Trek Boost 148 vs. Cannondale Ai Drivetrain

There was a time where you had a 135mm wide rear hub with a QR to mount it, wheels where using 19mm with 26″ rim brake rims. Every bike had the same.

• Then disc brakes came that could have other shapes on the rims
• Then 29er wheels came and it got a lot bigger
• Then 12×142 hubs came to stiffen things up
• Then 27,5″ wheels came and didn’t change a thing.

Wheels getting bigger, tires getting wider, people ride more aggressive. But still you got the same flanges on hubs and same spoke patterns.

Special on the rear wheel where you have a wide cassette on one side and a rotor on the other side. So soon it is 2015 and a couple of big bike companies thought a bit extra of the soft wheel issue. 

— On one side Trek with their Remedy 29er together with Sram. They use 12×142 normally but now they widened the hub 3mm on each side to get the flanges wider and the wheel stiffer. They also moved the front chainrings a bit out to make it possible (without changing Q-factor):

Should be as stiff as a 26″ wheel they say:

But they still got longer spokes on the left side and shorter on the right side back.

— The other solution is Cannondale with their new F-SI 29er hardtail. They don’t think 12×142 makes it any stiffer with their frame so they still use a QR as it’s a racebike and should be easy to swap wheel when punctured.

Instead of making a new hub they ”changed” the center. Moved the drivetrain out 6mm to the right they can have same spoke tension on both sides. Did like Trek and moved the chainrings without changing Q-factor. Easy for Cannondale as they produce their own crankset. It looks like this:

2 solutions on the same problem. Will the third company (Specialized) use one of this standards or will they make up their own?