The idea behind hi-low hubs is to put the right-side spokes at a greater angle to the plane of the wheel, making it stronger and allowing somewhat more uniform spoke tensions. I suspect this is the good idea to which you referred. Unfortunately, this only works for radial spoking, which is a stunningly bad idea, and even then, the benefit is very small. There is no benefit with conventional, tangential spoking. They look very cool, though, and I'd wire up a set of Campagnolo hi-lows on one of my Colnagos in a heartbeat.
High-flange hubs have the same problem: no technical benefit if spoking is conventional. But, the term "elegant" doesn't begin to do them justice, in my opinion.
Steve Maas (who took out the low-flange chrome Hetchins today for a spin around) Long Beach, California
Emanuel Lowi wrote:
> I see several manufacturers have made hi-lo rear hubs
> over the years: Campy, Maxicar, maybe Phil.
>
> Seems like a good idea at first glance -- but i'm no
> engineer.
>
> If it is a good idea, why hasn't the concept become
> ubiquitous?
> Or is one better off just using an all HF rera hub for
> greatest strength?
>
> Or does it matter most how many cogs one has got
> running back there, or whether freewheel vs. cassette?
>
> Emanuel Lowi
> Montreal, Quebec (where they hit us for duty and TWO
> taxes on imported used vintage cycle components and
> frames, and a handling fee on top of it. But we have
> free health care!)
>
>
>
>
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
> http://mail.yahoo.com
> _______________________________________________
>
>
> .