How long?

tomhowells

I know that this is a 'piece of string' question, but here goes!

I commute daily, all weathers, roughly 100 miles per week. Pretty much all road. I'm 72kg.
I have a Moda Intro with bog standard wheels, came with the bike & aren't even branded, though i believe they are Barelli hubs & rims. (Barelli being Moda's house brand).

How many miles do you think I should get out them? The reason I ask is that they are requiring more & more attention to keep them on the straight & narrow. I'm pretty good with my maintenance, wash & lube it weekly, I service the hubs every 4 months.
The latest thing is the freehub slipping when cold & under load. It eventually catches, but then reappears the next morning/evening.

Do I just say to hell with it & get a set of bomb proof wheels for commuting (& the occasional sportive) or do you reckon it's worth getting a new freehub & continue with the weekly maintenance until the rims wear out?

Cheers

desweller

The freehub needs some light grease / oil and it will be probably be OK again. Have you managed to get the freehub body off?

tomhowells

I got the freehub body off the wheel & cleaned it up, but as far as I can see, I would need a special tool to disassemble the actual body to get to the bearings. I haven't got the specific tool, so if my attempts at cleaning haven't worked, I will probably have to take it to the lbs for a service.
I was just thinking that rather than spending £25 on a wheel service & then be told that I need to spend £x on a new freehub, seeing as I have done over 5,000 miles on these wheels in all weathers (so the rims are probably past their best), would I just be better off getting a new set of wheels?

desweller

The slippage isn't a fault in the bearings, it's a fault in the freewheeling mechanism. If you can get the freehub body off then chances are you can see it...got a photo?

If you have the nous to get the freehub body off then I reckon you've got the nous to avoid the LBS! Hubs should last a lot longer than 5,000 miles.

g00se

DesWeller wrote:

The slippage isn't a fault in the bearings, it's a fault in the freewheeling mechanism. If you can get the freehub body off then chances are you can see it...got a photo?

If you have the nous to get the freehub body off then I reckon you've got the nous to avoid the LBS! Hubs should last a lot longer than 5,000 miles.

But depending on the conditions and the types of pads, some rims won't. What are the state of the rims? Are there wear indicators? If the front is nearly done in, then bin them and upgrade.

Initialised

My freehub started playing up like that, I ended up getting stranded, calling in the support vehicle (Wife's car) and having the free hub replaced under warranty.

If the wheels keep going out of true then it may be that you're not doing it right.

tomhowells

Des, thanks for the advice. I got the freehub body off, cleaned what I could clean without disassembly, doused the lot in GT85 and let it dry. After that, I drizzled a bit of lube into the body & reassembled. Went on a 35 mile jaunt today & it was as good as new. Good advice, thanks fella!
Goose, I've been using Koolstop Salmons for ages, very soft compound so the rims haven't taken a pounding & the wear indicator is still good. I'll stick with them for now & have a wheelset in reserve for when they look like they are on the way out.
Initialised, they have never gone out of true, it's just the hubs keep suffering from wobble & water ingress, need constant fettling. It could well be that I am doing something wrong! I've only started riding a bike 18 months or so ago so all my maintenance techniques have been gleaned from youtube or park tools! I'll get there in the end, I just didn't want my inexperience to allow me to flog a dead horse :-)

Thanks for all the advice guys, much appreciated.