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Got my commuter out of the shed this morning. Went to pedal off to work and almost fell off as the drivetrain spun out. No power to the back wheel. Free hub gone I thought. Put the bike in the kitchen. When I got home tonight it was working fine! Did it freeze and thaw? Confoozed.
Anybody else had this?
Your freehub is probably more full of rusty water than grease 🙂
Yep, happens.
Happened to me in Wales at -8c. Pissing on it tends to get things working. 🙂
Yes. The other delight I've found is that if you have even the slightest amount of water in the hydraulic brake lines they lock on as the ice expands and causes them to pressure up.
At least that's the only explanation I've got for how as it gets colder the brakes always seem to be on (verified by stopping and trying to spin the wheel)
yeah, on saturday a rider returned after riding around the puffer course and had a frozen xt body.
Pissing on it tends to get things working.
But not in the kitchen,obviously.
Yes grease becomes stickier and can cause problems in very low temps.
Or more likely, your freehub is full of rusty watery gunk, which freezes beautifully and stops everything from working.
STrip & regrease it.
Yep. Grease won't freeze but water will. Metal can change shape a little and grease'll thicken, tends to cause more intermittant slips and fails than a total loss though.
There's a whole subsection of this forum that rides around praying for some sort of issue that can be resolved by peeing on it. The fatbikers seek out jellyfish...
my alfine became a fixed gear yesterday and stuck its self in the highest gear.
got home and defrosted it infront of the gas fire in the shed and it worked wonderfully .... was -11 though and a freezing fog , it had been sat outside at the work all day
My rolhoff used to do odd things when I got very cold
It definitely happens.
When I drag bike out of the hut on a frosty winter morn a lot of things can be a bit frozen, Freefubs, brakes, and even headsets.
Its a good reminder to strip and degrease stuff once the weather improves
Gear oil is a better option for freehubs in very cold weather as even a small amount of grease can become too thick and stop the pawls engaging.
i seem to get strange clicking noises when it gets around anything lower than -3ish onwards, like on every revoltion ill get some strange catching noise, even when pushing i get a strange click/ticking noise from the front wheel area, not sure what it is but only happens in the extreme cold, never hear it again as soon as its thawed out/back to 0 degrees
anyone else suffer from these cold phantom noises?
For sure. From my experience shimamo were bad for it but maybe the 'good' seals keep water out generally speaking, but if water ever gets in - it stays in....
yes free-hubs do freeze up. I once tried to thaw mine out by leaning the hub against the end of a parked car exhaust - it didnt wok - just made the hub wetter and icier