Has this knackered my freehub?

[jay clock]

I am selling a pair of Easton wheels and the freehub has some little nicks on it. I think these were caused by the freehub working a bit loose and the cassette moving around.

I will try to post a pic, but the key questions is does it matter? I will be ebaying them and want to be honest

 

[jay clock]

here is the pic. I have filed down the tiny bits sticking up as they were hindering getting the cassette on and off

 

[Dave Davenport]

Do you mean nicks in the splines that the cassette slides onto?

 

[fossyant]

That's quite normal on alloy freehub bodies, as the cassette sprockets are much harder. Shimano has changed the design for newer models.

So long as you are honest about it, then there should b e no issues when selling.

 

[jay clock]

cheers... I have emailed Easton to see if they will send me a new one!

 

[GilesM]

Looks pretty normal to me, the Hope and Shimano ones, seem to do the same.

 

[jay clock]

THanks - I am now putting the wheels on the for sale board

 

[02GF74]

never seen anything like that before but then all my bodies have been steel.

weird that that should happen as the the sprockets should all be held rigidly together; it appears that individual sprockets are able to move independently and rub the splines.

surely tat couldn't happen on XT/Ultegra cassets since these have an alloy spider, but the lowest 2 could move independently.

dunno about your question.

 

[jay clock]

The other comments seem to suggest it is common with alloy freehubs and not a problem. I may in fact keep them now for my winter bike

 

[andy_wrx]

This is an aluminium freehub and you've been using a Shimano 10sp cassette ?

See Sheldon Brown : http://www.sheldonbrown.com/dura-ace.html#10

Basically, when Shimano went 10sp, they kept the same spline pattern on their hubs and cassettes.
But they also wanted to put some alu hubs on some DA & Ultegra wheels, for lightness.
As alu is softer than steel, they kept the same spline pattern but made the splines deeper - and the corresponding grooves on the cassettes are deeper too.

This means that a 8sp or 9sp cassette won't fit onto these 10sp-only alu freehubs, as whilst the spline pattern is the same, the splines on the hub are too deep for the grooves on the cassettes.

Conversely, a 10sp Shimano cassette will fit on an earlier 8sp or 9sp hub, the shorter splines will go into the deeper grooves
- but it wobbles about a little.
This isn't a problem with a steel hub, but if it's alu you get wear as you can see on your hub.

Shimano have now gone to titanium hubs on their higher-end DA hubs - as light as the alu but as hard as the steel, so these have shorter splines again.
They've always stuck to steel on their cheaper hubs.
So all these will take 8sp, 9sp or 10sp cassettes fine.

Other manufacturers vary - some have steel hubs, some alu. Most usually they have the shorter splines so are 8/9/10sp-compatible.

Your Eastons are obviously 8/9/10sp Shimano compatible, with the shorter splines, but are alu and so they've chewed-up a bit.

Interestingly, SRAM cassettes are the same spline pattern as Shimano, but even their 10sp cassettes have the shallower grooves - so you can fit a 10sp SRAM cassette to a 8/9/10sp-compatible hub but not one of these Shimano 10sp-only hubs.

 

[jay clock]

Blimey! I am impressed with your knowledge! Thanks

 

[andy_wrx]

Blimey! I am impressed with your knowledge! Thanks

S'amazing what you can learn on internet forums !

 

[jay clock]

I did get a reply about this from the importers as follows;
[SIZE=-1]
"The freehubs on Easton Circuit wheels are made from aluminium to save weight over a steel body. With all aluminium freehub bodies the cassette can 'dig in' to the splines a little which will make it a little harder to get your cassette off but this is normal and will not affect the fuction of the wheel/drivesystem.

What we have also found that if you are running a 10sp cassette, the spline recess depth on the cassette itself is deeper than the actual splines on the cassette body which can lead to the cassette riding over the splines a bit more than with a 9sp cassette (hope that makes sense!). Again, it will not affect the performance of any of the parts."

So all is ok (in theory!)
[/SIZE]

 

[Tim Bennet.]

Nine speed cassettes also did this. The Shimano splines were never very deep as they wanted the space to get the RH bearing more 'outboard'. This why the Shimano hub has always been the preference for laden tourists. When the original steel freebody is used, there is never a problem. But big powerful mountain bikers have always been able to strip the aluminium splines off, for example, Tune lightweight hubs.

Campagnola prioritised light weight with an aluminium freebody with much deeper splines for durability, but this precluded the used of an outboard, RH bearing.