Infinity Drive
What is Infinity drive?
Our patent-pending design, 'Infinity Drive,' is the foundation to our Xeno hub.
It is "the first major innovation in hub design for 25 years" so it works very differently to any hub you've seen before.
There are 2 separate concentric axles as opposed to normal hubs which only have one. Each axle has its own separate pair of bearings. Both of these axles' bearing pairs activate individually depending on whether you are pedalling or free wheeling.
Conventional hubs squeeze the ratchet on the end of the free hub body next to the cassette. In the Xeno, the ratchet engagement and drive is moved to the other side of the wheel where there is more space. We call this, 'Disc Side Drive,' an important part of the Xeno's design.
How does it work?
The major (outer) axle consists of two components: the pawl holder (1) and axle (2) are machined together from one piece of aluminium. This screws into the cassette holder (3). This assembly acts as one large diameter super strong drive shaft passing all the way through cassette and hub body.
The drive from the cassette is transferred through the length of this shaft, through the hub body to the, 'Disc-Side Drive.' Here the pawls seen at (1) (black) will engage with the ratchet. The major axle rotates and the ratchet, attached to the hub body drives the bike forwards.
Pedalling
The pair of bearings on the minor/inner axle (shown) are activated only when pedalling.
There are two bearings located at each end of this axle, designed for maximum stiffness.
This axle does not move relative to your bolt through axle.
Freewheeling
The pair of bearings on the major/outer axle are only activated while freewheeling.
These bearings are as far apart as possible for maximum stiffness. As you can see, the axle shown remains still while the hub body rotates around it when freewheeling, but rotates with the hub body while pedalling.
Axles & Bearings
Our one-piece axle design makes the hub much stronger than any other on the market. You’ll never break an axle again. (So much so that we’ve included axle cover in our lifetime warranty). The strength of the axle not only helps reliability and bearing life; the increased stiffness aids downhill performance, pumping, landing and cornering.
Bearing placement and axle stiffness also helps our hubs deliver excellent performance. Pictured below is a demonstration of what happens in a hub which has standard bearing placement. Normally the drive side main bearing is located almost in the middle of the hub (shown as a ring on the axle in the blue, finite element, animation below). This means nearly all the weight of the rider goes through one bearing and straight through the middle of a weak axle. This is a common reason for broken axles.
The Xeno utilises wider positioned bearings which ride on a main axle that is much larger, and therefore many times stiffer, than the competition. A stiffer axle not only makes the hub much stronger, but also reduces axle flex, meaning bearing wear is reduced.
More in depth explanation:
Bearings underneath any hub shell cannot be at either end of the axle because the hub shell is not located in such position (casette holder has to be fitted next to it). This is the reason the main bearing (majority load taking bearing) is located almost in the middle of the axle. Unfortunately in normal hubs, most of the weight of the rider goes through this bearing which is located on a tiny, flimsy axle. This results in a lot of flex (as said previously, this then results in more bearing drag and wear).
Our hub is different in that the main bearing it runs on a much stiffer axle (Our main axle is 1000% stiffer than competitors' axles). This axle can support the load with much less flex and transfer it to the secondary axle, on which the bearings are positioned in a much more favourable location i.e. as wide as possible on the ends of the axle. Our main bearing is also positioned slightly wider than on normal hubs
Many hubs are equipped with an adjustable pre-load on angular contact or standard bearings, however, the Xeno does things differently. Each pair of bearings in our hub has one fixed and one floating bearing. This means that the bearings aren't fighting each other like in other heavily pre-loaded hubs, but are instead free to move where they need to, decreasing friction and increasing bearing life. Our automatic preload system takes the guesswork out of the equation.
Ratchet and Pawls
Our hub is equipped with 'Disc-Side Drive', meaning unlike a conventional hub, the ratchet and pawls are on the same side as the disc. On conventional pawl and ratchet hubs, the pawls are held in the freehub body, and the ratchet is squeezed underneath the hub shell/ drive side spoke flange. The location of the drive system on our hub allows for much more space; therefore accommodating a larger diameter ratchet, increasing leverage. This means that the teeth undergo lower forces while engaged. This gives the possibility for a greater amount of stronger engagement points and allows the ratchet to be built out of a lighter material, lowering the weight of the hub. Increased leverage not only benefits the ratchet teeth however. Aluminium pawls can also be used, which results in more efficient freewheeling and faster returning pawls.
The ratchet is attached to the hub behind the disc using the 4 disc bolts, making swapping the ratchet as easy as changing a disc.
Modularity
Our hub has a modular design meaning you can replace parts other hubs don’t give you the option to. Every part inside the hub shell can be replaced and spares will be manufactured for many years to come – no more dead wheels.
End caps are the same between boost and non-boost, and between different cassette holders.
Axles are the same between all cassette holders.
Want to change your cassette type? - Only one independent part is needed. This gives you more freedom than ever to change the type of cassette on your bike while being more affordable.
The ratchet is attached to the hub behind the disc using the 4 disc bolts. The pawls and pawl springs can also be accessed after undoing the same bolts. This means swapping the ratchet, pawls or pawl springs is almost as easy as changing a disc.
The way the pawl holder is attached and the way you get to the pawls eliminates both the frustration of the pawls or springs falling out after the free hub has come off, and the issue of free hub body seals not seating properly behind the cassette.
Weight
Due to our innovative axle design, and the resultant axle diameter, the engineers of you will know that wall thickness can be reduced massively while retaining multiple times the stiffness of competitors' axles.
Although being incredibly strong, the front and rear hub are both a very competitive weight: Starting at 260g for a rear hub and 140g for a front. This not only helps with climbing and bike manoeuvrability, but keeps unsprung mass low, allowing your suspension to work to its fullest potential.