DT Swiss 54t Star Ratchet Upgrade Kit [Rider Review]

Our "Rider Review" article series features the honest reviews from verified purchasers of Worldwide Cyclery. They contain the photos, thoughts, feedback & overall review you are looking for.

DT Swiss is a staple when it comes to mountain bike wheels, hubs, and spokes. Hands down the coolest thing that DT Swiss offers with their products is being able to upgrade the engagement with their ratchet kit. Our friend, Steve, just threw in the 54t upgrade kit in their hub. See what they think!

Overview

If you are like most of us, a nice set of wheels are some of the best upgrades you can make to your bike. But, nice wheels aren't only about being lightweight and high strength. It's also about performance. Increasing the rate of hub engagement will give you more immediate power right when you need it. Power out of corners and ratchet up technical climbs without losing power output to excessive slack or free stroke in your cranks. After riding my current wheel set/hubs I was longing for better engagement which lead me to my current DT Swiss 240s hubs. Unfortunately, the hubs stock only come with an 18T ratchet and noticeably worse than my previous hubs that I wanted to upgrade from. Purchasing the DT Swiss Ratchet 54T Upgrade kit was a must for me to increase hub engagement. For those that don't know, your engagement is how long it takes the hubs to engage to move the wheel forward - the less engagement the more "Dead" spot you will have.

The DT Swiss Ratchet 54T Upgrade kit, will triple the engagement points of your stock 18 tooth star ratchet. After installation, engagement of your hub will only take 6.6 degrees of pedal movement vs the 20 degrees stock set up. The kit includes everything you need to make the swap quickly - including two star ratchets, two springs and DT Swiss' specially formulated Molykote grease. This upgrade fits DT Swiss 190 ceramic, 240, 350 or 440 hubs.

Installation is a breeze.

Take the wheel off, grab the cassette, pull and freehub will pop right off to expose the DT Swiss Star Ratchet system. Remove the old springs X2 and star ratchets X2. Once you have the old ratchets/springs out, clean the entire hub internals. Make sure to keep any solvent or degreaser away from the seals on your bearings. Then apply the DT ratchet grease to the new 54T star ratchets and put it all back together. The order goes conical spring => ratchet drive ring => ratchet drive ring =>conical spring => freehub body => end cap. Will take less than 5 minutes for most. Now go out and ride to see what a difference the 54T ratchet makes!

Final Thoughts

There are a lot of hubs on the market these days that have more and less engagement than the DT Swiss, but the ease of maintenance of DT Swiss Hubs was one of the main reasons I went with the 240s. They are pretty much bomb proof. If you are currently running DT Swiss Hubs and not upgraded to the 54T ratchet kit, do yourself a favor and order one from World Wide Cyclery and see for yourself how good more hub engagement is. You won't be disappointed!