ZTTO MTB M1 Boost hubs 28H 54T Ratchet

[adriaanm]

But aren't there some freehub differences between road and MTB ?

Yes, but they have a custom option for a road HG freehub ("if you need road bike 11speed HG or CP hub body, please contact us and mark on your order.")

And the front is in general 12x100mm instead of 15mm for road.

Good point! I'm hoping they have end caps for 12mm axle in the front. I'm planning to build some wheels with these next spring. I'll post here when I have more info.

[cst_jpr]

There are a few sellers on aliexpress selling "M2 rear hub" for ~$45, normal price on ZTTO official store is $66... hm probably not worth the risk but tempting.

edit: here are the official stores

We also do not have any warranty for them. We provide warranty for 3 stores from Aliepxress, ZTTO Bike store, ZTTO offical store and 100 bike store. Also Amazon US and Amazon CA. We will open our Amazon EU store in this year. I will contact you if I need someone to do the testing.

[carbonazza]

Thank you for the research!
Asking directly to ZTTO, is probably the best way to know.

[cst_jpr]

I like this seller, when discussing 60T:

We are not going to sell 60T yet. because we tried it and it is unstable, most of 60T did not passed the durability test.These teeth are smaller, we tried to improve its stability, but still not as good as 54T, we must be honest about this.Maybe this is why the original is only 54T. anyway, We will continue to improve our products and find new technologies to achieve higher performance.
.
Well...We respect everyone's preferences. If you are pursuing the ultimate and want to be different from others, you can choose 60T now, we tried our best, the stability of 60T is still not as good as 54T, but the difference is not so obvious. We will increase the detection time and choose a good quality ratchet to send. please ensure that the hub is well sealed and full of grease, good grease. Some customers reduce grease for noise, and we don't recommend it (no matter how many teeth). Grease not only reduces friction, but most importantly it allows dust and foreign matter to slide out of the contact surface.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000155469723.html

kind of tells you 54T is already on the edge for reliability.

[cst_jpr]

Got M2 with 11 speed, both the freehub and endcap were marked as "11sp road".

The only grease inside was on the ratchet area. There is a rubber seal in this area but don't see any grease there. The endcaps seem like they could have a rubber seal possibly, but, not installed. So, protection from water getting into the bearing is not the best. Otherwise looks OK.

261g with endcap.

[chrswbrwn]

Has anybody used the M1 hubs long enough to offer feedback on the longevity/quality? Also, did the spoke lengths provided by Ztto seem accurate? They told me 300mm and 302mm spokes for ERD 596mm. I've built two Chinese carbon frame bikes so far and I'm considering venturing into wheel building. I'll probably use these hubs and the BTLOS M-i27AS or M-i30AS. Any feedback or tips welcome. Thanks!

[Aliexpress Test Pilot]

I've got a set built up on Light Bicycle rims with pillar spokes as my main wheelset.
I'm 100km of off road riding on them in the mud and rocks (servere conditions)  with high loads on a 170mm travel bike that has high pedal kick back.
This can load the freehub very heavily.

If they were abnormally weak I would have killed them by now so far so good I'll report back as I get more mileage on them
I break things.

The spoke lengths from ZTTO were spot on.

[final forum]

Has anyone found O-Rings to work on the end caps?

Looking at https://www.competitivecyclist.com/dt-swiss-240s-conversion-end-caps

It looks like the DT swiss 240's dont have them either.

Cheers B

[adriaanm]

FYI:

I heard that ZTTO is to release road disc hubs with ratchet system called R2 - info from Aliexpress Ztto shop.
Maybe it is worth waiting...

[Aliexpress Test Pilot]

Update: i broke them after about 150km of riding
 ratchet mechanism skipping

[carbonazza]

Update: i broke them after about 150km of riding
 ratchet mechanism skipping

Did you try contacting them?
They seem to care about their clients.

[cst_jpr]

Update: i broke them after about 150km of riding
 ratchet mechanism skipping

Photos of the internals please. I'm guessing it cracked?
Rider weight and max rear ring might also be relevant. I suspect if you have rear 40T vs rear 20T thats going to be half the force hitting the ratchet.

[Aliexpress Test Pilot]

Photos of the internals please. I'm guessing it cracked?
Rider weight and max rear ring might also be relevant. I suspect if you have rear 40T vs rear 20T thats going to be half the force hitting the ratchet.

Internals are still intact no obvious signs of destruction. very little marring on the teeth and not excessive lubrication,  dry parts or contamination present they look good but they slip under torque
I tried pulling the springs to get them a bit stiffer, still skips.
I took the ratchet out and put them into a dt swiss hub....it skips.in the dt swiss hub
I put the DT swiss ratchets out and put them in the ztto hub....the ztto hub works fine with the DT Swiss ratchets.
And naturally the DT swiss ratchets back in the DT swiss hub works fine again.
So it is 100% the ratchet gears.

contacted ZTTO and requested a 36T, they indicated they would send one,  haven't received it yet....but it's still within the normal delivery time from Ali parts
 in the mean time I purchased a 18T dt swiss set of ratchets and have carried on using the hubs.    (18T cause they are cheap as dirt and readily available from people who upgraded)

I'm 180lbs a strong rider and I heard it skip a few times previously on some rocky technical climbs,  eventually giving out on a rocky climb that requires some sprinting to clean the obstacles. To the point where it could not sustain enough torque to pedal out of anything.

As mentioned the bike I ride has some high suspension travel chain growth and  notable pedal kick back at low speed when it goes deep into the travel. So loads could be considerable...
that stated I've run legit DT swiss hubs  for much longer with no issues.


In fact this is the first hub I've ever blown the guts out of. without years and years of use and no maintenance.

[tripleDot]

@AliExpress Test Pilot, I got interested with your 'skipping' ratchet. I have actually been testing the ZTTO 54T ratchet upgrade kit on my DT Swiss 350 hub. And I have great success. I've already done a 1,000km review of it here.

http://chinertown.com/index.php/topic,3078.0.html

I am 165lbs. I do a lot of long distance rides (70km or more) and we do have a lot of climbs. Bike is a full-rigid 29er XC.

I'm currently in the middle of a follow up review, going for 2,000km. My trail riding had been somewhat limited the past 3 months because the island I go to for that is closed due to COVID. So the follow up review is mostly paved and gravel roads. I'm also conditioning & training myself for bikepacking and had been adding weight on my bike, incrementally every week. This week, I've been riding with an extra 6kg (13.2lbs) so I'm pretty close to your weight. And my target is lugging 12kg by the end of March. As of today, I'm at 1,362km mark and so far the engagement is just wonderful. Should good weather prevail, I might hit the 2,000km by mid March. Clearly, I can't match the punishment you put on your setup but I will be on the look out for that 'skipping' you exerienced.

[Aliexpress Test Pilot]

I suspect that the replacement ratchets  ztto sells could be different possibly better made than what is in those hubs. The hubs are pretty generic around AliExpress with many different names and logos

Also I could have just gotten a turd. 
Reading Mtbr reviews the guys on the German forums didn’t have any luck with these hubs either until they switched to dt Swiss guts

I haven’t heard bad things about the ztto ratchets that are sold separately....course I don’t ride them either

I have 2 wheel sets with these hubs I plan to run the crap out of the other ones (with a set of ratchets in my pocket) and see if they break as well as beat on the ztto ratchets  I’ll report back confidence or failures


I really like the idea of good affordable lightweight  hubs...and want them to work
lace these with a set of DIY dyneema spokes and carbon rim from Btlos and you can get a 1200g Wheelset for like 500-600 bucks

Buying dt Swiss internals at retail kills the value equation here though