Noisy hubs when freewheeling

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DaveReading

Don't suffer fools gladly (must try harder!)
Location
Reading, obvs
In my experience, noisy hub invariably equals FPKW.
 

NickNick

Well-Known Member
All noisy freewheels except Chris King can be silenced with grease.

Chris King hubs cost so much that their owners feel they have to make a song and dance about it and this they do by buzzing when freewheeling. The sound is so sought after that there's even a cellphone ringtone with the King buzz.

Campag is noisy out the box too, but the cure is once more, some grease.

I'd be careful with grease in freehubs, in many it leads to pawls binding and wheel not engaging properly, oil is the way to go in them imo.
 

NickNick

Well-Known Member
I like the fact that Mavic freehubs have a high pawl count, and make noise. Bells don’t work, freehub rattles do.

Must admit I love the rachet like noise of a freewheel, have always found it satisfying (but then I used to prefer playing with ratchets than toys as a kid...)
 
Location
Loch side.
I'd be careful with grease in freehubs, in many it leads to pawls binding and wheel not engaging properly, oil is the way to go in them imo.
I can see why you would think so, but it doesn't happen. Firstly, Campag has a bit of a design flaw in that if you inject fresh grease through the grease ports on the Record hubs, the old grease comes out both sides. On the left, you can just wipe it off. On the right, it injects straight into the freehub, instantly silencing it. My Campag wheel has done 200 000 kms with that treatment and never missed a single engagement. Further, I've greased hundreds of customer freehubs on request to silence them and again, no problems. Light lithium grease just don't interfere with the pawls. In fact, Hope pawls have strong springs (which break easily) that quickly overcomes the grease's silencing capability.
 
Location
Loch side.
I like the fact that Mavic freehubs have a high pawl count, and make noise. Bells don’t work, freehub rattles do.
High? Just two.
 

NickNick

Well-Known Member
I can see why you would think so, but it doesn't happen. Firstly, Campag has a bit of a design flaw in that if you inject fresh grease through the grease ports on the Record hubs, the old grease comes out both sides. On the left, you can just wipe it off. On the right, it injects straight into the freehub, instantly silencing it. My Campag wheel has done 200 000 kms with that treatment and never missed a single engagement. Further, I've greased hundreds of customer freehubs on request to silence them and again, no problems. Light lithium grease just don't interfere with the pawls. In fact, Hope pawls have strong springs (which break easily) that quickly overcomes the grease's silencing capability.

Pretty sure it was lithium grease I used on the hub that bound up, but it was a cheap hub and the spring wasn't great. It was the sort that has one circular spring like clip that the 3 pawls are held in place by. I had to degrease it, and oil it to get it working again.
 
Pretty sure it was lithium grease I used on the hub that bound up, but it was a cheap hub and the spring wasn't great. It was the sort that has one circular spring like clip that the 3 pawls are held in place by. I had to degrease it, and oil it to get it working again.
Getting them off, to service them is a ball ache. If they aren’t ‘graunching’ I don’t bother.
 
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