American Classic Freehubs with Steel Faced Inserts...

Nice idea, but the steel inserts really don't do the job very well at all.

I have a set of American Classic wheels on my Moda Legato bike, and for the first couple of years or so I rode the bike without servicing it - being a new bike it just went on and on without apparently needing any servicing at all, everything was just buttery smooth as you'd expect with a new bike.

However eventually I noticed the freehub on the rear wheel starting to jam up, especially in winter when the conditions were very cold.  Essentially when you were riding along, if you took your feet off the pedals, the pedals would still continue to go round - ie the freehub was jamming up and not allowing the wheel to freewheel... well, freely.

When I started to strip the rear wheel down it became obvious that the job wouldn't be straightforward.  I've stripped down a number of old freehubs in the past so was confident in doing this one, but unfortunately only got down to taking off the first 2-3 'cogs' or 'sprockets' from the freehub when it became obvious that I wouldn't be able to take any more of the sprockets off - effectively the sprockets had become embedded in the freehub body, with huge gouge marks having been made into the freehub body to such an extent that I couldn't shift the sprockets at all without resorting to a file to file down the huge burrs that had developed.

Eventually I managed to file down the freehub enough that I could remove the cassette completely, and the remaining mess wasn't nice:

This was after about 500 to 1000 miles or so, not a huge distance really, certainly wouldn't have expected it to look that bad after such a short amount of miles.

As you can see from the picture, the steel inserts that are supposed to stop the splines from being gouged by the cassette had disintegrated.  In the picture above, that steel insert is the 'best' that was left - the other 2 inserts had completely disintegrated into tiny shards of metal and were stopping me from taking the cassette off to service the hub.  As I said above, in the end I had to file down the freehub body completely to be able to remove the cassette, destroying the freehub in the process.

Various bits after I'd dismantled the hub:

So... nearly a year ago to the day (12th August 2014) I bought a replacement from Clee Cycles:

Cracking service from Clee, next day delivery more or less, £47 I think it was for the replacement... not cheap.  Or at least you'd expect it to last longer than a year for £47 / a basic 'unit'.

Now then... just one year on after purchasing the replacement above (the pics above are from 1yr ago), and I'm nearly in the same position again... after very low use (only 200 miles or so), deep gouges are appearing in the freehub body splines and the steel inserts that are supposed to protect against the gouging are starting to deform and will no doubt break apart soon.  As it is the inserts are falling out when I try to re-install the cassette due to the deformation.

Here below you can see the problem - the gouging is showing significant signs again (I had trouble getting the last few sprockets off and had to again resort to filing down the burrs, not too much work but still not good at all):

All in all, very disappointed in this American Classic free hub.  I would have sent the thing back to get a refund or replacement, but to be honest it's not Clee's fault and I dare say they'd have a huge hassle getting anything back off the UK distributor.  I tried myself to contact them by email a few times and they blatantly ignored me... not impressive service at all.  As it is right now unfortunately I'm just resigned to staying well clear of anything American Classic, which is a real shame when the UK distributor is located in Derby.  Goes to show you that supporting local services/companies doesn't always pay...



So, all in all, very disappointing product this American Classic freehub.  The design of the American Classic 6 pawl hub itself is excellent, but the way this steel faced insert freehub body is designed is just awful - wish they'd just do a plain and simple all steel freehub body - I would continue using the hub without a doubt if they did that... but as it is I'm not prepared to pay £50 every year or two for a new freehub body... so will be building some new hoops... probably on Hope hubs which I know are built to last.


Here's how the inside of the hub looked today:

 was actually very happy with that and in fact didn't bother re-greasing it at all - I just added a bit more grease on top of the pawls to repack the grease, then put the 'sleeve' back on over the pawls and re-inserted the axle + freehub body.

One final random picture - this is the hub from last year when I serviced it - I fully stripped it down, took all the grease off it, rinsed it off / washed it out etc and this is what it looks like:

 As I say, really nice design of the hub itself.  The pawl mechanism is so clever in the way that it works - the pawls only engage with the ratchet system on the freehub when force is applied to the pedals - ie when you're freewheeling, the pawls are almost completely retracted back into their housings (as in the picture above where you can see the pawls fully retracted), which is a very good thing because it means that the ratchet teeth on the freehub body aren't unnecessarily worn down when no pressure is being applied - unlike most other freehub systems where the pawls are constantly engaged with the ratchet.

Of course, unfortunately all of that design excellence in the hub counts for nothing because of the poor design of the freehub body splines - or rather the poor choice of build material which leads to the incredibly fast deformation of the freehub - aluminium with the steel inserts instead an all steel body.

New Freehub Body for XC Rear Hub

After servicing the bike the other day here it was obviously time for a new freehub body for the Hope XC rear hub.  Surprisingly the new freehub shell/ body wasn't actually that expensive, £38 or so including the pawls and springs (and two 6016 bearings).  Got a decent price at ukbikestore - always found them to be very very good on the rare occasions that I've used them, should use them more really, very good place, highly recommended.

