Talked to an old timer at the shop yesterday about cup and cone hubs

I was rebuilding a set of old Ultegra hubs from 2005 and a guy in his 60s came over and watched for a minute. He said "you know people used to rebuild these every winter back in the day, now they just toss wheels." It made me realize how much disposable bike culture has changed things since I started in this trade. Has anyone else noticed customers rarely ask for hub overhauls anymore?

2 comments

2 Comments

black.margaret1mo ago

My dad still has his 1978 hub tool set buried somewhere in the garage, I bet.

webb.val1mo ago

Wait, is that one of the old school sets with the metal case and the weird looking wrenches? I used to think older tool sets were just junk compared to what we have now, but @black.margaret after digging through my uncle's stuff last summer I realized those 70s tools are actually built way tougher than the modern ones. Something about the steel they used back then just holds up better, even if the cases are all beat to hell.