I was on a big old meaty Lake District ride yesterday and there was a bit of squeaking noise when I was doing the sort of power manoeuvres you need to do to get over big rocks on a climb. At the top of the hill the pedals just span and that was it, ride cut short and coasting down what was supposed to be the last of a few descents.

Turns out the ratchet ring has come loose in the hub – it’s a Spank hub, I can’t find one of their ratchets anywhere online for sale, and if I’m honest even if it is replaceable there’s swarf in there that suggests the soft alloy of the hub has been worn away and the hole will now be a bit big for it.

Anyone got any idea how to bodge this back together to save me spending loadsamoney on a new wheel? Initial thoughts are to get the ring out with a bearing puller then tap some knurls into the inside of the hub and araldite the ring back in. Sound reasonable (assuming that the wheel is essentially worthless now anyway)?

They are under pretty big loads (given their weight and size).I can’t see any home fix being reliable….even in the sort term.

I think it sounds terminal. Some ratchet rings screw in, most are pressed in. Any movement of the ring means that more than likely the hub has given up. Email the manufacturer to see what they could do.
The torque going through that part is massive so the fit will have to be dynamite.

Ugh. How tedious. Part of me thinks it’s threaded in, as some of the swarf included a very thread-looking thing. But we couldn’t unscrew it with the tools we had in the car (a small bendy screwdriver and a spanner…). If it does unscrew would it be a case of putting a bearing puller in there and undoing it?

But then, if it does thread in, it’s done at least 30 rotations clockwise so the threads must be totally dead.