Is this freehub fit for purpose?

Few months use with a Ultrega cassette and it’s so badly chewed up I can’t fit a sram one on there!

I remember back in the day lbs telling us not to use cheap (below LX) cassettes on Hope freehubs because it would do this to the aluminium, but Ultegra’s not that cheap is it…

Just file or sandpaper the rough bits off and get the new cassette on there.

ali freehubs innit. Was going to say it’ll be reet (my DT hubs look pretty chewed up) but then I noticed the splines are milled down the middle to save weight, hmm not a whole lot of ali there huh?

wish hub makers would start putting steel reinforcing strips in like AC do (I assume they actually work, don’t own an AC myself)

Reason I took the Ultegra off was because the chain was slipping in the middle gears… coincidence?

…Reason I took the Ultegra off was because the chain was slipping in the middle gears… coincidence?…

No. Your middle range is slipping because it’s worn because you use them most, as shown by the concentration of pressure marks on your free hub body.

It’s fine.

Also, anyone caught saying “fit for purpose” should be shot.

The gears are slipping because your cassette is worn. When you put the new cassette on, if it jiggles about a load then your freehub is worn. They all wear and are designed to be replaced.
However, it’ll take a lot more and I’m sure it’s fine.

wish hub makers would start putting steel reinforcing strips in like AC do (I assume they actually work, don’t own an AC myself)

Patented IIRC.

You can diy it by filing down one spline and fitting a strip of steel, large staples flattened out work well I believe. Should only need one to help. But might be hard with milled out splines.

anyone caught saying “fit for purpose” should be shot.

Got the phrase from same lbs that gave the Hope freehub advice 😉

Have now made the sram fit, it’s nice n tight. Gears seem ok (will test properly on commute tomorrow)
Thanks for the advice all. Appreciated 🙂

The largest sprockets tend not to cause damage because they’re in a block of three (10s) with a larger surface area. It’s the individual ones that do it

Bit obvious that timba. 😉

It’s fine

It was 🙂

ps. SRAM 1070 cassette bargain on Jejames.

If the purpose is looking weird, your hub is extremely fit for purpose.

No wonder its cheap, 23 as biggest cog is far too manly for me!

jivehoneyjive – Member
If the purpose is looking weird, your hub is extremely fit for purpose.

As, I’m sure, are you 😉

As, I’m sure, are you

Perhaps, but at least my nipples are in the right place…

Bit obvious that timba

Obviously not 😉

Alright! Who was it? Who told me it’ll be ok?
2 months later the freehub is completely knackered. Chain just snapped miles from anywhere and found that the cassette was wobbling all over the place. Lock-ring is tight. Supposed to be an £800 set of wheels. Bloody rubbish. (As for those DT Swiss skewers, also shite)

found that the cassette was wobbling all over the place. Lock-ring is tight

sounds more like a spacer is missing so the cassette is not being clamped up right.

have you managed to get the lockring off? Have the cogs completely eaten through the splines?

Got a 240 and 440 rear hub, got same markings as in your original pic but seem to be lasting ok (don’t want to check now)

sounds more like a spacer is missing so the cassette is not being clamped up right.

Why would that take 2 months to show itself?

have you managed to get the lockring off?

Not yet, have to wait til I get home.
It’s not the same issue – it’s the internals that have died now.

By the way D0nk – How often do you check the skewers are tight?

It’s not the same issue – it’s the internals that have died now.

I was assuming based from your OP and complaining at someone telling you to use it that you thought the problem was due to the cassette biting into the splines. Of course the freehub could have cracked. With the addition of that information it sounds like its the freehub wobbling not the cassette on the freehub.

Understandable. But no, I was referring to my line “fit for purpose”, which it clearly wasn’t !

If the internals have gone it’s more likely you have a one-off (hopefully). All the mechanical parts are basically out of a 240s, which has a pretty good reputation for reliability.

The freehub does just pull off so is it possible you’ve wobbled it loose a bit checking the cassette for play? Are the cassette sprockets moving relative to each other or is it the whole thing moving relative to the hub?

