ENO eccentric hub reviews???

[walsh]

OK, I definitely have the singlespeed bug. I am riding pretty hard on a "magic number" setup on an old chromoly frame w/vertical drops, and time is running out on this setup. I'm not going to go to a chain tensioner, because 1) they're ugly and I'm vain, 2) I don't know how much further I can go before my el-cheapo BMX cog rips through the splines on my XT hub. Yes, someday I will get a cool SS bike, but it doesn't make a lot of sense right now, and I like having this bike as a winter bike.

I want to build up an ENO eccentric hub for off-road use. I figure with 15mm adjustability, I could throw a freewheel on one side and a track cog with 2 or 3 three fewer teeth on the other . . . I swing that way :) I'm around ~150, and though I'm not a graceful rider, I'm cowardly enough to be pretty gentle on my gear.

I've found awesome reviews from road riders, and not too many reviews from MTBers. Looks like mixed reviews here: it didn't work out for Pete, Ernie loves it, and Ricky put his on his garbage-pile bike.

Let me know if you've played around with any such foolishness.


: I've had HORRIBLE luck with my White Industries ENO hub. I'm sure it is my style of riding or the sheer volumes of fat that hang off my body in a visually revolting way (not entirely unlike the "corn sweetener" in the Juicy Juice commercial). Maybe it is the frame upon which the hub was used. My plan is to build it up with a road rim and use it on my "new" commuting bike. Hopefully that will work better.

Pete

[drevil]

... Ricky put his on his garbage-pile bike.

Let me know if you've played around with any such foolishness.The way your dropouts are shaped is important. If it's small and minimalist, it provides less biting area for the ENO, which leads to slipping. That's what happened on my Yo Eddy, and I ended up stripping a bolt or three as I honked down on them to keep them tight. My Huffinator has bigger dropouts so the bite has been good.

I have three ENO rear hubs, two of them being Eccentric. I stupidly ended up stripping half the threads of the hub on one of them (keep air wrenches far away), but I put the ENO freewheel on there and it's staying put so far.

A fact: to convert an ENO eccentric hub to an ENO NON-eccentric hub or vice-versa, you change the axle, bearings, and end caps. (It's the endcaps that provide the eccentricity). To further convert it to quick release, WI can supply you with two little nubs with holes in the middle that screw into the axle. That's the setup on my Inbred.

Overall, I like 'em, but over-overall, I like cassette hubs better.

[Dirt]

I have one that I tried on a single speed and couldn't get it to stay tight. I'm 220 pounds and was using 185mm cranks at the time. I'm building it up again for a commuting bike using much shorter cranks and it should hold fine.

Pete

[redclayrambler]

The way your dropouts are shaped is important. If it's small and minimalist, it provides less biting area for the ENO, which leads to slipping. That's what happened on my Yo Eddy, and I ended up stripping a bolt or three as I honked down on them to keep them tight. My Huffinator has bigger dropouts so the bite has been good.
Not sure if you know, but would you consider Richey vertical drop outs minimalist or having enough area to hold. I have often thought about using one of these but they are not cheap (well for me any way :) )

[riderx]

Recent discussion (http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=266761) where I put in my $.02

[beerMe]

I guess I’m just too weak to strip the bolt. I've not really had a slippage problem but I do agree minimal machining on the eccentric bolt would help keep it in place. My only comment relates to the disc brake adaptor which has the set screws in the down position requiring a little lock tight to prevent them from vibrating out. I've sent Lynette at White Industries a suggestion to machine the set screw position on the side for accessibility and lessening the risk of losing the set screws when they become lose if you don’t use lock-tight. Yeah, your right, I’m the only person who didn’t think of using it in the first place.
Anyway, an option if you want to convert a geared bike to SS or if you want to be able to convert back to geared if things don’t work out. I just don’t like eccentric bottom brackets because of weight and creaking.

[walsh]

Thanks all for the responses - good stuff.

I agree that it's a lot to pay for a hub (particularly for a 10-year-old bike) but building one of these is going to go on the short list of things to do.

[eloach]

For the price of the hub and a wheel build I think you can find a frame with an EBB made from 853. Then you can score whatever for wheels to get rolling, probably with not too many worries. Try a ZION or a Surley, new or used.

[walsh]

For the price of the hub and a wheel build I think you can find a frame with an EBB made from 853.


. . . but since when is riding bikes about making sense? :)

I'm very attached to this ride. As I mentioned, someday I will own a brag-worthy singlespeed. I'm not particularly settled in life right at the moment, though, and since I've already established that I'm keeping my old steed, life will be easier with one less bike lying around and a little more in the way of liquid assets.

Also, I can guarantee I will never own a steel frame with an EBB for two reasons. My dual suspension has an EBB, and I know they work for some folks, but I want a solid piece of metal down there. No creaks - I'm done with them! Also, since I have now proved that I really don't ever get rid of bike-related stuff, there will be no more el-cheapo frames. My next frame will be ti, will fit me absolutely perfectly, and will be the frame that I ride from here on out. I will have also demoed enough stuff to know whether 29" is the thing for me or not. I'm talking about serious committment, which is not at the top of my priority list right now.

