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Rolf Prima Updates Road Hubs for 11-Speed, Adds Disc Brake Road Wheels

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2013 Rolf Prima titanium 11-speed road bike hubs and disc brake road wheels

Rolf Prima isn’t just upgrading their road hubs with an 11-speed compatible freehub body, they’re doing it with titanium!

Starting today, their TdF4.4 and TdF5.5 road hubs will come with a CNC’d titanium freehub that’ll work with Shimano’s new 11-speed cassettes. They’ll ship with spacers to accommodate 9- and 10-speed cassettes, too, and an aftermarket upgrade kit will be available to retrofit their older hubs for 11-speed. They’ve done ti freehubs for a while, but these are a new design that’s lighter thanks to machined out sections on the fronts of each spline to save weight. The shape and width are tweaked to accommodate the additional cog.

UPDATE: all changes are on the freehub body. A thinner backing plate and slightly extended freehub body allow the 11-speed cassette to fit without modifying the rear hubshell. This means no reduction in dish, and it’s how they’ll be able to make it retrofit older 10-speed hubs.

“We know not everyone will be upgrading to the new Shimano 11-speed right away, but chances are good that we’ll be seeing 11-speed on the lower price point groups shortly. Since our customers are going to have their wheels for at least a couple of years, it is important that we provide them with versatility now.” Said Brooke Bauer, Marketing at Rolf Prima. “Making our 11-speed hubs retrofittable to older Rolf Prima wheels was an important consideration so we don’t leave anyone in a lurch as they make the move to 11-speed.”

The new Rolf Prima TdF4.4 and TdF5.5 11-speed compatible hubs will be available on their Ares, TdF, Vigor and Elan wheels. Conversion kits can be ordered now.

For disc brakes, they’ll have two models based on their ‘cross wheels and announced in the next few weeks. More to come…

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teh persons
teh persons
11 years ago

I like how this article accurately captures the questionable nature of “11? speed”.

11? Really? 10 wasn’t enough?

11? Because wheels can totally handle that kind of lousy dish?

WannaBeSTi
WannaBeSTi
11 years ago

You’d never notice the difference…

teh persons
teh persons
11 years ago

My wallet would.

Joel
Joel
11 years ago

It does increase the dish but it’s actually the same dish as required for Campagnolo 11? speed which has a solid track record at this point. I’ve been riding 11 speed for a while now and I like it. Is it necessary? No, but neither was the 6 speed freewheel or index shifting.

Gillis
Gillis
11 years ago

@teh: some of that dish will be alleviated as the move to 135 spacing progresses.

harro
harro
11 years ago

Rolf is still in business?

Jerry
Jerry
11 years ago

@harro: seems Rolf has somehow proven old technology and poor service can still turn a profit. Or maybe its just royalties from Trek/Bontrager from back in the day…

christian
christian
11 years ago

@Jerry: Rolf Prima is not the same as Rolf from the Trek days.

DRC
DRC
11 years ago

Love my Rolf Prima wheels. Probably ordering another set here pretty soon.

offcamber
offcamber
11 years ago

@ Christian: Rolf is not the same as Rolf from the Dietrich days:

http://projects.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/web/business/18964853-41/story.csp

ChrisC
ChrisC
11 years ago

@offcamber – How does Dietrich selling his stake to the co-founder of the company change things substantially? Certainly less than when they were acquired by Trek. No, it’s not Rolf’s company any more, but I’m pretty sure that Campagnolo is “not the same company” as back in Tulio’s day either.

offcamber
offcamber
11 years ago

@ Chris: and what evidence shows that Rolf is the same company after Dietrich left?

I never wrote things changed substantially, you did. You also acknowledge that things did changed “ie certainly less…”, thus we are talking about the same thing. So, not sure what you are trolling about.

Rolf Prima under Dietrch was never interested in mtn bikes wheels, now they are. RP was a conservative company in their designs, now they are jumping on cutting edge designs like 11-spd cassette bodies and disc hubs. Not the same company? I’m leaning towards, yes.

Business 101: when the founder/visionary leaves, precedence shows that companies are never the same. Just as Apple is not the same without Jobs. Just as Yakima is not the same when it was sold to a Chinese Investment firm.

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