PHIL WOOD TRACK HIGH FLANGE FRONT HUB

Design and construction

Phil Wood's bearings are the point. They are full-contact sealed cartridge bearings, meaning the seal rubs the inner race rather than floating above it, which adds a little drag and keeps water out completely; packed with Phil's own waterproof grease, they run for years in the worst conditions. The touring hub uses a 6061 axle and 6902 bearings, with a Carbonyte low-drag bearing upgrade available, and the shell is machined thick because a touring hub is not where weight is saved. Wide flanges give the rear wheel lateral stiffness under a load.

A front hub is a bearing carrier with flanges, and that is the whole job of the front track high flange: two sealed bearings on a stiff axle, end caps for your fork's standard, and flanges spaced to give the spokes a good bracing angle on the rotor side. There is nothing to engage and nothing to swap. Everything written about freehubs and engagement applies to the rear hub only; what you get up front is the same shell quality and the same seals without any of the moving parts.

How it rides

A Phil Wood high-flange track wheel is stiff, because tall flanges shorten the spokes, and permanent, because the bearings are sealed for life. It is the Phil hub for velodrome bikes and fixed-gear bikes that want the classic look, and it stays true through years of skidding and sprinting.

On the road or the trail the front hub's job is to disappear: spin freely, keep water out, and hold the flanges still so the wheel tracks where you point it. The front track high flange does that with the same bearings and seals as the rear and none of the rear's complexity, and because a front wheel carries less load and no torque it stays true longer than the rear on the same rim. When the rear finally needs a look, the front usually does not.

Specifications

Which version this is

Version notes. Rim-brake rotor mount, Bolt On 9x100mm, QR 5x100mm, 24h, 28h, 32h, 36h, about 262g, in polished, black. If your frame or fork uses a different standard, the other versions of the track high flange on this site cover it.

No rotor mount here: this is the rim-brake version of the track high flange, which drops the disc flange and the weight that goes with it. It suits rim-brake road, touring and track frames and it is often the lightest hub in the family. Disc-brake frames need one of the disc versions listed separately.

Sizes, fit and compatibility

J-bend spokes in any gauge; we build most track wheels with DT Champion or Sapim Race and Laser spokes and brass nipples.

It pairs naturally with the H Plus Son Archetype and TB14, Velocity Deep V and Fusion, and any track rim in the catalog that matches its drilling. Pick track or fixed-gear as your bike type in the configurator and it recommends a spoke count and lacing pattern.

Build it with us

We build this hub to order. Open the Custom Wheel Program with the Phil Wood Track High Flange Front Hub already selected and pick the parts around it; it is offered for track and road single-speed builds, and the configurator will not let you assemble a combination we would not build.

Building it at ProWheelBuilder

Phil Wood makes the track high flange; ProWheelBuilder is an independent custom wheel builder in Georgia and not the manufacturer. The build is the same every time: measured ERD, spokes cut to the half millimeter, staged tensioning with a gauge, stress relief, a final true, and tubeless tape and a valve on request.

The configurator shows only rims and spokes that fit the track high flange drilling, strikes through combinations that are not made, and prices the wheel live.