Tight Axle - Wheelsmith 38T Carbon Wheels

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dhd.evans1

Active Member
Hi folks.

I bought a set of Wheelsmith 38T Carbo Road wheels from a friend. There was a 10spd Ultegra cassette on them. I am running an 11spd 105 setup so used the tools at my work (i work in the office of a local bike shop) to get the 10spd off and replaced with a 11spd.

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After taking the 10spd cassette off I discovered at that the cassette body is too short to house an 11spd cassette by 0.3mm. Thankfully the hub itself has a code on it and it's a Novatec F482SB. I purchased a Novatec B2 cassette body which puports to house 11spd cassettes.

I remove and replace the cassette body with the 0.3mm longer model, it slides in no bother, the cassette takes a little more convincing going on and the lockring takes a bit of time to catch and lock up.

Hunky dory so far, but I am about to be right out of my mechanicing depth.

I put the locknut back on and tighten both sides with allen keys.

The axle is very tight. Like, near enough solid to my touch. I loosen the locknut a bit and everything is wobbly. I take it to head mechanic that I work with who says "the axle might be a little short but should be OK" and checks the movement of the axle and tightens it again. He gets another mechanic to verify it's fine.

It still feels tight to me but hey, i'm a desk jockey not a mechanic. I will add that these guys are MTBers and have zero interest in road bikes. To each their own.

Brought the wheel home to set on my bike (2016 B'Twin Ultra 700 AF). It's up in the stand, i take my Mavic Askium commuters off and put the rear wheel in. Immediately something feels wrong.

I've set the chain into the highest gear for ease of getting the wheel off so i expect some resistance when trying to push the cranks whilst in the stand, but this is locked near solid. It moves, but it's not without a huge amount of resistance from the rear wheel. I ratchet the chain down to low gear and it's freer but still 'sticky' feeling.

I then stop pushing the cranks and lo and behold the back wheel stops too.

...

I push the cranks backwards.

...

The bloody wheel goes backwards.

...

...

I've turned my road machine into a fixie and I can't work out what the hell is wrong with it. I did a bike mechanicing course late last year and we fannied around with cones and hubs and nonsense, but this was on older model bikes. Supermarket special type bikes.

I have no idea how to sort my road machine and given i paid a pretty penny for these wheels I don't want to absolutely fark it by just going with "Ach, it'll be fine" and riding them into the ground.

Can you guys help diagnose the problem? I can take it to another LBS which is roadie oriented and will hopefully be able to sort it but to save two embarrassing trips in two weeks to them i'd love to solve this one myself...
 

fossyant

Ride It Like You Stole It!
Location
South Manchester
What type of bearings and axel - is it QR ?

Have you assembled it right ?
 

si_c

Guru
Location
Wirral
Sorry to disappoint, but there are two different F482SB hub shells, one is a 10 speed and one an 11 speed variant. Fitting the 11 speed freehub to the 10 speed hub shell will result in the system being too wide, which is probably why you are encountering issues.

Your best choice is probably to refit the 10 speed freehub and use a Shimano 11-34 11 speed cassette which uses a spacer with 11 speed freehubs and fits a 10 speed hub ( this is what I did with my 10 speed wheelset).
 
OP
OP
dhd.evans1

dhd.evans1

Active Member
Sorry to disappoint, but there are two different F482SB hub shells, one is a 10 speed and one an 11 speed variant. Fitting the 11 speed freehub to the 10 speed hub shell will result in the system being too wide, which is probably why you are encountering issues.

Your best choice is probably to refit the 10 speed freehub and use a Shimano 11-34 11 speed cassette which uses a spacer with 11 speed freehubs and fits a 10 speed hub ( this is what I did with my 10 speed wheelset).

This is comprehensive and useful. Having a spacer though, would it not extend over the freehub?
 

si_c

Guru
Location
Wirral
This is comprehensive and useful. Having a spacer though, would it not extend over the freehub?
Yes, the inner side of the spider is concave allowing it to overlap the hub flanges rather than hanging over the end of the axle. This is why you can fit this one cassette to a 10 speed hub as the spider is narrower than a regular cassette and why the spacer is necessary on an 11 speed hub.
 
OP
OP
dhd.evans1

dhd.evans1

Active Member
Sorry to disappoint, but there are two different F482SB hub shells, one is a 10 speed and one an 11 speed variant. Fitting the 11 speed freehub to the 10 speed hub shell will result in the system being too wide, which is probably why you are encountering issues.

Your best choice is probably to refit the 10 speed freehub and use a Shimano 11-34 11 speed cassette which uses a spacer with 11 speed freehubs and fits a 10 speed hub ( this is what I did with my 10 speed wheelset).

So, took it into LBS for a second opinion on my own shop's first opinion. We took the cassette off then the freehub. Whilst the above may still be true we discovered the bearings in the new freehub were rough and sticky. As in, they were causing the issue of no freemoving axle. It wasn't a case of "Oh, that's a little tacky" it was "Jeez, i've got to actually push the hub around my fingers". I didn't check this when i loaded it onto the wheel because... it's a brand new component.

So, back to SJS to get a replacement freehub to see if that is the core issue.

An 11spd cassette won't fit on the current freehub (https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/hub-spares/novatec-d-cassette-body-for-10-speed-shimano/) because of the shoulder/lip at the bottom near the palls. LBS did suggest filing it down :laugh:

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My own shop reckoned i might need a longer axle so even if the new freehub is freemoving there may be more to do to get this working.

I called the chap at Wheelsmith who was astounded that I had a set of these wheels since he stopped using Novatec hubs in 2015(!). At least i know the age of them now, I guess. He did offer to look at it if i could bring it to him in Grangemouth but it's unlikely i'll be down there any time soon (no, i've just typed that and i am literally in Edinburgh next week. So this is a maybe.).

So, next steps:

1. Get replacement freehub from SJS
2. Attempt fit with cassette
3. If not fit then back to Wheelsmith for potential fixing next week
 
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