The new freehub arrived within a day of ordering it (excellent as always from ukbikestore):

The new hub came with the springs/pawls held in place with a zip tie.  They also came with a good blob of the famous Hope blue grease (forget the brand of it now, found out once by searching but forgotten long ago). 

Old vs New:

Anyway... fitted the hub initially just to see how it rode without any extra grease on, and it was super clicky / super smooth as expected. :)

The following day I decided to repack it with my usual grease - which is Silkolene Pro NG2, a racing / motobike grease which is very thick and viscous but very smooth and works really well at high temperatures.  The temperature 'thing' or the fact it's 'racing' grease didn't really play any part in my decision to use this grease, really the fact is I bought it once from a place called Jervis in Ripley near Derby just on a whim, and it's lasted me a good 10-15 years now (500g tub) and always been very good, very easy to apply, and smells good - always a bonus. :)  Actually I need some more of this now... I did think about trying some different general purpose grease, but this stuff has been so good I don't think I'll faff around looking for anything else, this stuff just does the job really well.

So ... I repacked the hub with a huge amount of grease - I tend to pack grease into every possible void - inside the freehub to pack out the bearings inside, a large dob of grease on each pawl 'socket' (which is great for holding the spring/pawls in place whilst you re-fit the freehub into the hub), a good smearing inside the ratchet 'race' (where the pawl's engage with the 'teeth' inside the hub) - and then finally refit the freehub into the hub body, pushing down all the grease so it oozes out.  Snap on the retaining 'flanges' and then once over with a rag to clear up the excess grease (actually for anything involving grease I use this super strong workshop paper roll, it's a bit like super thick kitchen roll and is perfect for anything where you're covered in grease!).

Gave it a test ride the other day and it's brillian, very very smooth and so silent it's untrue (which for Hope hubs is quite something, they are renowned for being some of the loudest hubs on the market).  Jobs a good un, should last another 10yrs hopefully. :)

Crank ring bolts falling off / Hope rear hub servicing

First post for a while, not a lot to report really, the Surly has been ticking over very nicely and has been in constant use since building it, very happy indeed.

First issue came up today when I noticed a creaking noise around the bottom bracket... initially sounded like the usual highly irritating "bottom bracket vs pedals mystery creaking noise" that inevitably comes up on any / all bikes (where occasionally it seems impossible to work out whether it's the bottom brank or the pedals causing the noise!)... however when I inspected it closer it turned out to be the Middleburn chainring bolts that had come loose.

The middle and outer chainrings had worked their way loose, thankfully not loose enough to come off completely, but still needed a good tightening (was loose enough to remove by hand though so loose enough!).

Anyway, no big drama, was a good opportunity to take the chainrings off and give the crankset a good clean.

At the same time I went over the whole bike and gave it a proper clean / service / inspection.  In the process I found that the Hope hub on the rear wheel is starting to get a bit gacked up, took it apart and gave it a good clean, but the palls and springs are starting to show some wear, as is the steel block:

 

 So, .. they need changing I think.  I COULD just put them back on and they would probably be OK for another few months / years (probably!) but ... I did start thinking about how long they'd been on the bike already the Hope hubs... and to be honest I couldn't remember off the top of my head.

So I did some digging just now and came across some pictures I took of the hub when I originally purchased it - amazing from almost exactly 10 years to the day (July 16th 2004):

It was actually laced with a Mavic XC717 rim, a leightweight XC rim / wheel setup that I purchased I think from Stifsports for about £100 or so.  Actually oddly I just checked and I purchased the wheel in December 2004, so no idea how I've got that ^ picture above allegedly taken in July 2004?!  Odd, must have been the date set incorrectly on the camera.

Anyway... still, getting on for 10yrs.  Will try and source a new block and pawls/springs... should do the bearings as well but meh such a faff... have to see.

Also found this rather funky picture of my old Marin from back around that time in 2004:

Registered on Immobilise.com

When I originally built the Surly I decided - wrongly or rightly - to go with Datatag to tag the bike.  I also registered the bike on BikeRegister.com.

However now I've just been reading about Immobilise.com:

Immobilise do pretty much the same thing as BikeRegister but the service is free and appears to be touted by the local police a lot more frequently than BikeRegister.  This is probably because Immobilise don't focus only on bikes, they allow you to inventory any number of items of property that you want to add an extra level of security to against theft, so it's a winner with the police in terms of covering a lot of different things in one database.

So, yes, worth a go I thought.  More 'belt and braces' never hurt (although a bit of a PITA to update both BR and Immobilise... should stick to just one really!).

The benefit of Immobilise is they allow uploads of photos to the site for free (whereas bikeregister charge you for image uploads).  I edited a photo of the Surly and added in various arrows pointing to the datatag sticker  + transponder locations, hopefully that will help if it ever comes to it.

KMC Chain power link broken

Cleaning the bike today (well, the chain anyway, couldn't be bothered doing the rest of it) and whilst I was using the Park Tool cyclone thingamabob / chain cleaner I noticed the chain had got stuck.  On closer inspection it turned out the KMC 'power link' had snapped!

Not very impressed really, only done about 500 miles on the bike so far so for it to snap like that so soon is a disappointment.  Thankfully I have loads of old SRAM powerlinks knocking around so I just used one of those, seems to be fine (although not ridden on it as yet, should be fine I think).

