Road Cycling - Mavic wheel question from dumb newbie

I have two road bikes that have Mavic wheels. One has the 2003 Elites. The other has the 2002 SSCs. The Elites freewheel quietly while the SSCs click loudly when coasting . I prefer the stealth aspect of the Elites. Can the innards be changed on the SSCs so as to have a quiet freewheel? Probably a dumb question(as I am new to this site and fairly new to road biking) but I had to ask. Love both sets of the wheels. Do the newer SSCs ratchet when freewheeling as well?

Louder freehubs have more pawls and are more efficent.

Mine got quieter when I removed the clothespin and playing card.

Sorry, couldn't resist. :)

55/Rad

:roflmao: LOL

I have two road bikes that have Mavic wheels. One has the 2003 Elites. The other has the 2002 SSCs. The Elites freewheel quietly while the SSCs click loudly when coasting . I prefer the stealth aspect of the Elites. Can the innards be changed on the SSCs so as to have a quiet freewheel? Probably a dumb question(as I am new to this site and fairly new to road biking) but I had to ask. Love both sets of the wheels. Do the newer SSCs ratchet when freewheeling as well?

I've heard that Shimano and others now have rear hubs that have quieter mechanisms. Here is the text from Sheld Brown's Glossary (http://www.sheldonbrown.com/gloss_r.html) :

Roller Clutch
A roller clutch (or "silent clutch" in Shimano terminology) is a type of freewheel ratchet mechanism which uses cams and rollers instead of pawls.

In addition to eliminating the annoying "tick-tick-tick" of a pawl-type freewheel, a roller clutch has less slop when drive force is applied to it...drive begins as soon as forward motion of the pedals starts, unlike a pawl-type freewheel which only drives once it has rotated far enough to let the pawls engage the notches of the ratchet ring.

It's been my observation that the better the hub, the louder the click.

How's that for scientific data!!! :)

So, the wheels that cost a fortune should sound like the Wheel of Fortune?!?! I can live with that. Thanx for the insight, all.

Which may explain why my Neuvation M28 Aeros ($211/set) are so quiet. I can't complain though - I like the virtual silence and the wheels are fantastic for the money.

55/Rad

Louder freehubs have more pawls and are more efficent.

Not true. Loudness is also a function of the depth of the teeth in the body, size of pawls, hub design, lubrication, springs, etc. A cheap 2-pawl freewheel is much louder than my 3-pawl DA freehub. Implying that more pawls are better also is misleading. I'd rather have 3 strong pawls vs. 4 or 5 fragile ones.

How is a louder freehub more efficient?

my experience is also that the louder the click, the more expensive/better the wheel. one of my friends (the one for whom i was shopping for wheels in the "world's lightest wheel" thread) makes such a racket that I never have to wonder who's behind me. anyone know of a silent race-quality wheel?

anyone know of a silent race-quality wheel?

My Dura-Ace 8-sp freehub is pretty quiet but I can't remember if it was always like that (8,000 km of wear so far). The only silent freehub system I can think of was the old Hugi roller hub that didn't use the rack/pawl thing but had internal rollers that jammed against the body. I think they faded away after some durability issues. Anyone know for sure?

i dont agree with the louder is better...i have xtr hubs on my mtb and they are pretty quiet while my sora crap hubs on my road bike make a decent amount of noise.

You should never hear then anyhow. NEVER, EVER stop pedaling.

Yes the really load ones are annoying.