Boardman 2011 HT Pro Freehub

S-M

Hello, this cheap ass POS Boardman is starting to fall apart (again)

It has the SRAM 2x10 setup on it as many of you will know, i have done around 750 miles and my freehub is yet again playing up, it has already been stripped down and re greased once around 200 miles ago, last night when pushing the bike up a hill, the pedals started rotating intermittently with the wheel, to be honest, i feel its a poor, crappy part, and i am wondering on my options for replacing it, i have taken the rear wheel off tonight and will strip the freehub down tomorrow for a closer look (need to change a CV joint on the car first) i will probably strip down and regrease as a stop gap until i can change it.

This is the first 2x10 setup i have had, can i use any 9 speed freehub to replace it? or does it need to be a specific 10 speed model?

The last time i stripped it down i looked online for some sort of help/guide on how to remove it and could not find anything, my gut instinct is that the Formula Hub setup on the bike is some kind of Shimano copy (maybe) i had the freehub apart, but the main section was still on the actual wheel hub and i could not seam to discover how to remove it, does anybody know how this is removed from the wheel hub? i could not see any allen key style fitments anywhere.

Maybe worth just changing the entire rear hub? it has been about 17 years since i last laced up a wheel and that attempt went a bit wrong IIRC so i would rather swap out the freehub if possible.

Catfish

If the bike is less than a year old then it will still be under warrenty. I would get in touch with Halfords and see what they say.

johnsav

as above!

The Northern Monkey

Got any pics of what you have when its apart? will be easier to decipher/advise.

S-M

Ohh i totally forgot about the warranty aspect, i will take the wheel in sometime this week and see what they say.

Good plan!

Need to dig out the receipt though.

S-M

Actually, this might not even be worth my time, i took the bike away boxed and assembled it myself as i did not want them touching it

I signed the PDI type form to say they were not inspecting it, becausre i did not want some monkey arsing it up.

And i also threw out the 6 weeks servicing voucher for the same reason.

And then i got another voucher from work giving me a years worth of free cover, but the small print said i had to pay for parts, so that was binned as well, mehh.

I have a plan, i`m going to replace the entire rear wheel for something a little better (thinking a 717 rim with a Switch Evo superstar hub), then attempt to lace a new hub/freehub up to the old Mavic 317 rim, if this is successful then i will fit this newly refurbished rear wheel onto my FSR project, as that is currently running some pretty crappy/cheap Alexrim jobbies.

It will give me something to do, and i can learn how to lace up a wheel properly.

The Northern Monkey

It might just need a strip and a service and/or some new bearings... a lot cheaper than a new hub/wheel?

750 miles is quite a long distance without a proper service.

cooldad

S-M wrote:

Actually, this might not even be worth my time, i took the bike away boxed and assembled it myself as i did not want them touching it

I signed the PDI type form to say they were not inspecting it, becausre i did not want some monkey arsing it up.

And i also threw out the 6 weeks servicing voucher for the same reason.

This from someone who seems to have nothing but problems.

Danlube

cooldad wrote:

S-M wrote:

Actually, this might not even be worth my time, i took the bike away boxed and assembled it myself as i did not want them touching it

I signed the PDI type form to say they were not inspecting it, becausre i did not want some monkey arsing it up.

And i also threw out the 6 weeks servicing voucher for the same reason.

This from someone who seems to have nothing but problems.

Then you my friend are a Monkey, some Monkeys at (hellfrauds) can ride you into the ground and are more than capable of setting a bike up without problems occurring down the line. Fool.

S-M

A Bit harsh

The bike has problems, i have built a few bikes in my time (years ago mind) rebuilt various engines for myself, built thousands upon thousands of engines and gearboxes for Nissan, and currently build the seats for the Nissan Note, i think i know my way around a few spanners?

Are you telling me that if some oik in the shop setup my bike originally (ie screw in the pedals, bolt up the handle bars and setup the gears) then my BB30 would not have failed? my rear wheel bearings would not have failed, my tyre would not have exploded @ 45psi and my freehub would not have seized up?

Give over! i think you need your banana back.

