MEATengines

My Twenty Year Old Profile Racing Hub Rides Again

As it gets laced up for the umpteenth time, it’s hard not to appreciate how bulletproof this four-pawl Profile Racing hub has proven to be. It was first laced into a 26″ Mavic 321 just over twenty years ago. Grant Hobbis, my boss at Cap’s Bicycles laced the first build and I proceeded to ride it for years on my various single speeds. 

It’s had a few sets of bearings and one fresh set of pawls and springs over the years but it’s still on the original drivering and that titanium freehub body still happily accepts a fresh cassette with no ‘persuasion’ required. 

{This hub has been laced to so many different rims over time I’ve lost count. Both its first rim and its current hoop are made by Mavic with a focus on survivability over gram counting.}
It was about ten years old when my friend Craig laced it into some Deep-V's for my JakeTheSnake commuter. This bike never fit me perfectly but I loved it all the same.
{It was about ten years old when my friend Craig laced it into some Deep-V’s for my JakeTheSnake commuter. This bike never fit me perfectly but I loved it all the same.}

The Profile has served on various commuter bikes and other projects over the years and most recently took on the brutal duties of Cargo Bike rear hub after my Alfine hub tried to kill me. That pretty much catches us up to the current moment, where the Profile once again proved its worth as the rim around it started to fail in multiple spots.

Yes, I know that my cargo rig and I are well over the weight limit for a Stan’s Crest rim but still, it’s not like I jump the thing or have any kind of e~assist attached to it. Just my legs and a low-low gear. Anyways, that poor Crest failed in four spots with numerous cracks around the spoke holes and one nipple pulled straight through. 

My new Mavic A 1025 is made in France. It's welded and has eyelets at the spoke holes. It's heavier than the Crest but hopefully will have a long and happy life that doesn't end in blood-curdling squeaks of death.
{My new Mavic A 1025 is made in France. It’s welded and has eyelets at the spoke holes. It’s heavier than the Crest but hopefully will have a long and happy life that doesn’t end in blood-curdling squeaks of death.}
The beast is back on the road after a few weeks of downtime. The 'rona parts shortage is real even for those of us working in the industry.
{The beast is back on the road after a few weeks of downtime. The ‘rona parts shortage is real even for those of us working in the industry.}

After seeing my Stan’s rim fail horribly I really wanted the replacement to have eyeleted spoke holes, which led my back to Mavic. I bought a new A 1025, which has an interesting shape but is otherwise a classic Mavic rim. It’s made in France, has a welded seam, and it’s perfectly straight-and-round right out of the box. It was really nice to build. 

My first ride on the hoop was today. Just down to the shop and back. It sure is nice having a mostly quiet bike again (the wooden box sounds a bit like a sailboat making its way through the ocean) and my bike is confidence-inspiring again when I’m getting hard on my four-piston Magura brakes and 8″ rotor combination. 

Next time it’s due for a proper teardown I’ll show off the guts but for now, the hub is back to workhorse duty getting my me-powered bicycle-truck around and about. It’s the second oldest bicycle component I still have in regular use, which is pretty cool considering the other one is a bottle cage and this has a bunch of moving parts. 

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