What is a Cush drive hub?
A cush drive hub is designed to reduce stress from engine torque. By dampening the initial shock from the motor on acceleration and shifting gears. Its basically made with 2 pieces. The hub that holds the spokes and rim. And the housing that the sprocket bolts to. Both are machined with tabs or fingers to fit together similar to how your sprocket fits into the links of your chain . The there are rubber dampers that go between the sprocket housing and the hub itself between the fingers or tabs.
Do I need a Cush drive hub?
In theory it is a great idea. It will reduce the wear on your transmission no matter what size of motor you have or how much horsepower its putting out. Is it needed? It all depends on you. If your worried about wear on your bike. If your a hard shifter. If you are really aggressive on and off the throttle a lot then maybe its a good choice for you.
They are a couple pounds heavier than a direct drive hub. We have seen bikes transmissions go out with bike that only get ridden in the dirt. Once you start riding on the pavement your not going to get the wheel spin like you do in the dirt. So there will be more force on all the components of your bike. Our thinking is that if your transmission is going to go out. It does not matter what oil you used, what tire you run or if your using a cush hub or not. If the harmonics of your transmission is off there is nothing you can do to stop it. If a bike manufacture has a week transmission on a certain model its going to wear faster no matter what you do.
Do we recommed the cush hub?
You need to decide if spending an extra $150 is worth the chance to reduce wear on your transmission. The hub itself will do its job. Its taking a gamble if your bikes drive train is solid or not. You would be looking at hundreds more to rebuild the transmission.