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I have a Giant TCR road bike with a set of Scribe Pace wheels- they have not been used much, maybe some light use over one summer I would say.
The freehub is one of those that sounds insanely loud like a jar of angry wasps, which is fine by me and quite useful for alerting people to my presence.
Anyway, out riding yesterday and had the wheels back on probably for the first time since May 24 I would guess. Everything normal and then mid-ride the freehub fell totally silent- as in, zero noise whatsoever. No other discernible difference in riding or any other issues that I could tell.
It seems a bit strange and I'm wondering how much I should care about this and curious to know what could be the cause?
I would be less bothered if it happened slowly over time as I'd assume it was in need of a service and equally if it had just come back from a service I'd assume all the pawls were covered in thick grease. But instantly going from loud to silent whilst freewheeling along seems odd.
Of course I suppose I could just strip and regrease everything and see what happens but it seems a bit disappointing given how few miles the wheel have on them.
Wondering if anyone knows what might be going on? And if its critical or I can ignore for a while..
It's a big change.
Investigate or you could be in for a long walk or worse in heavy traffic
Would have taken you less time to drop the wheel and pull the freehub off then it did to write out that post.
Broken pawl springs would be my bet. Id certainly strip it and investigate. Something is wrong
probably full of muck which is what is dampening the sound
Wax buildup in your ears?
Deffo whip it off and take a look.
Would have taken you less time to drop the wheel and pull the freehub off then it did to write out that post.
The Scribe website says I need a ratchet tool and "ideally a vice" to remove the freehub (neither which I have, or a garage to keep a vice in) so I'm not sure its just a 2min job to be fair- or at least not under my current circumstances.
Nevertheless, it looks like I will need to investigate further one way or another so will inspect it more closely when I get chance.
Aren't scribes just a DT swiss clone? You only need a ratchet tool for a bearing change. The freehub should just pull off, often without removing the end cap (that gets pulled off as well). I can't see the page on their site that describes how to change a freehub but looking at the pictures of the freehubs they look to be pull off.
Would have taken you less time to drop the wheel and pull the freehub off then it did to write out that post.
Not if it's a Bontrager Rapid Drive with extra seizey end caps.
Happened to me recently and turned out 2 of the pawl springs had disintegrated. The freehub was working with just the one, but I wouldnt have trusted it for very long that way....
The Scribe website says I need a ratchet tool and “ideally a vice” to remove the freehub (neither which I have, or a garage to keep a vice in) so I’m not sure its just a 2min job to be fair- or at least not under my current circumstances.
Nevertheless, it looks like I will need to investigate further one way or another so will inspect it more closely when I get chance.
You wont need a ratchet tool or a vice to remove the freehub - the ratchets are located inside the freehub and the ratchet tool is used to loosen one of the ratchets which is probably screwed into the hub shell. I don't know this for sure because I've never used Scribe wheels. You should be able to get the hub end caps off either by hand or with basic tools (allen keys or spanners, possibly cone spanners if you're unlucky - they're more common on older hub designs). You should be able to get a manual off Scribe themselves which will detail all this.
If you've got a ratchet freehub (as opposed to pawls) then that's a good thing as it means there's less to go wrong. Either way, I would still want to have to look inside before riding it again. If you've got pawls then you could have loose bits floating round inside the hub shell with usually doesn't end well.
Cold weather keeping thick amount of lube in place, so less noise?
You were going so fast and/or it was breezy, filling your ears with enough wind noise to cover the freehub?
Thanks all, OK that is good to know. I'll take a look at it and see if its possible to determine what's going on. I think its a star ratchet freehub whatever that is, but I'll take a look at it.
Cold weather keeping thick amount of lube in place, so less noise?
It was something like one to two degrees and quite breezy when I was riding, so maybe couldn't rule it out.
I think its a star ratchet freehub whatever that is, but I’ll take a look at it.
A ratchet freehub contains two ratchet rings instead of multiple spring loaded pawls. You will probably find one ring is fixed into the hub shell and the other ring can move and is spring loaded against the freehub. It will all become clear once you have it apart - you will see how the rings engage when you turn the freehub one way, but they can slip over each other when you turn it the other way. It's a spring that provides force to keep the rings together (and hence make a noise when they slip past each other) so possibly the spring might be damaged. The ratchet rings will be greased, the more grease there is on them, the quieter they will be. But the grease gets pushed out over time so you would expect the hub to get louder, not suddenly quieter. The best course of action is to take it all apart, clean everything, look for damage, the put it back together and it should be loud. Also, it's a good idea to check how smooth all the bearings are while you've got it apart.