Stan's No Tubes Neo Hub PSA

[Head Over Handlebars]

Quick warning to anyone considering a Stan’s No Tubes wheelset.

Back in January I got a Stan’s Flow mk3 wheelset for my hardtail. The rims are great, they’ve held up extremely well to my poor line choices. The issue is the hubs. The first failure happened just 2 months after purchase, at the very beginning of March. Complete bearing failure, which they replaced on warranty. Second issue was around the beginning of May. I replaced the freehub body at the same time I got a new cassette, to avoid damage to the cassette from the heavily notched freehub splines. Lucky I did, since the bearings were extremely rough and notchy. Third failure happened yesterday, when the hub started binding, causing the chain to push forward and fall off the front chainring. When I limped my bike back home I pulled out the whole freehub body, still attatched to the cassette. Not only had the bearings failed, but the axle snapped! Picture below.

Here you can see the jagged, broken axle and the side of the bearing race, that warped ring around the axle stub. Beneath that the bearings were just floating around not doing anything.

TL;DR: DON’T BUY STAN’S HUBS

Side note: I’m still waiting to hear back on a warranty claim for this one, but so far their customer service has been excellent.

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