The wheel was taken to a LBS this afternoon and they were not sure what to do with it as they had only played with one 2x10 setup, they suggested taking it back to Halfords, apparently the older model had Ritchey hubs and they had problems with these? they claimed Halfords were simply swapping out the rear wheels under warranty, Halfords now have the wheel, apparently they have never had any problems with any bearings on the Boardmans so my monkey comment regarding them still stands.

What i found quite funny, was that when i spoke to the LBS, they told me the bloke who had just left had the same problem with "a Halfords bike" not that i am bigging up the LBS, i get the impression they dont know that much about the new stuff, they did have a nice looking bike hanging up that i liked the look off (must go and google it now)

cooldad

Small point. Halfords is a large company and doesn't actually have the ability to wield spanners.
As with all large companies some employees are better than others.

Danlube

S-M wrote:

A Bit harsh


Are you telling me that if some oik in the shop setup my bike originally (ie screw in the pedals, bolt up the handle bars and setup the gears) then my BB30 would not have failed? my rear wheel bearings would not have failed, my tyre would not have exploded @ 45psi

Well actually yes and no. The tyre sounds like it was not seated correctly, causing the "explosion" which may have been your fault. For the bb30, thats not your fault. The bearings were not seated correctly at the factory causing excessive and rapid wear which caused them to fail, had the bike been assembled at hellfrauds the monkeys would have removed the bearings and re seated.

S-M

Dont get me wrong, the irony of your comments is not lost on me, but i don't like people doing jobs i can do myself, hence why i attempt everything i can, at least this way i know it is done right, and NOTHING i have done so far would have prevented or caused the problems i have had so far.

IIRC i still have the PDI checklist in the garage/man cave that Halfords use before handing over a bike, it should have every single point on it, and i am pretty sure none of it would have prevented a failed freehub, nor a BB30, nor a faulty tyre, etc etc

My PDI checklist is crossed out with a comment from the sales lad that i was assembling the bike myself, after explaining my job to him he even said something along the lines of "ohh this thing will be built up in a few minutes then" and it was!

They are not exactly rocket science, if i can install a ej257 lump into my old subaru, then cut down and weld up a TD05 turbo to fit a 98 inlet manifold, followed by Mapping the Apexi ecu, i am pretty sure i can set a bike up, despite what a few chaps on a forum might think

They come pretty much assembled anyway to be honest.

S-M

FWIW the believe they are now reseating the BB30 bearings yes, but i have been told they were not doing this when i picked up my bike.

My co-worker has had no trouble with his that he picked up a month later, but then again, he has only did 60 miles on his.

I still believe my BB30 intially died because my crank had 2 bearing shields on the drive side, and NONE on the other side.

Quality manufacturing

Danlube

Sorry, still working on my irony comments

As the old saying goes, if I had a pound for every time I hear "I'm an engineer/mechanic I can set a bike up properly"

S-M

Do you think that bikes are complicated machines ? :?

Danlube

Nope, just cables pulling and bearings rotating.

supersonic

Some bits are complicated. There is a lot of different parts out there. Cars are nothing like bikes, I know plenty of car mechanics who haven't got a clue with a bike!

I used to work at Halfords, some have top mechanics - if we were aware of a possible problem with a bike ie say bearings seals, then we'd rectify it PDI. Sometimes the PDI goes further than the list says.

The wheel was taken to a LBS this afternoon and they were not sure what to do with it as they had only played with one 2x10 setup,

Is a perfect example of just how lame some LBSs can be ;-)

S-M

Well i was left a phone message today and apparently something is/was wrong with it and its getting swapped under warranty.

Thanks for the great advice from the decent folk (seriousness, i had forgotten all about the warranty until this thread) , and thanks for the gash wind up attempts from the knacker folk

Unpleasantly it is going to need a whole new freehub, and this needs ordered in, i will be getting another update around the middle of next week.

S-M

Just picked this wheel back up after repair, Halfords were supposed to ring with an update in the middle of last week as they had to order in a freehub, but nobody rang, i chased them up last friday and was told that the mechanic would next be at work on monday and if i called in on monday it might be done :roll:

I called in tonight and it was "ready"

Now intially inspection was not good, the cup/cones felt far too tight, the axle felt notchy to turn around :?

I questioned this as it was slackened off a little.

