These new DT Swiss 350 Highway hubs look quite a bit like the most recent DT mountain bike 350s. That’s as a result of they’re just about the identical factor, simply tailored for street spacing and drivetrains. However let’s face it, the bike trade wants extra high-quality, reliable elements that aren’t essentially combating to be the lightest, fanciest, or most costly. And whereas a set of DT Swiss hubs isn’t the most affordable choice on the market, the 350s are DT’s lowest-cost aftermarket hubset, and so they simply acquired a premium efficiency and reliability improve.
Need extra premium, fancier tech? You’ll be able to at all times go for the newer, dearer Ratchet EXP 180 & 240 hubs.
DT Swiss 350 Highway bike hubs upgraded
Let’s face it, this was a very long time coming. DT Swiss already upgraded their 350 mountain bike hubs from 18-tooth to 36-tooth SL Star Ratchet engagement customary, virtually two years again. The truth is, full alloy DT MTB wheels already had the brand new centerlock hubs even 9 months earlier.
On the time they had been solely supplied MTB customary sizes, so when you might get a centerlock & 6-bolt hubset for traditional mountain bikes, trendy Increase mountain bikes, and even fats bikes… when you had a rim brake bike, or simply wanted a 12mm thru-axle entrance hub… you had been out of luck.
Till now…
So, what’s new?
Identical to on the path, DT Swiss 350 Highway hubs are their on a regular basis workhorse on street, gravel & cyclocross, too. So DT provides them the identical upgrades to maintain your wheels spinning longer. For essentially the most half, the brand new 350 Highway hub isn’t truly very new, somewhat a way more refined evolution of the long-proven 350s. This era does appear to look much more just like the higher-end 240s, simply with easy black & white graphics and the confirmed Star Ratchet tech inside.
Beginning off, they do get a bit extra in depth machining than the outdated 350s, with a purpose to shed a pair grams. The truth is, the DT weight declare on the brand new 350 Highway Traditional hubset begins at 383g, making them lighter than the outdated pre-EXP 240 Traditional hubset which began at 401g.
Our 350 Highway Traditional Centerlock hubset weighs an precise mixed 400g with a Shimano freehub & 12mm thru-axles (142g entrance, 258g rear).
Inside, as a substitute of upgrading to the newer Ratchet EXP internals, the 350s stick with tried-and-true Star Ratchets, however do get quicker engagement with DT’s light-weight machined-out 36T SL metal ratchet rings inside.
The brand new 350 Highway hubs additionally characteristic the identical straightforward tool-free swaps from one freehub physique to the following as the remainder of DT’s premium hubs. That makes swapping two totally different cassette ranges for a similar drivetrain straightforward with out instruments, or the identical factor when swapping, for instance from Shimano to SRAM cassettes when transferring one wheelset from bike-to-bike, once more with out instruments.
That additionally contains the brand new tool-free endcaps we first noticed on the high 180 EXP hubs. They get a refined notched finish profile that’s simpler to understand together with your hand so that you gained’t have to tug out my Unior Hub Genie each time you wish to pop a cap off. OK, possibly that’s a disgrace. However they’re nonetheless a extremely tight match, so the Hub Genie is less complicated on my fingers.
Inside, these upgraded 36T SL Star Ratchet pairs double engagement, right down to 10°. However in fact, you may nonetheless at all times swap out totally different units of Ratchet rings (for ~$50-120 / 40-95€) to get the engagement angle that’s best for you, your bike, and your type of driving. DT breaks down why the limitless hunt for quicker engagement isn’t at all times the right answer for everybody. They usually provide 6.7-20° engagement choices so determine.
DT Swiss 350 Highway hubs – Choices, pricing & availability
The actual distinction although between the most recent DT Swiss 350 MTB hubs and these new 350 Highway hubs comes right down to extra choices.
The brand new DT 350 Highway hubs are available each Traditional medium flange hubs for conventional J-bend spokes and machined-down StraightPull hubs for straight-pull spokes.
Each variations are available a Centerlock-only disc brake model or conventional non-disc model for rim brake bikes. All 4 of these separate mixtures seem to spin on the identical sealed chrome steel bearing and outsized alloy axles, which means all are suitable with both traditional street QR axles (5×100/130mm) or trendy 12mm thru-axles (12×100/142mm). Traditional flange hubs are supplied in 20, 24, 28 & 32-hole drilling, Straightpull hubs in simply 20 & 24-holes.
Formally, the entire new 350 Highway hubs can be found with Shimano Highway 11sp & SRAM XDR Ratchet freehub our bodies and endcaps, however solely the thru-axle variations are proven to be suitable with Campagnolo N3W Ratchet our bodies. However primarily based on the in depth Conversion database on all of DT’s present 240 & 350 street hubs, there must be a traditional Campy choice potential for all new 350 Highway hubs.
The brand new DT Swiss 350 Highway hubs can be found beginning in the present day out of your favourite wheel builders and DT retailers, with entrance hub pricing from $113 / 85€ and rear hub costs from $285 / 215€. That’s a noticeable enhance from the outdated street 350s (at the very least a 30% bump for European patrons). However with materials and power value inflation, these street 350 are even a bit dearer than the MTB model was after they debuted in 2021.
I suppose, snap ’em up now to construct a bulletproof street or gravel wheelset, earlier than they inflate even additional.
Myself, I’ve laced up a set of the brand new 350 Highway hubs right into a pair of DT Swiss GR531 alloy rims with 24 shiny silver AeroLite spokes, ProLock brass nipples & spoke washers. They tip the scales at 1756g for the pair, and will serve me nicely as a bulletproof gravel wheelset for bikepacking and all-around journey driving.
