* Yes, 44 spokes. I'm not sure exactly how this came about, but when I got the hub it had 20 spoke holes on the left flange and 24 evenly spaced spoke holes on the right flange. I don't know if my business partners ordered it that way, or Hi-E accidentally built it that way. But I recently purchased another one exactly like it on ebay, so it's not so much of a freak.

Anyways, there I was building a wheel to ride across the US on and the hub flange had more holes than I was expecting. So I built it anyways. I drilled 4 extra holes in the rim and built it with 4 extra pulling spokes on the freewheel side.

The next year, before the next transcontinental bike trip I got a new flange from Hi-E and rebuilt the hub and the wheel. The wheel still has 4 extra pulling spokes on the drive side, but now they are spaced like a 40 spoke flange with 4 extra holes drilled 90 degrees apart to match my 44 spoke rim.

I think I broke one spoke in that wheel. It broke the day after I botched up jumping up a curb. After that, I decided I shouldn't jump up crubs on a loaded touring bike anymore.

In about 2000, the left hub flange broke while the bike was parked in my basement. That's why I got the second 44 spoke Hi-E hub on ebay. It's still awaiting repair.