Swap out options for troublesome Shimano freehub

bumpitybump

The freehub in my Specialised Sirrus Comp starting playing up again today. My original freehub lasted just 600 km before it stopped working so that the pedals would spin freely without the cassette moving at all. This was in the middle of winter when it was really cold and I had a replacement freehub fitted under warranty by Evans.

Now today, on a very hot day, the freehub has started playing up again. Symptom this time is when I stop pedaling the cassette is trying to drive the pedals onwards. I managed to get around this issue ( 8 miles from home ) by lifting the back of the bike up and dropping it sharply on the road from about a foot up and the hard jolt made the ratchet start working again.

I could do another warranty replacement with Evans as the bike is still less then a year old and under 1500 km in total, but I'm figuring what is the point as these Shimano freehubs seem terrible quality on a £900 bike.

What can I replace the Shimano hubs with that is compatiable with my existing Shimano drive chain and wheels? The Sirrus comp has a combination of Tiagra and 105 components.

Suggestions welcome.

davis

I had exactly this issue after 5 months with the freehub on my 2010 Roubaix. The hub was a Specialized own-brand job.

I ended up getting a pair of Mavic Aksiums, which are much nicer, so I had an effectively dead wheel. As a way of teaching myself a little more, I decided to discombobulate the broken freehub. I found this:



A little rusty, methinks.

This was on the "best" bike, which doesn't really do rain or winter
conditions, and I'd never pressure washed it or anything silly.

That ain't particularly great, really. I sent that photo off to the LBS saying "huh?", and the LBS contacted Specialized, who decided to replace the wheelset wholesale with a pair of Shimano RS10s. I'd call that a result.

I didn't shout about the great service because Specialized had the wheels shipped to them, saying they were going to send a report back. I intended to say "yay LBS" when I'd heard, but so far I've heard nowt.

Hope this helps.


Oh, as for replacement, I'd recommend wheels, preferably round ones. Basically, any set of 700s should do. Planet X's models B or C (I think) usually come well recommended, and are cheap. I think the Shimanos I got are probably ok too, but I haven't actually used them. The Aksiums are really, really nice too

bumpitybump

Thanks for the reply Davis - that photo is really shocking.

My Sirrus is my 'best' bike and I use it for fair weather commuting, no salt, grit or pressure washing as I have a tatty old mountain bike I use for poor weather riding. When the freehub gave up the coast over Xmas the bike had just been hanging on the garage wall for a few months keeping it away from the dirty roads.

The Mavic Aksiums look very nice, I assume though, that I can't just replace the freehub bit of my wheel, I need to go the whole hog and buy a complete wheel then?

davis

bumpitybump wrote:

The Mavic Aksiums look very nice, I assume though, that I can't just replace the freehub bit of my wheel, I need to go the whole hog and buy a complete wheel then?

In your specific instance, you're looking at a wheel replacement. It's not great because they're usually sold as pairs.

In general, hubs and rims can be bought separately, but they're usually better quality ones than the ones you've probably got. Frankly, the rims you've got likely ain't worth saving, I'm afraid. Rims wear out.

A cheap freehub is somewhere close to what you'd be paying for a complete wheel anyway, I believe.

I know it's frustrating, because 900 quid is a fair whack of money for a bike compared to what's available, but your yearly mileage probably warrants such "investment".

nicklouse

bumpitybump
so is the hub a shimano hub or a Specialised hub?

if it is a 2009 then it is a Specialised hub not a shimano one. which is easily serviceable unlike shimano freebodies that are just throw away items.

if you look to replace your wheels the hub needs to be shimano compatible.

davis

nicklouse wrote:

if it is a 2009 then it is a Specialised hub not a shimano one. which is easily serviceable unlike shimano freebodies that are just throw away items.

Damn. Wish I'd known that. Having said that, still would have bought the Aksiums

nicklouse wrote:

if you look to replace your wheels the hub needs to be shimano compatible.

Whoops. Forgot that. Bumpitybump: there are splines on the freehub, and they'll need to fit your cassette.

bumpitybump

Davis, you're right on the 'investment' argument as my main reason for rain or shine commuting is to avoid running a car which has an annual maintenance cost of around a thousand per year. So a bike is much cheaper to run ( and of course way more fun to ride and good exercise ).

I'm reluctant to spend money to make up for poor quality control by Specialised / Shimano - you may have felt the same way as your Roubaix was a decent spec machine.

One of the worries with the dodgy freehub using it on my commute in busy traffic is if the darn thing fails at the wrong time - say when I'm sprinting onto a roundabout in rush hour traffic to squeeze into a gap between cars. If the dam hub were to fail then I could end up an accident statistic. Maybe £150 quid is money well spent.

bumpitybump

nicklouse wrote:

bumpitybump
so is the hub a shimano hub or a Specialised hub?

if it is a 2009 then it is a Specialised hub not a shimano one. which is easily serviceable unlike shimano freebodies that are just throw away items.

if you look to replace your wheels the hub needs to be shimano compatible.

Hi Nicklouse - its unfortunately a 2010 model which means its a Shimano freehub. Thanks for the tip on ensuring the hub needs to be Shimano compatiable - I may not have thought of that!

nicklouse

bumpitybump wrote:

I'm reluctant to spend money to make up for poor quality control by Specialised / Shimano - you may have felt the same way as your Roubaix was a decent spec machine.

like i said if you have Specialised hubs then the only thing that has anything to do with shimano is the pattern of the splines so that they will take a shimano or Sram cassette as opposed to the spline pattern used by Campy.

take care of your words when talking to Evans.

bumpitybump

nicklouse wrote:

bumpitybump wrote:

I'm reluctant to spend money to make up for poor quality control by Specialised / Shimano - you may have felt the same way as your Roubaix was a decent spec machine.

like i said if you have Specialised hubs then the only thing that has anything to do with shimano is the pattern of the splines so that they will take a shimano or Sram cassette as opposed to the spline pattern used by Campy.

take care of your words when talking to Evans.

Hi Nick, I'd plan to be very polite with Evans - after all they probably see this warranty issue as something that is wasting their time dealing with it when they could be using their shop staff time to sell new goods. Any other suggestions with Evans though ?

always_tyred

nicklouse wrote:

take care of your words when talking to Evans.

That's an odd thing to say. Is the owner of Evans Sicilian or something?

nicklouse

Always Tyred wrote:

nicklouse wrote:

take care of your words when talking to Evans.

That's an odd thing to say. Is the owner of Evans Sicilian or something?

nope just trying to help someone not look like someone who knows very little.

go in not knowing what you are talking about and you may get the run around. go in with the right info then you may get better faster results.

Go in complaining about shimanos workmanship and Quality control when it is in fact a Specialised hub. Or go in asking for a shimano body and then finding it does not fit your hub can be a bit :oops:

bumpitybump

What a happy ending!

Evans at Reading sorted out a warranty replacement for some Mavic Aksiums which I've just fitted today.

The store manager at Reading, Gordon was very helpful and arranged the replacement wheels with Specialized.

Can't wait to go and test them later today....got to be worth another 2 kph on my average speed with those 'flat bladed aero-spokes' I reckon