Bearing Options

All Extralite hubs and wheels are offered with a choice of ready installed bearings among the best available today.

All bearings feature low-friction rubber seals on both sides.

Hyper hubs, that are specifically designed for off-road use, feature an additional external O-r seal that protects the bearing seals.
Internal bearing selection
Each bearing unit is individually selected by Extralite staff, we check seal drag, rolling smoothness then select and divide them 3 different fitting classes of internal diameter, each class is 2 microns by the next one.  
Despite all our bearings come directly from very high quality manufacturers our staff individually checks each unit for rolling smoothness and bore dimensional tolerance.
Extralite staff checks rolling smoothness and seal drag resistance first, then all the units passed are selected and divided in 3 different fitting classes of internal bore, each class is 2 microns by the next one. All that allows our famous truly perfect axle to bearing fitting that together with our precise bearing preload offers very high mileage with minimal rolling resitance. 

Abec5 Steel bearings	Famous Abi-Enduro ABEC 5 precision bearings Standard equipment for all Extralite Road hubs
	Plus	Minus
	High mileage Good rolling resistance High impact resistance Average best choice for dry environments and occasional bike washing	Sensible to water & moisture inside the hub

 

ABI 440C Stainless bearings	Abi-Enduro precision fully stainless bearings 440C Standard equipment for all Extralite MTB hubs 4-5g average weight-saving on the hubset (compared to Abec5)
	Plus	Minus
	High corrosion resistance Highly resistant to water/moisture (inside hub too) Medium-high impact resistance Average best choice for humid environment and/or frequent bike washing	Medium mileage Medium rolling resistance

 

 

HYC HyperCeramic	Extralite Ceramic bearings, extremely durable & non-rustable 5-6g average weight-saving on the hubset (compared to Abec5)
Stainless Races: AMS5618 Cryogenically treated Triple-polishing process (RA / RC-RP-RV) Ra 0.10 Balls: Grade 3 Silicon Nitride with HIP processing Seals: Hi-quality Low-friction lip-labyrint Really trick!	Plus	Minus
	Low rolling resistance Low weight High mileage High impact resistance Highly resistant to water/moisture (inside hub too) Best choice for maximum racing performance and durability	Installation requires very good skills

 

XD-15 Ceramic	World trickiest Ceramic bearings ever, extremely durable & non-rustable 4-5g average weight-saving on the hubset (compared to Abec5)
https://cycling.endurobearings.com/pages/enduro-innovations#xd15	Plus	Minus
	Low rolling resistance Highest mileage Fully openable and rebuildable Highly resistant to water, moisture and salt Best choice for maximum racing performance and durability	Expensive Installation requires very good skills

Read well these basic info before ordering the parts.
Bearing replacement is not an easy operation as it may seem.
Additionally the installation of any kind of Ceramic bearings requires a very good specific expertise.
Extralite offers complete tool-sets for hub maintenance: the Pro-tool kit 1 and Bearing-sitter includes bearing inserting tools in every bearing sizes used on UltraHubs / HyperHubs / CyberHubs.
If your hub was originally equipped with standard bearings it will probably require micro-tolerance adjustments to axle and bearing fittings, this
to allow proper bearing rotation and durability (these operations are for real experts only). Alternatively send your hub to us for this servicing.

 

Read well Bearing Tips before attempting a bearing replacement.

 

This option has been offered till 2024

HDC Heavy-Duty Ceramic	Hi-quality Heavy-Duty Hybrid Ceramic bearing 5-6g average weight-saving on the hubset (compared to Abec5)
	Plus	Minus
	Good mileage Low rolling resistance Medium-high impact resistance Medium resistance in humid environment Good choice for best racing performance	Complex installation Sensible to water & moisture inside the hub

 

Wheel building instructions for
HyperBoost3 F / Smart3 F - HyperBoost3 R / Smart3 R - HyperLefty3

Here you find all the necessary instructions to build up your dream wheels with pre-calculated spoke lengths.

Follow instructions step by step:

1) Measure your "Spoke-End Diameter"

2) Find your spoke length on table

3) See specific notes about spoke and rim types

4) Follow correct lacing pattern

Rim offset:
2-3mm of rim offset influences the spoke length for an average 0.3mm only.
You may neglect it or eventually just use that tiny amount for rounding lengths to the available spoke size.

Maximum spoke tension:

HyperBoost3 F - Refer to specific manuals

Spoke lacing and tensioning require skills and experience, refer to an expert professional wheel builder for these operations.

1
"Spoke-End-Diameter"

Rim manufacturers offer ERD figures however we warmly recommend to precisely measure the rim+nipple combination.

Basically a correct spoke calculation requires exact "Spoke-End-Diameter" and rim drilling.

Spoke-end diameter depends on your rim internal diameter and nipple type too.

