Stuck freewheel?

[KnackeredBike]

Apologies, half the threads seem to be my rear wheel at the moment.

A couple of weeks ago LBS said the ?bearings were making a noise on the freewheel but not to worry about it as it would last for ages.

Cue today and every time I stop pedalling the chain is thrown off the sprockets, it seems to be that the freewheel is jamming. Possibly after torrential rain on the ride home yesterday.

I guess this means more buggering around with the rear wheel. Is there any temporary fix other than constantly pedalling to get home? I doubt it is fixable in my lunch break.

 

[Cycleops]

You could try spraying some cleaner into the freewheel if the pawls are sticking which happens when they get jammed with crud. If they've disintegrated it won't help. Worth a go.

 

[Maz]

Apologies, half the threads seem to be my rear wheel at the moment.

A couple of weeks ago LBS said the ?bearings were making a noise on the freewheel but not to worry about it as it would last for ages.

Cue today and every time I stop pedalling the chain is thrown off the sprockets, it seems to be that the freewheel is jamming. Possibly after torrential rain on the ride home yesterday.

I guess this means more buggering around with the rear wheel. Is there any temporary fix other than constantly pedalling to get home? I doubt it is fixable in my lunch break.

All sounds way too familiar to me, especially the part about the problem increasing just after riding in heavy rain.
Sounds like your freehub is on its last legs

You could try laying the bike on its side and dribbling oil into it, which may loosen the pawls inside it, but eventually you will need to replace it.

 

[Sharky]

My mavic hub has had this problem several times. Just need to take off, clean and apply light oil and replace.
You'll need a chainwhip to remove the freehub and suitable size allen keys etc, but not too difficult, even for me.

I have a dilemma myself. The wheel I'm referring to has a campag freehub and has been great, but I've just swapped the levers for SRAM ones and switched to a different pair of Shimano wheels. So now I have a perfectly good rear wheel, but is no longer compatible to the bike, but would like to keep it as a back up/winter wheel. So one option is to buy a shimano compatible freehub and swap it. But a new freehub costs around £30, yet a whole new askium rear wheel can be bought for under £70. It hardly seems worth trying to salvage the old wheel. Might as well just buy a new one, especially as it has seen a few crashes and the bearings are probably getting worn as well.

One tip if you decide to dismantle the freehub. Place the wheel on a tray or something. I use one of those polystyrene packing things that came with my last washing machine. Those pawls are very tiny and if you drop them on the floor, can take ages to find.

 

[si_c]

My mavic hub has had this problem several times. Just need to take off, clean and apply light oil and replace.
You'll need a chainwhip to remove the freehub and suitable size allen keys etc, but not too difficult, even for me.

I have a dilemma myself. The wheel I'm referring to has a campag freehub and has been great, but I've just swapped the levers for SRAM ones and switched to a different pair of Shimano wheels. So now I have a perfectly good rear wheel, but is no longer compatible to the bike, but would like to keep it as a back up/winter wheel. So one option is to buy a shimano compatible freehub and swap it. But a new freehub costs around £30, yet a whole new askium rear wheel can be bought for under £70. It hardly seems worth trying to salvage the old wheel. Might as well just buy a new one, especially as it has seen a few crashes and the bearings are probably getting worn as well.

One tip if you decide to dismantle the freehub. Place the wheel on a tray or something. I use one of those polystyrene packing things that came with my last washing machine. Those pawls are very tiny and if you drop them on the floor, can take ages to find.

If you run 11 speed you can use a campagnolo cassette with shimano/sram shifters as the sprocket spacing is the same.

 

[Sharky]

If you run 11 speed you can use a campagnolo cassette with shimano/sram shifters as the sprocket spacing is the same.

Thanks for the suggestion, unfortunately, my campag was 9 speed Xenon and my "new" levers are Sram 10 speed shifters. The levers came off my Focus road bike, which I converted to a TT bike with tri bars and SRAM bar end shifters a few years ago.

Cheers
Keith

 

[Yellow Saddle]

Guys, he said freewheel. There's no opening that as if it is a mere Mavic freehub.

 

[Ajax Bay]

Guys, he said freewheel. There's no opening that as if it is a mere Mavic freehub.

YS - I thought that, but suspected he didn't realise the difference and had called his freehub and cassette a 'freewheel'. OP had referred to other rear wheel issues and you'll recall these texts:

I had a brand new Raleigh rear road wheel fitted by LBS, although the wheel was from Halfords.
Cycling along today about 80km in and bike starts going from side to side. Stop and find that almost all the spokes are loose on the wheel, although more on one side than the other.

How can a wheel be 'incorrectly set' by anyone unless the axle has been fiddled with, surely all the LBS did was fit a cassette on there and sort the indexing out.

Think this is, in fact, a freehub. I hope - if a freehub - his LBS would not have said "the ?bearings were making a noise on the freewheel" but that's maybe what he 'heard'.
Oil it or LBS.

 

[KnackeredBike]

It is indeed probably a freehub. Whatever clicks on the rear wheel.

I have put the bike in a warm changing room and hit the rear axle a bit with a fire extinguisher. Neither helped but the fire extinguisher was vaguely satisfying. I guess I will have to ride as if it is an erratic fixed wheel bike.

I do have the tool that holds the rear cassette but not the socket for the middle so I will just see if I can get any oil into it. If not I will either take to bike shop or go to church and pray really hard tomorrow.

 

[Tangoup51]

It is indeed probably a freehub. Whatever clicks on the rear wheel.

I have put the bike in a warm changing room and hit the rear axle a bit with a fire extinguisher. Neither helped but the fire extinguisher was vaguely satisfying. I guess I will have to ride as if it is an erratic fixed wheel bike.

I do have the tool that holds the rear cassette but not the socket for the middle so I will just see if I can get any oil into it. If not I will either take to bike shop or go to church and pray really hard tomorrow.

We've all ran our bikes to the point where we needed a fire extinguisher on it, so don't worry.

It's not an expensive fix for an Lbs so i'd take it in when you can. My freehub is on its last legs but theres no real penalty to running it to extinction before replacement, do what you can but dont sweat too much about it.

 

[Sharky]

Ive had the stuck freehub, but on more occasions, Ive had the opposite , when the freewheel becomes free in both directions and you get zero traction. This with old style blocks and freehubs. On one occasion about 10 miles from home, wrapped a toe strap round the spokes and largest cog and turned it into a fixed wheel. Just made it home.

 

[KnackeredBike]

Well I got home but will not need any contraception for a while after having to pedal over speed humps. Of to Halfords (LBS closed) tomorrow again. Unfortunately they don't seem to do any decent tourers and I can only get Halfords vouchers from C2W. But I can have a nose anyway.

Thank you for your advice, at least I escaped having no traction.