We’ve been building with Chris King R45 hubs a lot lately at the shop. These particular red ones are laced to Hed Belgium rims which are tubeless or tube friendly.
The R45 hubset is 20% lighter than the Classic hubset. A newly designed hubshell and new 17 mm axles are just the beginning. That’s 17 mm from dropout to dropout, resisting deflection during cornering or when the power is full on. A new driveshell with a twin bearing design and responsible removal of excess material shredded as much weight possible from the inner components. Even the patented RingDrive engagement system was redeveloped resulting in a quiet, fast-engaging 45-tooth stainless steel system unique to the R45 rear hub.
King designed and built a bearing specifically for the R45 hubset. As with every King bearing, these stainless steel sealed bearings are made in-house in Portland, Oregon and individually hand-checked for precision and smoothness. The proprietary bearing design allows King to place more rolling elements per bearing meaning greater durability and precision. R45 bearings also feature lightweight, low-friction seals for fast rolling and can be easily serviced at regular intervals using only a single 2.5 mm hex wrench and penknife. Let us build you a set today!