Finally: Quiet hub on my Vado SL

[rochrunner]

I can't believe that this is all it took to remedy my pet peeve about my SL since the day I bought it: noisy ratcheting (clicking) sound from the freehub. It wasn't just me, but was remarked on by people riding with me, and was definitely louder by far than my other bikes, wife's Trek e-bike, etc. Anyway, based on an older post in the forum here, I realized how easy it was to pull the freehub apart and simply apply some grease. In fact, you don't even need any tools other than to remove the rear wheel. The freehub can be popped off without removing the cassette: just grab under the big cog and give a sharp tug!

I used the grease from Amazon as shown in the photo. How quiet is it? I greased it a few days ago but today was my first ride since then. I had actually gone more than halfway on the ride before I realized that it was so quiet that I had forgotten all about my having greased it! It was even more effective than I'd hoped. I'm not sure how long it will last, but there's enough grease in that little 1oz tube that I'm sure it will outlast my ownership of the bike. Saves me bigtime in the long run, too, as I'd been considering a set of custom wheels with a hub of my choosing that would have set me back US$1K or so.

 

[Rexlion]

Now you can sneak up on those pedestrians! (Or not.)

 

[mschwett]

I can't believe that this is all it took to remedy my pet peeve about my SL since the day I bought it: noisy ratcheting (clicking) sound from the freehub. It wasn't just me, but was remarked on by people riding with me, and was definitely louder by far than my other bikes, wife's Trek e-bike, etc. Anyway, based on an older post in the forum here, I realized how easy it was to pull the freehub apart and simply apply some grease. In fact, you don't even need any tools other than to remove the rear wheel. The freehub can be popped off without removing the cassette: just grab under the big cog and give a sharp tug!

View attachment 158422

I used the grease from Amazon as shown in the photo. How quiet is it? I greased it a few days ago but today was my first ride since then. I had actually gone more than halfway on the ride before I realized that it was so quiet that I had forgotten all about my having greased it! It was even more effective than I'd hoped. I'm not sure how long it will last, but there's enough grease in that little 1oz tube that I'm sure it will outlast my ownership of the bike. Saves me bigtime in the long run, too, as I'd been considering a set of custom wheels with a hub of my choosing that would have set me back US$1K or so.

glad to hear! i hate how loud my DT swiss ratchet exp hubs are, and found that cleaning them well (remove all bits and pieces, degrease, scrub, replace) plus the DT Swiss grease (likely very similar to the dumonde) made it incredibly quiet.... for a while.

unfortunately after 1,000 miles or so the noise comes back gradually. now i'm trying to decide how often it's worth doing this.

 

[Ben J]

I did not expect the tube to literally say "special grease"

 

[mfgrep]

Oh boy oh boy! Oh boy! I can't wait to do this. Can you explain your photos a little bit so I can better understand what I need to do?

 

[Stefan Mikes]

While I'm glad Roch has found a temporary solution, I'm afraid the silencing the hub won't last long. My latest model of DT Swiss 350 rear hub was totally silent when it was new (because the freehub was packed with grease) but it only lasted for a very short time.

Three of us involving roadies Ania and Staszek were on a relaxed ride this Spring. As the assistance in my Vado 6.0 was set too high, I had to stop pedalling often as not to get in the lead. Ania sneered: 'Anybody being bored here? Because when I can hear the freehub noise I think someone wants to ride faster, and I will gladly accelerate!'

The best way to avoid the freehub noise is to continue pedalling all the way!

 

[mschwett]

Oh boy oh boy! Oh boy! I can't wait to do this. Can you explain your photos a little bit so I can better understand what I need to do?

my DT swiss hub may be slightly different than yours. i used this video as a guide

some have a couple clicking pawls rather than the fine toothed ratchet. principle is the same either way, but the stock one on my creo comp was actually pretty hard to remove. the one pictured above just falls right apart once the cassette is removed! well worth it IMO.

 

[mfgrep]

my DT swiss hub may be slightly different than yours. i used this video as a guide

some have a couple clicking pawls rather than the fine toothed ratchet. principle is the same either way, but the stock one on my creo comp was actually pretty hard to remove. the one pictured above just falls right apart once the cassette is removed! well worth it IMO.

Thank you very much. I have bookmarked this post and it's video and will run through it on a rainy day. I appreciate it.

According to specialized my rear hub is "Specialized alloy rear hub disc, Center Lock™, sealed cartridge bearings, 12x148mm, 28h"

 

[rochrunner]

Thank you very much. I have bookmarked this post and it's video and will run through it on a rainy day. I appreciate it.

