Frozen weather affected my freewheel/drive?

Johnny Napalm

As we all know, it's a very cold day today, but it was ride time...as usual! I got the bike out of the garage this morning, and obviously everything was a little cold...to say the least.

As soon as I set off I noticed that the drive appeared to be skipping, the whole drivetrain would pedal forward but it was intermittent as to whether it would get any purchase and drive the wheel forward.

As soon as it happened, I assumed there was a problem with the chain, but upon closer inspection, it became apparent that the whole cassette was spinning freely and then stopping. I have never had this problem before, and once the bike warmed up the problem completely disappeared, and has been perfectly normal for my recent 3hr ride, from which I have just returned.

I assumed that it was due to the extreme cold that something had contracted enought to cause this problem, but I don't know if this is possible. I spoke with another rider, who I met on my ride (and who needed to borrow a spanner), and mentioned it to him, and he said that he had also experienced this problem before during freezing cold temperatures.

I've always rode all year round, but I've never experienced this problem before.

Mattmanic

Cold affected my bike too but not in quite as drastic a way as you. My brake fluid must have hardened in the cold because my leavers were really stiff and wouldn't return to their positions until about 2 mins of applying and pulling back on the leavers.

Do you think your problem was caused by some part contracting more than it's surroundings in the cold?

cougie

If you read the forums you will see a few reports of this - I cant recall having had these temps for more than a day or two for the last five or six years - so I really do think its the extreme cold. You may need a different grease in your freewheel if you plan on cycling thru Siberia....

Banned!

Im guessing the cold has caused shrinkage in the metal that makes up the cassette/hub/freehub, causing it to mis-fire, so to speak.

once youve got moving and the friction has generated some heat, causing the parts to return to thier machined shape everything will go back to normal. I would be careful about riding like this though, frozen metal can be brittle and there is a real danger of causing serious damage to the cassette and the hub externals.

stumpyjon

It'll either have been water in the free hub freezing or the grease (assuming there's grease in there) thickening up stopping the pawls from working properly. Once you were moving it probably got everything moving again. Might be worth giving your freehub an overhaul. Has been known to happen mid ride to some people.

nicklouse

or your freebody is just dead and need replacing and it just happened to show its self to day.

the cold does not really cause any issues to bikes. but as we all know water freezes and if it is where it should not be it can cause problems.

Banned!

if it was the freehub body it wouldnt have righted itself but gotten worse as the day went on. anytime ive had a freehub die on me its been just-like-that and i was going nowhere slow.

snotty badger

Its the grease thickening/freezing in the freehub. Happened to two folk I know reecntly and my mate use to be a MTB mechanic and said he would have people bringing bikes in complaing that the cassette was spinning- give it ten mins or so in a warm workshop or boot of ya car and its fine again.

Maybe strip the freehub and put some low temp grease in?

Johnny Napalm

Its the grease thickening/freezing in the freehub

This does make sense, and explains how it corrected itself. I figure I will give it an overhaul anyway.

The more people started to suggest the water/grease freezing, the more it started to make perfect sense. In all the years I've ridden bikes, I've never had this happen before.

Thanks to everyone for your help/advice. This is definitely the place to be for help and advice.

ademort

The same thing has happened to me on a number of occasions this week, due to the cold weather. It,s quite easy to tell if it,s just the cold weather affecting the performance of the freewheel or if indeed the freehub is knackered. All you need to do is put the bike in a warm place, say overnight. If you can ride in the morning without any problem then you know it,s the cold weather. If you then set off for work and it suddenly stops propelling the bike forward, then you know for sure that it is only a weather issue. When i get to work, i have to leave my bike in the bike shed, it,s about 50M from the seashore. Every evening this week i have had to spray the freewheel to get it moving as it,s just frozen. If it is the freehub thats gone, then leaving the bike in a warm place overnight will not have any effect at all, it just will not work.
Ademort

timgbury

same thing happened to one of the guys on our ride today. He rode 45 mins to my house on the road with no probs. Then as soon as we got a bit higher up he lost drive totally.

A cup of hot water from a shop poured over the cassette re-engaged the pawls and we set off again.

10 minutes later up a big hill, same problem. Another jug of hot water from a farmhouse and we were off again.

10 minutes later and it's gone again. At this point he decided it wasnt the best idea to head onto the moors with an unreliable bike so had to bail out.

It was very cold today and with wind chill making it worse, my camelback hose was freezing every 15-20 mins and that was with hot juice in!

supersonic

Thats the problem with adding more water - it frees it up, then can make it worse as it freezes!

I have peed on frozen parts to free them up before lol.

guido1

My Cobra adjustible seatpost is slower in the cold. Like me.

snotty badger

supersonic wrote:

Thats the problem with adding more water - it frees it up, then can make it worse as it freezes!

I have peed on frozen parts to free them up before lol.

Bet that raised a few eye brows!


I've rode in conditions that have frozen gears and canti brakes solid, never thought to pee on my bike though!

New winter trail essential- can of de-icer

artillerydave

stumpyjon wrote:

It'll either have been water in the free hub freezing or the grease (assuming there's grease in there) thickening up stopping the pawls from working properly. Once you were moving it probably got everything moving again. Might be worth giving your freehub an overhaul. Has been known to happen mid ride to some people.

Stumpy is spot on, if water works its way into your freehub body, which if you use your bike in the winter it will, then this can freeze rendering your pawls useless and no drive. a good stripdown, clean and light regreasing is in order and should sort your problem.

JK in the UK

It definately has absolutely nothing to do with metal contracting in the cold! How cold do people think its been for christs sake?! Although metal does contract when cooled (as is used to fit stanchions into fork crowns or train wheels onto their axles) but one part is usually heated a couple of hundred degrees and the other cooled by the same amount!

If you've ever seen the way a typical MTB hub works and how the pawls engage it becomes pretty obvious that contracting metal isnt the problem. As others have said its either frozen water within the grease/freehub body or that the grease is thickening.

Sun ringle specifically say that if the pawls of their hubs are greased, it retards their operation and the warranty is voided. I use light oil (sometimes 3in1 if thats all I've got - I know I know!) on the pawls, springs and the surrounding area. On the downside it makes it harder to fit everything back together because the grease does keep everything in place and it seems to need topping up a bit more often (it gets very very loud) but thats what Sun ringle say and in my experience its what works best!

Hope it helps,
John

alisdairh

I know I'm reviving an old topic but the same thing happened to me last night.

I drove 45 minutes to meet my club, really looking forward to my first proper ride in the snow and didn't make it out of the car park.

At first I thought my chain had come off. It was a bit like trying to drive a carwhen the clutch has gone.

Going by what I've been told since this was down to frozen pawls in my hub,

The problem seemed to sort itself out quickly but by the time it had the rest of the club were a long way in front of me and I didn't know the way so I had to head back to the car.

Gutted!

bike-a-swan

happened to me last winter. a lighter is now standard kit in my bag in cold weather- emptied one in a single ride on saturday though. I'm now keeping the back wheel inside!

bregante

widdling on it is the answer :oops: . Worked a treat on mine at CYB in January

Alex

King hubs are the classic victims of freezing weather. On a night ride a few years ago someone's King froze about four times. By the third stoppage, we were ready to piss on the rider, let alone his hub!