Cleaning my bike

forgiven

I am for all intensive purposes new to the sport. I ride a Specialized Sectuer Comp with 105s. I have done some superficial cleaning in the past but never a full "tear it down and clean" for fear of putting it back together incorrectly.

I atttempted this yesterday and my fears were realized. I put everything back together as my pictures indicated and everything appears to be in place. Even peddling caused proper rotation. However the problem came when you suddenly stop peddling the whole thing locked up rather than the freewheel continued spinning.

Now please note while I was cleaning I did not remove the gears from the rear wheel. I simply removed the wheel and cleaned all the bits including the chain.

Any suggestions what might be causing the freewheel to freeze and not spin properly?

Thanks

boneyjoe

I've the same problem on my MTB, although after 6/7 heavy washes. Can only assume I've got water/soap into the rear hub; any chance you've done that? Taking it to lbs shortly to get sorted.

keef66

Any chance you've got water into the freehub and it's frozen??

If you take off the wheel can you turn the sprockets by hand one way but not the other?

desweller

What did you use to wash the cassette area? If you have used a strong solvent, e.g. petrol, you may have unintentionally degreased the freewheel mechanism inside the freehub, which will not do it much good at all!

DW

forgiven

I think we have a winner. DesWeller, I believe you hit the nail on the head. Though I didn't take the cassette off the wheel, i did spray it with degreasing spray pretty heavily.

What is the recommended lubricant to use on this? I currently only have a spray (foaming) lubricant which seems pretty messy and doesn't apply well to small areas.

LardLover

It sounds like you're going to need to strip the freehub, clean and regrease (light grease/oil) everything again. Degreasers are GREAT for cleaning, however liberal use of said solvent is also GREAT at penetrating seals and stripping the grease out of bearings.

Lesson learned, only use degreaser sparingly.

desweller

Strip and rebuild of the freehub with grease would be the proper thing to do. Anything else is gonna be a bit of a bodge and will require you to deliberately compromise the seals protecting the freehub mechanisms from dirt and water, unless there's a lubrication port on the body.

freehub

Is it possible to strip all freehubs? I wanted to on my commuter as the freehub was playing up, I managed to take it off but could not see any way to take it apart.

ride_whenever

It is just about possible to strip all freehubs, they had to be made obviously.

However some are really rather hard and not worth it.