According to specialized my rear hub is "Specialized alloy rear hub disc, Center Lock™, sealed cartridge bearings, 12x148mm, 28h

@mfgrep The video is for Swiss DT hubs which is not what you have. Your Specialized hub is like mine and has three spring-loaded pawls on the freehub that engage with an internal gear on the main body of the hub. As I mentioned in my post, with the rear wheel off the bike, you should be able to just pull on the large cassette sprocket and the freehub will pop right off and you will see what needs to be done. You can use some degreaser to get the old grease off of everything, but be careful not to get it into the bearings! After greasing the inner gear and the pawls liberally, slide the cassette-hub assembly back on, turning it counterclockwise as you do to get the pawls to pop into place. There is also an outer axle sleeve that comes off with the hub and you have to put that back in place. It's all actually less complex than my explanation!

This thread has a couple of photos that will show you exactly what I'm talking about.

 

[rochrunner]

Three of us involving roadies Ania and Staszek were on a relaxed ride this Spring. As the assistance in my Vado 6.0 was set too high, I had to stop pedalling often as not to get in the lead. Ania sneered: 'Anybody being bored here? Because when I can hear the freehub noise I think someone wants to ride faster, and I will gladly accelerate!'

The best way to avoid the freehub noise is to continue pedalling all the way!

There's a guy in my regular riding group who has a Vado SL similar to mine but rides with max assistance most of the time (due to some health issues). So he's always in a pedal-coast-pedal mode, surging as well instead of riding at a constant speed, and I know that it's been remarked on by others. That's one reason why I ride my SL in the group at the 0-20% level and am pedaling most of the time.

 

[BioWheel]

I'm not a fan of the hub click and bought a wheel with an Onyx Vesper rear hub - perfectly silent for my SL.

 

[rochrunner]

I'm not a fan of the hub click and bought a wheel with an Onyx Vesper rear hub - perfectly silent for my SL.

What wheels did you get? Onyx Vesper is a new one to me and there are fewer selections in the 148x12 hub size on the SL (not to mention 110x12 front hubs).

 

[BioWheel]

What wheels did you get? Onyx Vesper is a new one to me and there are fewer selections in the 148x12 hub size on the SL (not to mention 110x12 front hubs)

I went to ROL Wheels and my order:

ROL Range Carbon with Onyx Vesper hubs 12x148 / 12x110 spacing - Shimano HG Freehub - Built with Race Spokes and Brass Nipples x1

 

[mfgrep]

I went to ROL Wheels and my order:

ROL Range Carbon with Onyx Vesper hubs 12x148 / 12x110 spacing - Shimano HG Freehub - Built with Race Spokes and Brass Nipples x

Photos please!

 

[rochrunner]

I went to ROL Wheels and my order:

ROL Range Carbon with Onyx Vesper hubs 12x148 / 12x110 spacing - Shimano HG Freehub - Built with Race Spokes and Brass Nipples x1

Nice! I previously had some wheels built for my old road bike by ProWheelBuilder and have been recently playing with their configurator. My tentative configuration uses Swiss DT 350 hubs with Sapim bladed spokes. The rims would be alloy similar to the OEM wheels; I hadn't been looking at carbon rims.

For reference, these are pics of my old custom wheels. The blue anodized White Industries hubs and spoke nipples set them off nicely against the color scheme of the bike.

 

[rochrunner]

Onyx Vesper hubs 12x148 / 12x110 spacing

I see that Onyx uses a sprag clutch design rather than pawls and ratchets. No wonder they're totally silent (as well as expensive!). The 2-speed trans in our dragster used a planetary gearset and sprag clutch, and that was good to handle about 800+ hp!

 

[BioWheel]

I see that Onyx uses a sprag clutch design rather than pawls and ratchets. No wonder they're totally silent (as well as expensive!). The 2-speed trans in our dragster used a planetary gearset and sprag clutch, and that was good to handle about 800+ hp!

True - wheels were expensive with the Onyx hubs. My SL though kind of replaces my C'Dale Synapse that I converted to flat bar and it had a silent Shimano rear hub that I got used to. And since I ride my flat bars on multi-use trails around the area it requires coasting a bit when there are other riders or walkers around and the clicking noise just gets old imo. Although I guess you could argue folks would hear me coming but I have my Specy bell for that.

 

[rochrunner]

My SL though kind of replaces my C'Dale Synapse that I converted to flat bar and it had a silent Shimano rear hub that I got used to.

I don't know if you noticed, but the wheels in my photo above are on my Cannondale Synapse of around 2010 vintage!

 

[mfgrep]

I'm getting some strange sounds from my SL and I'm beginning to suspect that it might be my hub. I'm less than 600 mi in on it