Freehub of smart trainer gets stuck when QR is tightened

ascrumtrip2016
ascrumtrip2016 Posts: 1
in Workshop
Hi all, recently I noticed that the freehub of my smart trainer is not spinning freely when the quick release spanner is moderately tightened. It won’t rotate backwards at all, and has clear friction rotating forward. I removed the cassette and the issue remained there with the qr tightened. Only a moderate level of tightening on the qr is enough to create the friction. I may have been guilty of over tightening the qr in the past, so I wonder if I might have damaged the freehub bearings that way, causing this blockade? If so, I might want to just take the freehub off and bring it to my bike shop. Or is it likely that something inside the smart trainer itself is causing the friction?

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  • 964cup
    964cup Posts: 1,362
    Which trainer? If it's a Kickr there's a spacer that fits over the axle behind the freehub body. From the factory there are two apparent spacers - in fact one is a shim because the standard freehub has a larger axle diameter than the actual axle, and the second is the spacer that provides the interface between the freehub and trainer bearing surfaces. If someone replaced the freehub with (e.g.) the multifit Shimano/Campag version which doesn't use the shim as it has a smaller axle diameter, they might have assumed that you don't need the spacer either. It will appear to work until you tighten it down, at which point the freehub will seize.

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