Brand new wheel creaky freehub body

Taahl

Hello,

I recently bought a Kona Rove ST (2017) gravel bike used for commute, it has no more than 100 km, so it's relatively "brand new". There is a set of Alex Wheel Boondocks on it with Alex's aluminium free-hub.

Since 2 weeks, rear wheel became creaky. After diagnose (disc brakes, cassette torque...) I disassembled free-hub and noticed creaking noises coming from the inside.

It's a free-hub with sealed bearings. Inside the free-hub body, there is a spacer between the two bearings, this spacer is moving up and down (not side to side) which causes the creaking noise.

Is it a factory defective part or just a bad pressing of the bearings between them ?

You can hear the noise (pump up the volume !) in this video https://youtu.be/DdL5zVLyqC4

Thank you !

Edit : I didn't post in the dedicated thread because the wheel is "brand new" https://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=40004&t=12581556

ugo.santalucia

The spacer is normally allowed vertical movement to allow you to knock off the bearings and is not the cause of the creaking

Taahl

ugo.santalucia wrote:

The spacer is normally allowed vertical movement to allow you to knock off the bearings and is not the cause of the creaking

Oh thanks for the explanation !! I was wondering why it could be moved vertically. In my opinion, the creaking noise comes from the friction between the inner free-hub axle and spacer / bearings, but I don't understand why. Although it's not supposed to be greased...

sungod

i thought it sounded more like a squeak than a creak, maybe not been greased correctly, or a bad seal

if it's new i would get the retailer to repair/replace under warranty

Taahl

Yes it's more like a squeak (creak may not be the appropriate word). Everything seems greased correctly... I sent an email to the retailer to replace it with the video attached but... now answer !

Anyway, thanks for the replies.