Are the cassette sprockets moving relative to each other or is it the whole thing moving relative to the hub?

This, I reckon. Will see for sure later.

By the way D0nk – How often do you check the skewers are tight?

I use shimano QRs, I’m not completely daft 🙂

Had my fingers burnt with lightweight QRs in the past… I say fingers, but other parts tend to suffer aswell tbh.

I use shimano QRs

Yeah, back to Mavics for me – the DT Swiss ones actually come loose. Great design.

In that case, assuming no major material failure in the hub, my best guesses are that either the whole freehub assembly is sitting slightly loose on the axle or somewhere (either in the freehub or the main hub shell) you have 1 or more loose bearings

File the burrs down

Fit cassette

Torque lockring

Ride and forget

@PJM1974 – 2 months out of date advice.

So, herein lies the made of cheese problem.
The cover (?) has worn into an oval shape, so no longer holds the freehub parallel.
Can’t work out why this has happened, apart from the whole thing being too soft

That’s just an end cap – it doesn’t support the free hub body. Just pull the free hub off and check the bearings – they must be pretty goosed for there to be enough movement to damage the endcap like that.

Once you’ve established what’s gone wrong then feel free to rant about it, but at the moment it’s all aimless guesswork.

Ignore that advice as aimless guesswork is what STW is all about

Is it the spokes?

Agree with s.o.m

Right, so the movement caused the wear on the endcap, rather than vice-versa. Ok…

1.Grasp how things work
2.Understand what has gone wrong/failed/worn
3.Pass judgement on its design and suitability for its intended porpoise.
.
Or go straight to 3 and shout lots.

I actually had the chance to talk about the chewed up ally freehub thing with someone from DT Swiss as it was a whinge I also had.

His response was simply that so long as the cassette lockring was tight enough (shimano specify 40nms, which is pretty damn tight) it will never be problem as the cassette will move as one without any one cog applying enough pressure to cut into the freehub. DT have apparently tested this issue multiple times both in the testing facility and with athletes and the only way they can replicate this freehub damage is with a locking that isn’t properly tight.

I also asked why they didn’t offer a steel freehub option, his answer was along the lines of ‘we did, for ten years, nobody bought them and we had to bin thousands of them when we moved factory.”

So that answers that.

Nice one Rorschach. So, Mr Smartarse, apart from the worn cap, before I’d taken off the freehub and seen the below, where I have I failed to understand that this item is not fit to be part of a bicycle wheel?

I’ve had 4 sets of Mavic road wheels last until the rims are worn down and not had to look at a freehub (apart from a drop of mineral oil in the occasionally).

This wheel isn’t even 6 months old, not had masses of use and it’s ****. So what should I have done to prevent this?

Free hub bearings can wear out/collapse. Happened to a mate of mine’s Hope Pro2 Evo recently. Was very evident due to the play shown at the cassette. He stopped riding it and fixed it before damaging other parts.

The play you described and the secondary damage to the end cap suggest that yours was far worse and would have been obvious when riding (metal on metal contact, and deformation of metal tends not to be silent).

What you should have done is stopped riding it and fixed it rather than waiting for further damage to be caused.

The part that has failed is a bearing or pair of bearings. The free hub that you’ve ranted about twice is fine in spite of your lack of mechanical empathy.

BTW – a pair of bearings in there and ideally a new end cap and it’ll be good to go.

I’ve got a few pairs of DT 240 and 350 hubs and never had a bearing fail, so I think you’ve been unlucky (and shouty). 😉

Not many road hubs have carriers like XT so the individual sprockets dig in. It creates problems when you try and remove cassettes but I’m always found filing the burr meant it was fine.

You may have been unlucky, one reason companies offer warranty is because in the numbers they make components, occasionally one will get through that is defective.

For hope this normally means a quick email/phone call and it gets sorted.

Lots of people use aluminium alloys on freehub, it saves weight but is flawed in my opinion.

105 upwards all run alloy carriers. Hatter covers the damage issue up there ^^^