Hi, I was racing at the gorrick series today and my rear hub started to slip under torque. I needed half turn of cranks until pawls engaged. It got much worse and tricky to ride. Last lap hub didn’t engage at all. Pawls destroyed?
Rear hub is american classic, the one on wide lightning wheelset. I recently converted bike to single speed with sliders and bolt through.

I’ve done 1300km on this wheelset on 1×10 without problems. After ss conversion I’ve ridden 600km.

I could have a look at the warranty, bought it at alltricks.fr
Will I have the same problem if I replace it with the same hub? Are there other alternatives? I’m putting gears in June.

Is there any bike shop around south/west of London who could have a look at this? Staying around there tonight. I know pedal heaven in Fleet and Nirvana cycles. Both open Monday morning.

Thanks

What normally causes the freehub to slip is the little spring in the freehub body that needs to engage with a roughened plate type of thing that looks like a gasket ( it must have a name ) to make the pawls activate . When these parts get worn they don’t engage properly and you get the exact symptoms you have described . The only cure is to spend £60 on a new freehub body , this comes with the roughened plate that I badly described earlier .

With that little milage, it’s more likely the freehub just needs cleaning and lubing.

Unless it’s complete carp, it should last more than that.

You don’t need to buy a new free hub body at all.
Just bend the spring slightly or do as I did and grind the end flat with a dremel

Most of my wheels are american classic and they are the most simple design to fix.

I’ve found that bending and grinding the spring usually results in a temporary fix only , which is why I didn’t mention it . Nothing to lose by trying it though .1900km is quite a bit of mileage on an MTB hub in my opinion.

1900km is quite a bit of mileage on an MTB hub in my opinion.

Wah? You must be kidding! 19,000km maybe, but for a lot of riders 1900km is probably 6 months riding. I’ve got a Hope XC with probably something like 20,000 on it. Freehub still fine, with a strip and grease once a year.

I’ve found the easy solution is £60 for a new freehub in just riding along. No spare spring available. I’ll firstly try the DIY solution and see what happens. It’s frustrating just after only 4 months on this wheelset.
Does it make much difference the torque you apply on the hub?

1900km is quite a bit of mileage on an MTB hub in my opinion.
Wah? You must be kidding! 19,000km maybe, but for a lot of riders 1900km is probably 6 months riding. I’ve got a Hope XC with probably something like 20,000 on it. Freehub still fine, with a strip and grease once a year.

And how many times have you changed the pawls and pawl springs ?

It’s not always the spring. Often just gummed up pawls and plate. Try cleaning it up, regrease and rebuild. Really easy job.

Freewheel problems at this time of year are often temperature related and caused either by water freezing and icing things up or emulsified water in the grease doing the same, or just grease thickening due to low temperatures.

It’s worth bearing in mind that the cold can thicken grease up and cause similar issues.

I’d strip and inspect first.

Edit: what Brant said!

And how many times have you changed the pawls and pawl springs ?

Umm, never. Take them out when I clean the freehub, degrease, check them and reinstall.
Maybe I’m easier on hubs than you! Conditions down here tend to be quit sloppy in the winter, and there’s a lot of sand and grit in the soil. So not that easy on equipment.

I just totted up the mileage. I think I bought them in 2003/4 and I only had one MTB at the time. So maybe 1500 – 2000 miles a year for 6 years. Probably half that for the last 4 years. So about 12,000 miles or 19,500 km.

And how many times have you changed the pawls and pawl springs ?

If it’s a Hope XC then probably never. Mines on a similar milage and I’m not looing foreward to the day I end up with a bolt through frame.

Why is it that Hope XC’s are so brilliant, and no other freehub comes even close to that reliability? It can’t be that hard to design a freehub can it?

They are a very simple, slightly over-engineered design. Steel freewheel body, chunky pawls, and solidly made ratchet ring. Seem to be much better sealed than the Pro 2s. After the apocalypse all you’ll find will be cockroaches riding around on Zaskars equipped with Hope XC wheels.

I used to run xt hubs but they used to freeze and fail. Hot water works as a temporary measure or if you are in the middle of nowhere, wee on it.

The last one I saw that did this was a mavic hub but the free hub had cracked and it was opening under load.

As said before, clean it first, check for damage then regrease and see what happens.

I had this recently on a pro2.

When I took the cassette off I found the freehub had a crack in it paralel to the axle, and it wouldn’t come off with reasonable hand pressure.

Ended up being a new freehub and took the opportunity to stick a 10mm TA in at the same time.

I’ve had the emulsified water/grease freezing thing before with a non-series DT hub.

Hi again, I’m stuck now trying to remove the adjuster nut. The whole axle rotates when I’m trying to remove it. It’s what this guy unscrews at 48 seconds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO5JZTq8exM

Yes, mechanic skills are very limited

I grip the other end of the axle with a pair of mole grips . You would think that they would make the axle so that you could hold it with an allen key in the hole like Mavic do , but they don’t.

Ok, finally cleaned everything. Before regreasing it I gave a spin and it worked. After applying Pedros bio grease it didn’t work. Read the AC manual and this grease is quite thick, whereas it’s recommended something thinner. I bent upwards the tip of the spring as you can see in the first pic. Now it makes more noise but it’s sorted. For how long? I don’t know and I can’t really trust much.
I was fighting with flu, hence it took me such a long time to do this.

I always thought a thinnish lube like winter chain lube was better for this sort of thing?

I had exactly the same problem and did what you have done with the spring. Afraid it won’t last long, I wouldn’t rely on it. I did and ended up walking an hour home! Not the end of the world but annoying. My next badge was to remove the washer…again, didn’t last long. Now got a new freehub and it works lovely! £60 but wheel feels like new.

Incidentally, the day after ordering from justrdidingalong I noticed they had them in the bike shop at Bedgebury. So if you’re impatient and based in kent you could always give them a ring and see if they still have it

Yes but that new freehub will come with this same spring problem/failure thing? I don’t have a dremel to grind the flat as on an on suggested on 4th post

as slowpunchersays, thin lube, or mineral oil as per Mavic.

sarpullido

Just an FYI that I have an low mile AM Shimano free-hub if you need one. Ping me an email if interested 🙂