Viewing 9 posts - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
  • Chris King Freehub + Feezing temperatures = Fail?
  • beamers
    Full Member

    Morning all

    Heading out on a sub zero ride this morning (just) and my Chris King free hub let me down.

    First of all I thought the chain was causing problems as when I pedalled backwards I had to pedal the same amount forwards before gaining forward motion again.

    This happened a couple of times and then the pawls inside the freehub (or whatever mechanism is within the freehub) seized / froze “open” and would not engage leaving the pedals spinning round and me going no where, apart from freewheeling home.

    Bike back in the garage for an hour or so and the freehub appears to be fine again.

    Anyone experienced this before? If so what did you do to fix it?

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    Get the water out of there as that will be what is freezing I’d guess. Probably some good grease in there instead.

    coatesy
    Free Member

    As said above, probably water in there. Not sure about the latest type of hubs, but the older ones were supposed to run different grades of oil/grease in the winter, may be worth checking on King’s website for service details.

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    beamers
    Full Member

    Cheers Mike

    Just been doing a bit of googleing and it looks like its time for a quick service to clean out the gunk inside, which is stopping the ring drive engaging.

    singlespeedstu
    Full Member

    What Mike said.
    You need to service the freehub, you should be doing it every six months or so anyway.
    Dead easy to do, plenty of instructions on line.
    Either rebuild with King grease or Finishline green chain lube.

    beamers
    Full Member

    Cheers all.

    From the manual:

    Cold conditions
    To ensure proper engagement in sub-freezing conditions, first be sure that there is no water or moisture inside the hubshell. The hub may require an overhaul to ensure that the hub interior
    is completely water-free. Then mix the grease in the RingDrive™ area, especially on the helical splines of the driveshell, with 5-10 drops of PTFE ( e.g. TriFlow ™) . If in temperatures that are consistently at or below freezing replace all internal lube with a quality 10w synthetic oil. Do not over fill. We reccomend using a siliconal oil (Pedros® SynLube or
    Mobil 1®)

    P20
    Full Member

    As above, ringdrive lube with a bit of triflow works well. I tend to just run mine that way anyway

    Furrner
    Free Member
    NorthCountryBoy
    Free Member

    Hi iv used a ck hub for years in some good winter conditions and never had it freeze up. I have heard of it before though. As said above its water ingress, the 72 tooth ratchet is so fine a bit of ice prevents it engaging properly.
    Compared to say a 4 tooth hope free hub!
    With water out and fresh oil in it will be great for years to come

Viewing 9 posts - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)

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