Three Speed MTB

The Good Choice

Bontrager offers a hub identical to the $35 hub described below. It cost $79.99. 430g. P/N #271412.

It is different in two ways:

• Drilled for 32 spokes
• Quick release

This solves many of the problems with the $35 for a bit more money. In retrospect, I should have used this hub.

The $35 Hub

This hub is offered by several companies at various price points. It is a essentially a Formula BX-2210 BMX Cassette Hub with 135mm spacing and an upgrade to cartridge bearings. It can also be found as a Novatec (Joy) D256SBT. Other companies branding it under their own name are Woodman, Planet-X (On-One), IRO, and Bontrager. Many others may exist, but the cheapest one I was able to find was the Nashbar NF-SSHR. Cost $34.95. That is CRAZY cheap.

One Problem. The hub is drilled for 36 spokes. This is bad. 32 spokes is standard, so this makes parts inventory difficult. It also drives the weight up.


The Nashbar hub includes a sprocket which some of the other companies neglect to include.

Internal parts

Two bearings in the cassette body. Quality.

Converting to Quick Release

The hub comes set up with a bolt-on axle. Pretty lame by modern standards. It needs to be converted to quick release and do on a serious diet. The solid axle is a literal boat anchor.


Since Bontrager is now using this hub in both itterations, #250795 Bolt-on and #271412 Quick Release, we can source parts through the local Trek dealer.

The Bontrager hub retails for $79.99. It's a good price, but we can make that cheaper. Quick release axles, #SP-271397-TRE, can be ordered for $20. That puts our total hub cost at $54.95. Nice.

Gearing The Cassette

The cassette lockring is a standard 1.37x24T right hand thread lockring. Same as old school bottom brackets. I replaced the cheapo one with a nice old Suntour version that I had in stock.

A 15-18-21, nine speed spaced, 3 speed cassette.