Generally re the bike... well, very very happy with the bike generally, as above, must have done a few hundred miles on it now and it's very solid/sturdy/stable and surprisingly agile if you want to put your foot down.

Really need to sort out some tires though for winter, the ones I've got on at the moment were originally only meant for summer and with this winter weather it's getting a bit tricky at times with sliding around - already had a couple of near falls with wet leaves and mud, let alone snow/ice which is bound to arrive at some point soon. Need to research some decent winter tires.

The mudguards have been a godsend though in the last few weeks with all the rain/mud knocking about.  The only minor quibble maybe is that the guards are a bit too big and so mud / water can sometimes spray outwards off the inside of the mudguard... but really it's nothing much.  But then again they do look the business and don't exactly look too big.

Have tested the panniers out quite a few times now with shopping, done a couple of quite large shops as well with 10-20kg loaded up.  Was quite surprised actually to read on the rack that the max weight is 35kg... despite having the rack for years and the 35kg thing being visible for years, I never really thought about it too much... but having done some concrete work and having had to buy big bags of sand, I know each big bag of sand is 20kg... not quite sure I'd want to lug ~two of those on the rack, that's quite a large load!  Nice to know it can take it though.

Adjusted riser bar

Adjusted the riser bar today.  As it was it was awkward when getting up out of the saddle when climbing because the handlebar grips were kind of in an odd position - closer to your waist than chest which isn't comfortable for climbing out of the saddle.

Anyway, I undid the stem and flipped the riser bar over 180° and readjusted all the shifters etc.  Felt slightly odd at first but actually seems to be a bit better like that, especially when climbing, so will probably keep it like that for a while.

Managed to get a chunky twig/stick stuck in the chainrings today though, not had that happen before.  Was a bit dodgy because it was when I was going uphill and putting a lot of pressure on the pedals, nearly snapped the chain!  Don't think there's too much damage done though, the stick came out easily enough and rings didn't seem too bent out of shape.

Lezyne Alloy Drive Bracket Mount / Jagwire Non Crimp Cable Ferrules

Got a couple of items today:

Lezyne Bracket Mount for Alloy Drive Pump

I bought the Lezyne alloy drive pump about ... 2-3 years ago now(?) and it's been absolutely brilliant.  It originally came with a bracket to fit the pump to the water bottle bosses/lugs, so I fit it to the CX bike I have and it's been great on that.

Rather than buy a brand new pump for the new Surly LHT bike, I thought I'd just buy a spare bracket so I could use the same pump on both bikes.

Have to say Lezyne are great in terms of the spares you can buy for their products - whilst I was looking for this bracket (which was available everywhere by the way), I also noticed they even have a seal replacement kit for the alloy drive pump.  I don't actually need one of these right now but it's good to know they do exist.

Compare this to Crank Brothers... I have numerous complaints about Crank Brothers products that I could mention but don't really want to get started here... but just relating to the pumps that Crank Bros sell - I had a couple of problems with a Crank Bros pump I bought - a. the bracket broke due to a design fault and b. the pump itself broke (again, mainly down to the poor design of the pump).  Crank Bros don't sell any spares at all for their products (or at least they didn't do at that time 2-3 yrs ago and I'd be surprised if they sell them now) so you either have to try and complain to the manufacturer / distributor to get a spare part outside of warranty (which was useless in my experience), or stump up for a new pump (when the pump actually would work fine if you could just get the one replacement seal for it which probably costs pennies to produce)... a great deal of style over content I'm afraid with Crank Brothers.

Anyway... yes Lezyne are a preferred alternative in my opinion to Crank Brothers particularly for pumps(!)... great build quality / usability, plus great after sales support in terms of spare components available.

The bracket cost a fiver or so... which isn't totally cheap but at the same time saves having to fork out at least as much for a cheapo alternative that would probably last 5 minutes:

Fits perfectly to the side of the water bottle:

My only issue is I would have preferred to fit it to the seat tube so that it's out of the way of my feet as I'm cycling (I can just see the pump getting caught in the leg of my shorts in summer time!).  Unfortunately I couldn't fit it there because I'd already fitted the Abus lock case, and the pump bracket wouldn't fit alongside the lock case.  It'll probably be fine though.

Jagwire Pro Non-Crimp Ferrules

Hah well not a lot to say about these really (but I'm sure I'll end up waffling on anyway!).  I didn't have any ferrules to finish off the cabling (the little 'end caps' you cover the ends of the brake and gear gables once they've been fitted to stop them fraying).  I was going to go for the pennies option of buying regular ferrules, but then saw these snazzy red anodized ferrules from Jagwire and just couldn't resist.

They were a relatively eye watering £3.50 (compared to normal ferrules where you can probably buy 100 for the same price!)... although in my defence, they are re-usable... so if I manage to not lose them by catching them with a foot then they should last a while.

They have little rubber 'grommets' around the ends which you poke the cable end through and are meant to hold the ferrules in place without you having to 'crimp' them on with pliers:

All of which is fine in theory but like I say above I can just imagine them getting snagged on something and lost forever... time will tell.