How Do You Silence Campag's Noisy Pawls ?
As I've just replied to one I might as well hang on here and ask a question that's been bugging me since I got the new Shamal Ultra wheelset . How on earth do you silence Campagnolo's noisy , clicking, pawls when on the freewheel ?
I managed it on my old Nucleon's by squirting some grease into the grease hole in the middle of the hub O.K.. It was fine , years of perfect silence . On the set of old Record hubbed wheels that I'm using now in this censored weather , oozing the grease in through the nipple doesn't seem to work . And now that it's on my mind and I've brought the subject up : the Shamal Ultra's I have don't have a nipple/port at all . So , no go there then .
Any ideas ?
P.S., the clicking bugs me enough to ask the question .
I managed it on my old Nucleon's by squirting some grease into the grease hole in the middle of the hub O.K.. It was fine , years of perfect silence . On the set of old Record hubbed wheels that I'm using now in this censored weather , oozing the grease in through the nipple doesn't seem to work . And now that it's on my mind and I've brought the subject up : the Shamal Ultra's I have don't have a nipple/port at all . So , no go there then .
Any ideas ?
P.S., the clicking bugs me enough to ask the question .
"Lick My Decals Off, Baby"
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Hypocrisy is only a bad thing in other people.
On the other hand - a loud freewheel is quite good when you get those ramblers in the road and need to alert the fact that you're steaming along - I used to click brake levers to get attention but ergo levers don't click, so freewheeling a bit with a campag freewheel is about as loud and is unmistakeably "bicycle" to the average civvy. Slightly less agressive than yelling AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH as you apporach. Slightly less effective too I admit.
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Take the bits labeled "Campagnolo" off and replace with Shimano
Embrace it
Rob's idea is a good one in taking a couple of the ruddy things out . Desperation might make me do that in the end . But , why don't Campag. do it themselves ? Or , why don't they make their pawls out of a quieter material ? How , in fact , do Shimano and the rest manage it ?
I accept that plenty of you enjoy the trill of Campag's lively little one note orchestra but it's a no-no for my , oh , so delicate , sensibilities . What's left of them that is .
Strangest thing is that I'm half deaf anyway ( official : I qualify for a hearing aid on the NHS ) . :roll:
By the way, if they were really cheap wheels would people be that chuffed about the fact that they're so noisy?! To say 'its the campag way' seems a bit daft to me. Have you been tricked into thinking every design flaw is actually a brand feature!? Its hardly a nice noise, like the roar of a sports car is. Surely a bike should be nice and smooth and stealthy. My dura ace hubs are quiet and spin for ever and although I'm confident my Eurus will also be great, I'm not looking forward to the back wheel alerting me to its presence every time I approach a junction, go through a tight corner, have a drink, look behind etc etc.
I did hope you'd see I wasn't serious....all your power going through 1 pawl would probably have a significant effect on your groin after not very long!!
Perhaps the indents or pawls are not as deep on Shimano hubs so they make less noise.
Well , to be honest I wasn't at all sure . :? The prospect of tooling about in the hub didn't fill me with delight as I'm sure it would develop into a farce of 'find the springs' . Or somesuch . :shock:
All this has driven me to dig out ' the Manual ' and it looks tame enough in there , so I may have a prod about . See what's what .
Funnily enough, I serviced my Proton rear hub recently and when I put it all back together it was really quiet. I was gutted! I took it all apart again, took the bearings back out, and removed some of the grease but it's still too quiet. I hate it; it feels wrong, like my bike is sick or something.
Is it ? :shock:
It's a fact that we can get used to most things eventually . But I have a long list of stuff I don't want to get used to . Campag's pawls for one . I certainly got used to the blessed peace that I was gifted after smudging the hubnipple with a healthy dose of grease on the Nucleons several years ago . I don't want to go back .
It maybe relevant to note that after pulling my lardy self up a hill around where I live the freewheel down the other side can be quite long . In the case of the run down to Holmefirth after topping out from my gaff here in Saddleworth is about 8 miles I think . When the breeze is behind you it's a joy to be scudding along in near perfect peace , without even windrush often enough . So , for me , it's a long way to be listening to that cursed clicking . :x
Anyway , you've certainly encouraged me to have a poke inside the hub and apply some soothing unguent to the pawls . Thanks . :P
It's a bit of a censored though that the remedy doesn't seem able to be applied externally and that the hub has to be disassembled .
Er.... peanut butter?
I'll try and remember what that grease is called. It's kind of sticky and gloopy, it doesn't get pushed out of the way like normal grease, cos it's sticky and keeps getting pulled back into the gaps under the pawls. It's a light blue colour and is stringy like melted pizza cheese. I've got it in a grease gun so I no longer have the original container with the brand name. Surely someone else here has used it and knows where to get it?
Thanks for keeping it in mind . I'd appreciate the heads -up .
Cheers
Too fagged to bother searching out the blue gloop , today I unscrewed all the stuff that is to be undone on the left side of the rear Shamal hub - a couple of 5mm Allen keys and a 2.5mm are the tools needed - and just pushed enough to seperate the freewheel from the hub - an 1/8th only - and squeezed some ordinary gloop into the gap . Screwed everything back together again - result : SILENCE on the freewheel .
Joy . Peace , perfect peace !
Or are you just being a 'censored ' ?
the round from Barcelonette is one of the best in the Alps-about 125k and 3500m of climbing...........but I digress
It is a lovely sound. No question.
When riding around as a lad, one would put a piece of card on the seatstay, so it clicked in all the spokes to give street cred.....
I've thrown the cards away and I have Zondas and Eurus, Daytona, and an 8spd Veloce
The click does diminish in time, but you only have to service the hubs to restore it (easy of course, with Campag, as the writer above observes)
I've restored the 8spd Veloce to full volume-love it, love Campag. I do sympathise if it's an irritant....but it does beg a question about wheel choice