The Brompton front hub

[TimO]

It'll be worth checking the old Bob's OLD - cos there's more than one narrow hub standard, including 88mm.  Would be nice if it is 73mm, then you can use a nice Brompton hub (if the axle diameter is ok).

I doubt the Yak Bob and Brompton are the same, although if they were close, you could potentially just pack things out with spacers or spare nuts.  This would obviously rely on the axle either being long enough, or being easily replaced, and neither are likely to be a given!

[chagzuki]

Apparently the extra light hub is 108 grams and the standard one 158g. I don't know if that includes nuts for the standard one, I'd assume it does. Anyhow, 50g saving is attributed to the hub.

[rogerzilla]

The original reason for Brompton's radial front wheels was to use the same length spokes as for the rear wheels. Then they changed to 13G spokes on the rear, losing part of the advantage.

It didn't solve the spoke breakage problem either; heavier spokes don't help much when your wheels are too slack.

[chagzuki]

13g strikes me as overkill on small wheels with suspension. It looks ugly too.

[rogerzilla]

I build all mine with normal 14g spokes.  I like to interlace them, too.