Help Buying Replacement Freehub

MrVimes

Hi all, hoping someone can help me with the following;

(Short Story Version)
I have a Diamondback Heist 1.0 that is about 21 months old and I need to replace the freehub. This isn't something I've done before so I want to make sure I'm buying the correct replacement. Now the Diamondback specs list the rear hub as being a 'Diamondback QR 3H' which doesn't throw up anything when I search online.
I've been doing research on this for almost a week now and whilst I've learnt a lot about freehubs I'm still not much closer to being sure what I need. I've had a minor breakthrough today after finding the following;
https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/hub-spares/ ... y3cx98060/
The splines on this are exactly the same as my own and as they seem fairly unique compared to many of the others I've seen so I'm inclined to believe this may be the correct part - BUT - I don't want an exact replacement, I just want to know what will be compatible with the hub as I want to change to a steel body freehub.

(Long Story Version)
Soooo... a while back I started having problems with my top two gears - when I put high torque on them my crank arms, chainring and chain would all go round without driving the rear wheel, there was also a pretty nasty sound and grinding feeling. At the time I put up with it for a while as I just didn't have the funds to have it looked at or to buy any replacement parts - I just tried to cope without using those two gears too much.
I had just recently bought a fairly decent Icetoolz kit that included a nice selection of tools I would need when on my way to work one day my chain snapped (and promptly sent me flying into a bush!) on my way to work and I've finally started to replace the parts. Firstly I replaced the chain (obviously) only to discover that my chainring was damaged, so I replaced the chainring but upgraded from a 32T to a 34T Oval chainring, only to find it scraped the frame!
So I researched more and found out how to remove the bottom bracket and switch a spacer over to solve the issue. I also bought some aluminium jockey wheels to replace the standard plastic ones that came with the bike as they were looking a little worn too.
So now I'm back to the original issue - I've had the cassette off and looked at the freehub and it's obvious that what has been happening is the two sprockets are slipping on the freehub splines due to wear and I need to replace the freehub and possibly the cassette. I'd much rather have a steel freehub body over an aluminium one so I need to choose something that will match my hub, unless of course I might be more suited to buy a whole new hub? Then I'll need someone to advise me on that too!

........help?!

cooldad

Not sure what you mean by the splines are the same. They are the same on any freehub or the cassette wouldn't fit.

At £70, I'd just buy a new wheel.

joebristol

You may find it’s difficult to find a compatible freehub - I certainly wouldn’t be splashing £70 on one. And what you need to check if you are going down that route is that the bearing in the freehub fit your hub axle and that the pawls (that’s a 3 pawl freehub on the link above) will work with what you’ve got.

I’d either pop it into a bike shop and see if they can source you a new freehub, or get a new wheel. If you don’t want to spend crazy money then try and get a decent tubeless compatible rim on a Shimano rear hub. I’m just building up a wheelset at the moment (either for a mate or to sell on eBay) as practice as I’m planning to build a fancy wheelset for my fs bike. I picked up a Shimano XT 6 bolt rear hub for £35, a wtb st i25 rim for £8 plus postage and then spokes cost about £10.

If you didn’t want to build it yourself most bike shops charge around £40 to build a wheel.

As an alternative, CRC will often do a custom type wheel build for you - a mate had them build a Zee hub onto a wtb KOM i23 rim for not a large amount of cash.

billycool

Your bike will have pretty basic/generic parts. Not sure it's worth trying to replace just one part.

Buying a new wheel might be easier.

I've also had some wheels built recently, WTB KOM i23 onto Hope hubs. Not the cheapest option but they are meant to be a long term investment.

Or buy a cheapish hub for £30 and pay someone to rebuild your wheels for c.£50. £80 will get you a new hub and spokes on your exsiting rim.

MrVimes

I'm not keen on buying a whole new wheel especially as I've recently changed the spokes to a new set of double butted ones recently.
What should I be looking for in a new hub - I'm struggling to find anything that is listed as containing a steel freehub body, everything seems to be alloy?

cooldad

One that fits. You'll be lucky to find a hub that will allow you to reuse your new spokes.

billycool

Hope used to do a steel freehub body.

I'm not sure a steel feeehub body is essential. I think yours was just a bit low grade.

Most bikes have alu and they work fine.

As cooldad says, if you fit a whole new hub, sadly your spoke change was a wasted effort.

I guess the cheapest option would be try to find the same freehub body as your hubs or buy just the same hub and use the bits you need.

cooldad

Finding the hub will be next to impossible, as it's a Diamonback branded one, so could be any generic Chinese hub.

billycool

cooldad wrote:

Finding the hub will be next to impossible, as it's a Diamonback branded one, so could be any generic Chinese hub.

Which goes full circle to your original suggestion! :shock:

cooldad

Yup. Life's too short...