Hub noise – relatively speaking

I have Mason Hunt Four Season

I have Mason Hunt Four Season disc wheels – coming from near silent Shimano, which I love, noise was a concern before I bought them – Hunt’s FAQ helpfully says their freewheels are neither loud nor quiet. The freewheel was tolerable from new but I did quieten it down considerably by adding some Castrol LM grease I had, but this didn’t seem to last long. Where did it go to? I’ve now tried some Shimano Freehub Body Grease (Special Grease) as Velo USA refers to, but this, if anything, has made them louder than ever.

DCR Wheels use Bitex hubs in their own brand wheels – they tweak them with ‘dedicated UK weather treatment applied to them and they are treated to make their ratchets quieter and more durable.’ I’d like to know what they do!

Edit – from more reading of their site, they recommend Wickens and Soderstrom HL grease – but £24 for 140g is taking the michael somewhat. Surely pawls/hubs don’t need high load grease?

steviewevie wrote:

Thanks for the comments so far, very useful.

It is starting to sound like perhaps I’m worrying too much about this. Well, I still want a freehub that’s on the quiet side (I realise that some like the noisy hubs, while others aren’t bothered either way and yes, I know the sound goes away when you pedal …) but I guess that whatever I end up with I should be able to quieten it down quite a lot if necessary.

Does greasing the hub typically last for quite a while, i.e. it’ll be less noisy for quite some time?

I know I’ve literally just said that you could put some grease in the freehub and I don’t want to sound hypocritical , but…

It is worth noting that hubs generally sound loud because they are fundamental all the same, having bits of metal (pawls) bashing against a ratchet. Generally, they don’t really need much grease or lubricant at all as they are a closed system protected from the elements.

Too much grease and you could potentially hinder the pawls and the ratchet system might get gunked up over a long time and become less efficient. Also, it may be worth double checking what the manufacturer has in terms of a warranty for taking off the freehub (I know, it’s really silly, some say your warranty is void as soon as you take off the freehub etc).

ANYWAY, enough of my “disclaimer” if you will. The grease should last ages, only once have I ever properly greased up a freehub. I only did it because the wheels were really cheap and the seal was very poor so lots of water got into the pawls/ratchet and was beginning to damage the parts. The ratchet was very quiet after that, I only had the bike for a few months after, so I don’t know how long it lasted.

Some hubs (like Shimano) are the sealed ball bearing type. You can’t actually take these apart to get to the pawls – well you can, but you aren’t meant to. DT Swiss, on the other hand, are very easy to service.

Park Tool has a really good webpage for freehub servicing http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help/freehub-service Apologies if you already know all this!

If I’m perfectly honest, I think it would be silly to buy some nice new wheels then take apart the freehub and ram it full of grease – but then again I like freehub sound.

Agreed with the above.

Agreed with the above. Shimano are generally quieter.

Personally, I really like my loud Mavic Cosmic freehub.

I had an oldish wheelset that I sold at the beginning of this year… The freehub went totally silent and got very sticky, following disassembly and blasting it with GT85 (and a little bit of light chain lube), it became free and was louder.

If I were you, I’d base your decision on which wheelset is the best overall and try and live with the freehub sound – if you really dislike it that much, put some lube/grease in it and it will be quieter.

I got Hope wheels, which were

I got Hope wheels, which were crazy loud, so I lubed them with DOW Molykote 111 and now they are virtually silent.  Guessing any high temperature and high viscosity lube will do the trick.

. . wrote:

My Hunts are quieter than I would like.  I can hear them, but pedestrians don’t

My Shimano hubs seem to be virtually silent, my FLO hubs are quite loud, I’m not bothered unless it annoys others in a group ride… If they went faster I wouldn’t have to freewheel so much 😉

Sorry I can’t offer much help, pedalling stops the freehub noise 🙂

My Hunts are quieter than I

My Hunts are quieter than I would like.  I can hear them, but pedestrians don’t

Freehub noise comparisons is

Freehub noise comparisons is a hard one. YouTube has several hub comparisions but they don’t tell you if the hubs have been greased/lubed prior to testing or – what I call – in a dry state with with minimal lube. Some links are several years old too.

I’ve had Bitex and DT 240s. Both, IMO, sound like an angry bee hive chasing me. Bitex is low cost with 6 pawl engagement and DT with its star ratchet and cheap internal springs. I use White Industry T11 hubs but they’re on the high end side of hubs and are co$tly with its titanium freehub body, but super quiet and spin and spin and spin. I also use Shimano Freehub Body Grease (Special Grease) because of its light viscosity and lubricating quality – helps cut down noise level.

Questions is how much are you willing to spend? I suggest contacting custom wheel builders to get their opinions on hubs in your price range and/or wheels built in your price range. Builders usually have good stock on various hub makers and would know the noise level of each first hand.

Sorry, I wish I could offer better advise but as I first said, freehub noise comparisions is a hard one.