The bike came with a freehub that made no noise, it was generally pretty quiet, the replacement makes the usual clicking noise, so i assume it is a different spec replacement part.

The axle itself is also new, as are the cone/locknuts, not sure if they would come as part of the freehub kit, but IIRC the stock Boardmand locknuts were silver/chrome and these are plain black.

I would like to fit the wheel onto the bike to test it, but unfortuantly 1 week ago last sunday, i launched my FSR bike from a jump and hit a tree and at the moment i am still not well enough to play around with tools, i dont think i would even be strong enough to lift the bike down from the racking in the man cave as i have various busted body parts including yet another fractured rib, a hip, back muscles and a wrist sprain :twisted:

Hopefully at the weekend i will have a proper look at it.

Its nice to have the Boardman almost up and running though, as the FSR is currently needed 2 new wheels

S-M

Another update, i have put around 60 miles onto the repaired wheel now, and if the noise it was making last night is anything to go by, it is buggered again, not sure why yet as i have not had a look at it (when it started making the noise, i came home sharp)

Its not the freehub though as i removed the wheel and span it by hand, it sounds like the N/D/S bearings, I suspect Halfords replaced the drive side with the freehub, not sure what they did with the N/D/S, although it did come back with a new axle and new cones, the wheels dish had apeared to have changed quite a bit and this turned out to be the drive side having 2 washers fitted to it between the cone/lock nut and none on the other side.

Meh, the wheel has never given me any confidence anyway, so i decided to have a go and making my own, it cant be that hard right ?

I last attempted to lace a wheel when i was around 15 years old, and it did not go very well.

I had bought a set of Novatech hubs a few months back as they run proper cartridge bearings, and to be honest, i am a little sick of this cup and cone bearing malarky :-)

I needed a rim, so i ordered up a Superstar XC-430 rim in "techno lime green"

Some DT Swiss spokes were purchased, and i also picked up some bling red alloy spoke nipples (unsure on these tbh)

The wheel build was actually not that hard, i used a youtube guide to give me the general idea regards the lacing up, then i just took my time and started to twang the spokes to get them all making a nice noise, a quick ghetto dish/true stand was setup (ie i used my Boardman bike lol) and the job seams pretty much finished.

http://youtu.be/njQfrhLNK_4

Just need some rimtape and i think i can give it a quick (but tentative) test ride :-)

Hopefully no more problems from the rear end, fwiw the front Boardman wheel/hub has been spot on, but i will be replacing it with another white/green setup when i order another rim up :-)

Will Nunez

Brave man!

S-M

Seriously, it is not what i would consider a "hard" job at all.

FTW i was just out in the garage eliminating the slight hop and one of the red nipples became damaged, an ex bike mech at work had warned me that the alloy nipples, while looking nice, are a pain and quite weak, but i had already bought them before he warned me, so i figured i would at least test them.

One ended up rounded off, so i have removed them all, and replaced them with the silver ones that came with the DT Swiss spokes.

Using a different method of tightening them up seams to have given me a much faster build, it needs a quick true tomorrow, then i will ride it and see what happens

The red nipples will make nice bling cable end covers

blablablacksheep

looks like you done a good job with that getto wheel build.

hope it all goes well as i know how much a pain it is when you just want to ride rather than mess about faffing around.

S-M

Been out tonight for a quick 8 mile jaunt around the coast, the back end of the bike now feels a lot stiffer, not sure if this is the new rear hub and its 4 cartridge bearings supporting things a bit better, or maybe i have the spokes a little stiffer, or maybe it was me junking the rear quick release QR and replacing it with a bolt through skewer (still 9mm though)

Whatever it is, i like it :-)

possibly randomly, the rear brake now feels a lot more direct as well, i really think i had some kind of "flex" from the back end on the old hub/repaired freehub setup.

Got a little air and did a few bunny hops, never heard a squeek/ping or any imminent sounds of doom, the garage was pitch black when i returned and i could not see the wheel properly, but it still looked spot on, will recheck everything out tomorrow in the light, and start on dismantling the stock Boardman hub to see why it broke (again)


Totally chuffed!

FTW after changing all the nipples last night and redoing the wheel, the hop in the video is just about gone, result.