In the meantime, I have two perfectly bikes that will tackle just about anything, and I'm going to get the most life out of them that I can.


EDIT: I seem to have left an adjective out of the last sentence. I intended to say "good," but this was probably a Freudian slip. Feel free to insert your own descriptor, "Mad Lib"-style, e.g: " . . . two perfectly [good, great, glorious, horrid, disreputable, Irish, flambuoyant, flaccid, imaginary, Taoist, crapulant, pulchritudinous, dilatory, soporific, oft-maligned, etc.] bikes . . . "

[philman]

[QUOTE=walsh My next frame will be ti, will fit me absolutely perfectly, and will be the frame that I ride from here on out. "[/QUOTE]

Ah yes, the old "this will be the last bike I ever buy" justification for going high end. How many have used a variation on this to persuade SO (or self) that a new bike was a well thought out, logical, descision. Show of hands.

[DaveG]

Ah yes, the old "this will be the last bike I ever buy" justification for going high end. How many have used a variation on this to persuade SO (or self) that a new bike was a well thought out, logical, descision. Show of hands.

I told my wife that the Ti Litespeed would last forever, and why would I need another bike?

Heh.

[drevil]

I told my wife that the Ti Litespeed would last forever, and why would I need another bike?

Heh.
Two Litespeeds here. Sold. For me, not the ultimate bikes.

My Matt Chester Mutinyman is close, but sometimes I feel like a nut, sometimes I don't.

[John G]

I ran one when I converted my Giant (http://home.att.net/~jfgorham/giant.htm). Liked it alot. Now all my bikes have horizontal dropouts so no need and it hangs all lonely in my basement.

[philman]

I told my wife that the Ti Litespeed would last forever, and why would I need another bike?

Heh.

Shannon rides. She never believed you ;)

[beerMe]

Ti, custom, hueh, hueh....
you can't escape .....

[DaveG]

Shannon rides. She never believed you ;)


We were both just getting into serious riding. I think I honestly believed it myself! Of course, that was 11 bikes ago....

[paulg]

I've been using an ENO eccentric hub on my converted geared hardtail and it works great. I get no slippage but I have big chunky Ti dropouts. The hub is beautifully made and a joy to behold!

One little issue I discovered last week was how to remove the freewheel. Because of the eccentric hub cap the normal park tools FR-8 and Fr-6 won't fit. I use standard BMX freewheels.

see here: http://www.parktool.com/products/category.asp?cat=4

It seems there are two ways to get around this little problem.

1> Remove the hub cap as described here:

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/harris/white-hubs.html

and use the freewheel removal tool clamped in a bench vise and turn the wheel. Sheldon incorrectly states the FR-8 will work without the cap removal but it doesn't. I've e-mailed him but he hasn't taken this bit off his site. The only problem with this method is there is no easy way to clamp the tool to the freewheel to stop it from coming off when you apply the torque.

I've not used the bech vise method so I'm not sure how easy or hard this method is. I usually use method #2:

2> Use the specially made freewheel removal tool from White Industries. It's $25 and you can get it from Lynette Toepfer at lynette@whiteind.com. This tool fits over the oversized hub cap and has holes that allow you to bolt it to the freewheel using the large hub bolts. A large wrench and brute force do the rest with no worries about it slipping off under torque.

crappy picture here: http://www.webcyclery.com/product.php?productid=17244&cat=383&page=1

So if you have the bench vise then method #1 might be best but that can only be done at home. I've had occasion to change my freewheel in the parking lot before a race to change the cog size (when Larry changes the Wakefiield course around!) so the tool is good for that.

Maybe I shouldn't be changing my freewheel cog size isn't that the point of SS? But it's hard at the start of the season to push the bigger gear. I must be getting old or something ;) Hope this info helps someone.

Paul G.

[pinto]

I've had two good years with the ENO on a '95 Litespeed Obed. I love how well they work together and would ride them until the trail fades away beneath us. If you go ENO it's worth it to get the "tool" made by White Ind. for removing the freewheel.

I know you don't want to use a tensioner but they do work and are cheap. I used the singleator back and forth between the Obed and a Wicked Fat for years (6, 8, 10?, it's foggy back there). It is a little less quiet and not as clean looking.

Either way you'll have a blast.

[dmofot]

I've used the ENO in the past, it's a good hub and does what it's designed to do - take up some chain slack. Depending on your ride and your style of riding, it might not be right for you though. I managed to pull a fixed cog off, including the hubs threads in the middle of the Watershed. Take it or leave it, I won't run it fixed again, but I still keep the hub around for quick singlespeed conversions.

DT

[walsh]

went down to the Bike Lane on Saturday, and talked to Loren and Jay. My frame may not be ideal for ENO use, but probably isn't horrible, either, so I went for it. Given that I was already shelling out for the hub, I went with a silver x717 rim to match it.

We'll see how this goes . . .