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Arrghh!!! Getting up real early tomorrow morning to do the south downs way in a day. Just checking over my 29er with hope evo II's (10 months old) and when rotating cranks backwards when on a stand, there is a small amount of resistance and the chain bunches up a bit.
Im pretty sure it must be the free hub. Should be ok to get through tomorrow (touch wood) as resistance isnt too bad, it will just make life a tiny bit harder....but would like opinions on whether the consensus is freehub service time.
2 mins to strip and inspect and find whats wrong. Just get and do it now. Probably just crap sealing and muck.
did think about that, but knowing my luck I'll get it all apart, and then have problems getting back together and stressing out in the garage until all hours. Im lucky I could use one of my other bikes, but really want to use the 29er, so will leave as is and sort when I get back.
Good old you tube for video's on how to do it though, brilliant.
If you take it for a quick spin it can free the bearing up,its caused by water getting past the seals and causing slight corrosion,if your unlucky it won't free itself off and you will need to replace the free hub bearings asap
spraying plenty of gt85 into the axle can be a short term fix but protect the brake system from contamination
There is a "sealing washer" that sits in a groove on the freehub, just below the cassette stop. if the freehub has been pulled with the cassette on it will have lifted away from the wheel hub, causing the drag you are experiencing.
If it is this then take the cassette off and gently push the washer back in.
Seal is number 3 on the diagram.
Just be a man and pull the freehub off. A siezed bearing will knacker the axle by spinning on it, but as said, if you can work them free and squirt some stuff into them then they'll last the day out.
Cheers for all the help!
Well, as said above by others, stripping and cleaning out a freehub is nice and simple, far easier than I thought. Im pretty certain the problem was the big sealing washer as the whole freehub came off sooo easily. As I had it apart I thought I would clean it all out, so took pawls and spings out and degreased and using paper towel, cottons buds cleaned out the rest of the unit re-assembled and re-greased. Perfect, all sorted.
Only shame was the clay and crap on the SDW route this morning and the 100+ runners who set off 10mins in front of us. Ive never had so much clay clogging up the bike that even trying to push was impossible. So ended up having to carry for quite a while. That and the amount of water around after last nights down pour put an end to this months attempt. I bailed at QECP but the rest of my mates carried on, big up to them. Just ran out of energy and willing. Will wait until its a bit drier and try during the week as the SDW gets pretty busy with events at weekends (should have thought really).
Thanks again to everyone on here for suggestions.