R45 Road Racing Hubs

An all-new, lightweight hubset designed expressly for the demands of road racing

Chris and our engineering team began every design meeting for the R45 with two words - Light & Fast. Every element of each hub was reconsidered and much of the design is all-new including new dimensions and new materials. Something very important we did carry over, however, is the soul of a King hub. Same user serviceability and same 5-year warranty.

Light
The R45 hubset is 20% lighter than our already light Classic hubset. We started by making both front and rear hubshells smaller and sleeker and then adding all-new 17mm axles. That's 17mm from dropout to dropout resisiting deflection during cornering or when the power is full on. We designed a new driveshell to fit the new rear hub design, removing as much weight as possible from the shell and its inner components. But the highlight of the new rear hub is the 45-tooth titanium RingDrive. We chose titanium for this new design not just because it is light but also because with a lower tooth count than our standard RingDrive it is remarkably quiet.

Fast
The R45 hubset has it's own all-new stainless steel sealed bearings. As with every King bearing, these bearings are made in-house in Portland, Oregon and individually hand-checked for precision and smoothness. Our proprietary bearing design allows us 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 2.5mm hex wrench and penknife.

In response to demand for handbuilt, low-spoke count wheels, we offer the R45 in a wider array of drillings than our Classic hubs. The R45 is also designed to be compatible with radial lacing patterns. Your favorite shop can help you determine the best spoke count and lacing pattern for your riding style.

Chris King R45 Road Racing hubs are available in ten colors