Last nights ride was in temp of about -7 to -8.

I pedaled my bike about 100yds from where I parked my van to the start point of our ride, sat there shivering for a few mins waiting for the rest of the group to turn up.

As soon as they got there we all set off up hill – apart from me. My cranks spun round as if I had no chain. The ultra expensive, shiny new Chris King hub froze up and would not engage. No amount of spinning, cursing or headscratching made any difference.

In desperation not to miss a frosty night ride, I disappeared into the bushes and pee’d on it. This worked a treat – moments later I emerged, haveing put away the CK defreezing kit and off we went.

Now everyone else in the group with CK hubs is all thinking about starting their frosty night rides with a full bladder.

Should I service it ? Are they just made for sunny southern California, should peeing be part of my pre ride maint routine ?

Serves you right for using form over function kit 😉

Probably just had some water in there – it’s unlikely that the grease froze. Give it a good clean, regrease and it should be fine. Or get some grease designed for the cold 😉

A properly lubed CK hub (see the CK website for details) won’t freeze at that sort of temp, if, on the other hand there’s moisture inside the hub (not a rare occurrance) that will freeze.

This should help:-
http://chrisking.com/tech/tech_hubs
http://chrisking.com/tech/tech_hubs#engagement

Mine did the same albeit at -12, but i hadn’t serviced it in 3 years. I guess its a trade off between the internals being water tolerant and having uber tight seals. My hope hubs haven’t frozen, but if water gets inside them, its game over for the bearings.

Its about two months old – so i would be disapointed if it needs re-lubing. But I will check out those links Dibbs and ensure its greased up properly. It may well have moisture it it – I clean it too often.

Clubber – your right, I even got an award at work due to form over function because of my bike.

Its about two months old – so i would be disapointed if it needs re-lubing

They say re-lub every 3 months in wet conditions.

OK, I will be in the garage this weekend with a tub of lube.

This should work:

flush out old grease, from ring drive mechanism, and the bearing, rollerbearings in the freehub body, you could use triflow, and some pressure air.

take some good quality oil (i had some finish line green thicky stuff, i would not use some thin, dry type lube, -some normal chain lube, -you know, that gives a black chain..) and mix like 4 part oil with 1 part grease, you will end up with something lige chris kings own ring drive lube.
Smear it on the ringdrive mechanism, and inside the freehub.
But in fact i think this is better as the ring drive lube, is very short lived.
It should run trouble free for like 1.5 month, and then you repeat again, as summer comes, i have run about 2 parts oil, 1 part grease flawless.
No more peeing!

I run mine with wet chain lube on the ring drive. Summer and winter! I do give them a once over every 3 months though.

What a crap design, needing constant relubing. Guess it’s the price you pay for making sure that everyone knows you have an ego-hub (newly coined phrase – you heard it here first!).

Not suprised from the company that thought an o-ring was a suitable alternative to an angled compression ring though 😉

happened the other day my mate’s (unserviced, a year old) nuke proof hub. Worked fine once it was defrosted.

Pretty cold on my night ride last night, but no problems with my cheap shimano rear hub (several years old and never serviced/lubed). CK = load of expensive rubbish?

I dont mind a quick lube once every 3 months. I cant imagine any metal moving part to not need lubing so Im happy doing it, especially if Im expecting it to work perfectly.

I do ride it all year round in all the shite UK weather can throw at it, as its not hermetically sealed its going to get wet over time.

It also does seem easy to do. I tired not lubing my old Hope one and it died.

If it makes you feel better Glenh, yes.

I like the fact its expensive – but I wouldent pay full price for it. I got it with a 50% discount.

Just take the rear wheel off the bike and sit overnight next to a radiator. Any water inside the hub will evaporate off and then can not freeze and create the problems experienced by the OP. Mate of mine had the same issues a week or so ago and recommended that I did this with mine.

Just take the rear wheel off the bike and sit overnight next to a radiator. Any water inside the hub will evaporate off and then can not freeze and create the problems experienced by the OP. Mate of mine had the same issues a week or so ago and recommended that I did this with mine.

I like the fact that if you pee on them they work.If i had known that last week I could of peed on the wifes back wheel instead of cutting the ride short 🙄

Glenh, you are one very lucky man, I’ve killed shimano freehubs from Deore to XTR, partly due to the cold, and partly due to a propensity for steep hills and low gears.

Will never buy shimano again.

Nor would I buy CK though, in fact, I might just leave exit this thread quietly…

Or leave the rear wheel under the exhuast pipe of the car, with the engine running. Warm exhaust gasses will also melt any ice thats formed in the freehub.

We had this mid-ride on Sunday night, on my mate’s bike. We managed to get the cassette off with the needlenose pliers on a Leatherman, using the skewer braced against a rotor arm and a gloved strong hand in place of a chain whip.

Heated the freehub body up with two cigarette lighters in unison (see, smoking can come in handy), put it all back together again and away we went.

I’d have thought using wee would run the risk of the wee then freezing up?

I thought about the wee freezing up – but none of us stopped pedaling just in case. Plus we needed to keep moving to stay warm.

Im off for a 6am ride tomorrow morning in the Chilterns – so we will see what happens.

It say`s in the instructions that you can use Mobil 1 or Triflow….My ss one froze up 2 years ago and i put Mobil 1 in both hubs and only just this week did i replenish it. 😆

Never had this – ever. But then I mostly ride with Hope hubs.

I’m sure you could still whizz on hope hubs,if you like

See you at 6 then Trimix