You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
I've had some problems with the Superstar V6 freehub on my road bike, which I can't resolve after replacing the bearings. When freewheeling - particularly at speed in a high gear - the free hub "catches" momentarily, rotating the cassette forward and slackening the chain. Which can then often drop off.
After first servicing the original bearings, I've now replaced with new ones and still not resolved it. Both bearings press in from the outer side of the free hub, separated by a 3-4cm spacer, as per this diagram:
The first bearing will stop as it hits the lip on the inside of the wheel, but the second doesn't have any machined stops: it relies on the spacer between the bearings to indicate the position.
After inserting the first bearing into position it spins nice and freely on the finger. With the second partway inserted it too spins nice and freely. But as soon as it makes any contact with the spacer - no matter how light - the free hub no longer spins as freely, and once back on the bike suffers the same symptoms. I've refitted several times now trying to get just enough contact between the bearings to stop the spacer floating loosely, but not matter how light the contact it's still a problem.
Any ideas on what else to try?
It's not the first issue I've had with these wheels, so my next move is likely to be a replacement Hope hub.
I've had this. Mine was the plastic Washer/seal that the freehub contacts on when back in the hub body. It's made of real hard plastic. This piece is always light rubber on other hubs I've used. I've cleaned it up and made sure it's well lubricated and it solved the slack chain for me
It’s not the first issue I’ve had with these wheels, so my next move is likely to be a replacement Hope hub.
Hope use the same kind of spacer setup, it’s a normal way of doing things. Should there be another washer behind the inside bearing that’s missing?
Sounds like you haven’t used a parallel bearing press and gave side loaded the bearings. You can’t just tap them in with a socket
First press in bearings to a totally clean and greased bore and fully press home. Then using a 2mm support and parallel press (which sits on inner and outer race) press the next in.
Any side load from bad bearing insertion will make it feel terrible. The spacer shouldn’t be loose either
Neil SuperstarComponents
Definitely don't use a rock during the installation procedure 🙈
To update on this:
Turns out that the residual problem here was a slightly bent axle. I hadn't spotted it myself, but the bike shop did, before sending me home to order a replacement. I replaced the main hub bearings whilst I was at it, and now 100 miles in it seems to roll smoothly so far.
Warning: the spacer that sits behind the freehub is slightly convex on one side, concave on the other. When I first reassembled everything it span freely in the hand, but as soon as any pressure was put through the axle from a QR skewer it locked up. Flipping the spacer resolved this.
Also worth noting that the design of these hubs is very similar to Hope Pro 4 - same bearing sizes everywhere, identical looking axle and just a slightly different freehub. I used the Hope over-axle bearing drifts and freehub seal tool (though I found a scaffold offcut that worked well too) and the Hope rebuild videos were useful.
You couldn't possibly be suggesting that Superstar has knocked off someone else's design 😁
Anyone else amused that Neils contribution is to once again blame the customer?
Looks to me like Neil suggested a possible error, and explained the correct method. OP didn't take offence, you don't need to either.
Haha, classic TJ. Offended on someone elses behalf.
Not offended. laughing.
The thing is, I was thinking the same before neil posted.
No point in me doubling up the comments, but would you have labelled me as a Superstar apologist if I had?
Seems weird to label someone as blaming the user when proper instruction is being given.
Thread resurrection time as I've got the same problems again, 2 days into a 7 day cycle tour.
After replacing the axle the hub lasted a few months and 800 miles trouble free. But now I've got the same slackening chain problem again. I'm guessing it's another bent axle, but can't strip it to check at the moment. It's much worse in high gears which might back that theory (furthest out of line with its axis at end of cassette).
Me + luggage weigh around 105kg, with a chunk of that directly over the dropouts on the rear rack if that's likely to be a factor.
Anything else likely to lead to a bend?
It's got to last the next 5 days. Should all be fine as long as I don't stop pedalling!