New Zipp 302s, very frustrated

ledzepp007

Hey,

Went out on a limb, found a good deal on some brand new Zipp 302s from a shop up in CT, purchased on eBay. Got them, initially liked them, took one ride outside (do most of my riding indoors at this time of year). Decided to put the bike up on the stand this afternoon to make sure my shifters were properly indexed and noticed a significant amount of freehub resistance. The kind where you can pedal backward and get the wheel up to a pretty good speed.

I’m sure something must be wrong and I’m very disappointed.

Has anyone else experienced this with new wheels? What should I do?

fenix

Why would you pedal backwards ?

This isn't a real world problem.

ledzepp007

fenix said:

Why would you pedal backwards ?

This isn't a real world problem.

You wouldn’t in the real world. However, it illustrates a high level of friction in the hub which is bad and very unexpected in a premium product

fenix

But not a problem when you're pedalling.

And the friction is probably just grease - it will improve with time. It's not going to be stopping you if you freewheeled. Of course if you're stopping going downhill without using the brakes then it's another matter altogether.

timothyw

Had a friend that got some deep sections built up that had a similar problem, to the extent he was getting chainstrike on the stay.. He left them in the loft for a couple of years over some hot summers.

Got them down and the freehub was silky smooth.

Your grease is new. It will settle with use, or you could try a hairdryer....


You know, you could look at this problem in another way - the wheel bearings are so smooth that even the tiny force imparted by the freehub is enough to get them spinning at a decent speed.....

ledzepp007

Well this makes me feel quite a bit better. And I’m clearly pretty neurotic lol

ledzepp007

Just as an update, turns out the seal between the free hub and the hub body was poorly seated. After a couple of tries I got it in there properly and the wheel is performing much better.

imposter2.0

ledzepp007 said:

After a couple of tries I got it in there properly and the wheel is performing much better.

Performing much better 'pedalling backwards'..?? You must be delighted..

ledzepp007

imposter2.0 said:

ledzepp007 said:

After a couple of tries I got it in there properly and the wheel is performing much better.

Performing much better 'pedalling backwards'..?? You must be delighted..

It has significantly less friction than it did before

DeVlaeminck

Think outside the box - you could have used this to your advantage and removed the rear brake - saved some weight and still legal.