life of a free hub?

[Paul_L]

Last week on my commute home from work, my free wheel began spinning forward. Slightly dodgy as I was in the middle of a busy roundabout at the time and had to coast to the side of the road. I managed to get going again but this happened several more times on the way home.

I've stripped the rear hub and cassette. Its only a basic Shimano R500 wheel with standard hub set and it's the free hub which has failed. I'm not aware that this can be fixed and therefore a new hub or wheelset is required?

This was on my winter bike and it's been ridden in all conditions and hasn't had a decent service apart from keeping the chain and shifters cleaned and lubed. It's about 2 years old now and I'd estimate it's done about 2500 miles but all of these over winters, so poor conditions.

Does this sound about right given the mileage and conditions, as I'm surprised it's failed so "young".

 

[accountantpete]

Hi

It's a pretty easy fix - you just need a new freehub.

This shows it to be a standard rear hub

http://www.shimano.com/media/techdo.../EV-WH-R500-R-2339E_v1_m56577569830726373.pdf

and here's the bit that you need

http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/shimano-wh-r500-cassette-freehub-body-4bg-9807-prod17719/

You will also need a 10mm hex key to undo the big bolt.

You could ask if any standard Shimano freehub would do as most of them are interchangeable - that way you may get one a bit cheaper.

 

[HovR]

It could just be gummed up with road dirt and old grease, causing the pawls in the freehub to not engage. Before spending money you could try taking the freehub off as-per accountantpete's instructions and flushing it out with WD40/GT85 etc, clear it out with compressed air, then add some light oil for lubrication.

After 2500 winter miles you'll probably want to check your hubs over as well, as they'll probably be due a service (regrease and bearing inspection).

 

[gbb]

My R500s have done several thousand miles of winter only use (or abuse) and funnily enough, the freehub's fine but I did need to clean and service the hubs last year after finding them a bit notchy...as HovR says, it'd be a good time to service them anyway (or at least check em).