etches the hub dimensions into the body to make the lives of wheel builders that much easier when determining spoke length.
We’ll get into more details below, but the combination of high-grade materials and a simple design have allowed OneUp to hit a very impressive weight target. At a claimed weight of 362 grams for the hub set (142 g front, 220 g rear), OneUp has managed to beat most of the common choices in rear hubs, including the much more expensive and notoriously lightweight DT Swiss 240 (by 5 grams).
The chart below shows where the OneUp hubs stack up to common competitors — note that all of those weights include the freehub body.
44T Ratchet Freehub Mechanism
OneUp (rightfully, in my opinion) praises the DT Swiss 350 hub for its blend of performance and value. Those DT hubs are not the flashiest — they’re available only in black with an understated design — but the DT Swiss Star Ratchet system is dead-reliable and offers quiet performance with a reasonable, but not particularly fast engagement in the common 36-tooth ratchet configuration.
Inspired by DT’s design, engineers at OneUp opted to develop their own 44-tooth ratchet system that works nearly identically to the more recent DT Swiss EXP design. The design relies on two steel ratchet rings, one spring-backed, which interlock with one another. As the wheel rotates, one of the ratchets remains captive in the hub shell while the other spring-backed one is captured by splines in the freehub. The ratchets slide along one another’s face in between engagement points but are in full contact with one another at each point of engagement.
While this ratchet design cannot match the engagement point count of some pawl-based designs, it has the advantage of using only a handful of parts while also having full contact with the surface area of each ratchet at each point of engagement. This means all 44 teeth on each ratchet are interlocking, creating a very strong connection point with minimal moving parts. This design is also typically a bit quieter than some of the more raucous pawl-based designs out there (looking at you, Industry Nine Hydra), but we’ll have to see if that holds true here.
This design’s simplicity and durability have earned DT Swiss some fans over the years, but we’ll be curious to see how OneUp’s design stacks up.
Axle, Bearings, and Seals
OneUp uses a simple and familiar internal layout, with a machined aluminum axle rotating on Enduro ABEC 5 bearings. Those Enduro bearings are better quality than what is used in many hubs on the market, and while they certainly aren’t at the standard of something like Chris King or Paul Components, they should have good life while being easily replaced when the time comes due to common sizing (Front: MR17287, Rear: 6902, Freehub: 6802).
Hailing from Squamish, BC, we would think that OneUp knows a thing or two about wet weather riding and the need for decent seals on any moving parts. The hubs have dual-sealed end caps with what look to be fairly burly rubber seals, and the rear hub gets a freehub seal from Enduro. Of course, time will tell how well that sealing works, but it’s on the more robust side of things at first glance.
Some Questions / Things We’re Curious About
(1) How well does OneUp’s ratchet system work, and can it match the steadfast reliability of its DT Swiss inspiration?
(2) How does a 44-tooth ratchet stack up to the sea of higher engagement pawl-based designs as far as on-trail performance, and how noisy is it?
(3) Does the combination of better-than-average bearings, robust sealing, and high-grade materials yield good durability over the long haul? And how easy are the hubs to service?
Bottom Line (For Now)
The team at OneUp has taken a measured, practical approach in the design of their first hub offering, and the result blends a lot of characteristics from other proven designs. The weight figure and price point are truly impressive, so we will be curious to see how the new hubs from OneUp stack up to our other favorites on the market — and we should be getting a set very soon.
Sweet. If these have reliability like their posts, they will be a winner at a fair price.
Looking at you on the price thing, DT!
Given that the ratchet design is almost identical to DT’s, I’m surprised OneUp was able to do this without patent infringement.
DT’s original star ratchet patent has expired, so it’s fair game at this point.