MegaSack DRAW - 6pm Christmas Eve - LIVE on our YouTube Channel
Just riding along, the freehub on my rear wheel started freewheeling both directions. Fortunately the return trip was mostly downhill with just a few short sections of pushing.
This is a Newmen A30 wheel (29er, 28 SP spokes, 142mm spaced out to 148mm, about 2.5 years old), so now I'm wondering - do I just replace the freehub (about £60 but has to be imported from across the Brexit divide of doom), or switch out the hub (and spokes) for a Hope Pro4.
I'm not super excited about having a freehub that could leave me with a long walk home again but maybe they're just a consumable or this is just a one-off.
The rim needs some super-special washers, so if I lose any, I'm a bit stuck.
Would probably choose something other than a pro4 if you don't want another walk home 😉
(Experience from sample size of 1)
Pretty big weight difference as I understand it between Newmen and Hope.
I assume yours is a star ratchet one? My Newmen hub (SLA35 wheels) is a more recent pawl one but it needs new freehub bearings after only one winter and <1000km. And the freehub needed popping off for a good clean and lube before the winter was out. So I don't think the sealing is particularly good. However I think with other hubs I have improved things by greasing the seal on first service, plus it's so quick to pop off a freehub for a clean and lube that I don't mind doing it mid winter. I really like how the bike feels with these wheels on so I will persevere with them. Parts availability looks OK.
Oh, and on my other bike I've got a Pro 4 that isn't much older, which also feels already like it needs new freehub bearings (3000km). And the Halo hub on my gravel bike is not a low maintenance item either. So maybe I've just become an abuser of rear hubs the last couple of years.
I'd replace the freehub. But if you decide to rebuild let me know as I would be interested in the newmen hub
Free hub replacement would be my choice. I certainly wouldn’t put a hope one on
Newman are meant to be decent and they’re generally lighter than Pro4’s.
That said my Pro4 has been decent so far - must be 2 or 3 years old now I’d guess. I’ve not done anything to it maintenance wise yet - although I switched from an XD freehub to Microspline last year so it effectively had a new freehub at that point. I keep meaning to pop the freehub off and check the main wheel bearings but just haven’t got round to it yet - same time check the front hub bearings.
My other bike has Erase Components hubs and I already had to change a front wheel bearing when I only built the bike in March so they definitely aren’t an option I’d go with again (although it was ridiculously easy to change - done in 10 mins).
If you do change DT Swiss 350s are a good alternative to Pro4s - bit lighter and generally need maintenance less often. Just they’re a bit quiet for my linking.
I really want to try an i9 Hydra rear hub but they’re a bit too expensive for me right now.
Maybe I'm being stupid, but I think choice might be somewhat based on availability. Hope hubs seem to be generally available if I'm not fussy about the colour (I'm not). But the 240s/350s seem to be like hen's teeth.
I also wonder if the problem is down to using a non-boost wheel in a boost frame with some spacers. Could it be flexing the innards of the freehub?
There's not much to go wrong inside, it's one spring. Might just be a broken spring, a replacement is cheap
Have you opened it up? Assuming the hub isn't renowned for early failure, which I don't think it is, and you can just identify and replace whatever's broken, I don't see why you'd then end up with a hub that's any more likely to fail than anything else. Sample size of one and all that.