2
Spoke lenght
HyperBoost/Smart3 F - Hyper/SmartBoost3 R - HyperLefty3

All sides - straight-pull spokes - all measures are in mm

How to measure "Spoke-End-Diameter"

Spoke-end diameter depends on your rim and nipple type and length.

Below you see how to measure SED for both nipple types:
External nipple configuration
Internal nipple configuration

Take measures very precisely because a well correct nipple/spoke assembly accepts a spoke-length tolerance of +/-1mm only.
(All measures are expressed in mm)

External nipple configuration

1) Insert two J-spokes (random size) with the nipples (of your final build) into 2 opposite rim holes.

This simple trick helps to keep spokes aligned and slightly tensioned.

2) Precisely measure distance between nipples.

Be careful to take measure between the 2 nipple-ends.

3) Add 2x by the nipple height (of your final build) to the measure above.
This gives "Spoke-End-Diameter".
Note: with slotted nipples measure height inside the cut.

Internal nipple configuration

You can get the necessary data following the procedure below:
1) Precisely measure outer rim diameter (A).

2) Insert a nipple of your final build into a hole (use a spoke to hold nipple in position).
3) Precisely measure distance between nipple-top and outer rim diameter (B).

This is the correct caliper positioning inside the rim (don't cut your rim!)

4) A-2B = "Spoke-End-Diameter".

Hyper "3 & 3+" hubs (This hub family includes " HyperBoost3-R "  " HyperSmart3-R & R+ ")

Hyper hubs have been long-term tested in the wet environment of north Europe from the start.
For over a decade we have constantly developed and refined each single detail of our Hyper hubs.
Properly maintained hubsets reach a very remarkable lifespan, read below how to.

Never spray-wash hubs in general (any model of any brand).
Avoid high-pressure washing directly onto freewheel, even the best lip-seals aren't capable to resist to hi-frequency water spray.
When water-moisture get inside the hub mechanism it carries dirt particles too, these can quickly damage the internal hub parts.
The amount of wear depends on the quantity of dirt laying inside, the mileage, and how abrasive are the dirt fine particles.
These 3 factors combined can bring to a premature wear of bearings, hub-shell splines and freehub mechanism.

"Hyper" hubs bearings
All models of "Hyper" hub family feature unique external O-ring seals for an additional protection of the bearing seals and are standard equipped with Enduro 440 stainless bearings that do not suffer for oxidation-corrosion. In clean conditions good bearings can last for 30-40.000 Km, however in the mtb riding environment water can get in bringing fine abrasive dirt particles with it.
For the reason described above the wear of metal races and balls directly depends to the type and amount of dirt that get inside the races.
All models can be ordered with optional super-high grade steel and non-corrodable Ceramic bearings for reduced friction and longer lifespan:  HyperCeramic or Enduro XD-15.

"Hyper" hubs Servicing / Frequent Errors
We warmly recommend to learn the basics about our MTB engagement system from the start in order to ensure an extended durability of your hub.
Hyper freehub mechanism works in a far different way than other front-engagement hubs you may already know (ChrisKing / DT / others).
Never wrench on Hyper hubs by instinct or past experience but read manuals and strictly follow the instructions step by step (don't skip any step).

Understanding "Hyper" freehub principle is extremely important.
HyperRear freehub function is fully based on the velocity of "Floating-Ring" movement.
"Floating-Ring" movement should happen instantly ( one millisecond only) and this dictates the servicing rules you find on our manuals.
Once few engagement teeth got damaged by a slow / un-free movement of the Floating Ring the entire freewheel assembly must be replaced.

Avoid the following errors that will seriously damage the hub internal parts (immediately or in a very short time):
- Too much grease.
- Uncorrect positioning of grease. Never apply grease on hub-shell splines (oil them only).
- Wrong grease type (Lithium grease is one of the most dangerous).
- Micro Tuner way off its correct position (this increases also the clearance between the engagement teeth)

Regularly service your Hyper hub strictly following its instruction manual step by step (don't skip any step).
Again: never wrench or service Extralite hubs by instinct or only by past experience!

Old and new parts
As you see the first signs of wear we warmly recommend to install a new Floating Ring, it will help to prevent wear of hubshell splines.
Never install a worn-out Floating Ring in a still good hubshell, it will quickly damage and wear the hubshell splines!
All "3" hub models benefit of over 12 years of continuos developement and offer the longer lifespan of every part. 

Hubshell Splines - Potential risk
When riding with dirt inside the freewheel mechanism the hard particles of sand will badly grind the hubshell splines.
As the "floating ring" doesn't  move well and instantly a freewheel mis-engagement can permanently damages the freewheel parts.
In this case replacing "floating ring" and/or "Freewheel body" does not solve.
See this example of badly worn-out hubshell splines that need an expensive hub-shell replacement (or eventually sent back for re-sharpening). 

Opening "Rear Axle-Ends" on Thru-axle models
Use only two 17mm closed wrenches.

Feel free to ask for additional tech info, we'll be happy to help!