frantik

I scored a Sante freehub laced to an Mavic Open Pro wheel from my LBS for $25 a while back.. at the time neither the lbs guy nor I really paid much attention to the parts, I just needed a 126mm wheel and he had one in storage so he sold it to me. (in general he doesn't really seem to have any interest in c&v actually which is cool for me lol.. old parts are old parts to him haha)

anyways.. i didn't realize that Sante is actually a pretty nice gruppo, right below Dura ace and above 600 Ultegra.. so i'm wondering:

The freehub is practically silent.. when i coast i can't hear a thing, though it does click slightly when i'm inside and turn it by hand...

Is this by design? Or is there a problem with the hub? I like it a lot actually, but i searched around and read some things which suggested it could be a sign of a messed up mechanism or something? nothing seems broken

I'm assuming it's just a feature.. i hope so.. i love not hearing the buzz of a freewheel while i coast.. though it's bad when in areas with pedestrians because i'm super stealth.. silent but deadly

Captain Blight

Spend a few hours on top of a Chris King freehub and you'll start to understand the appeal of riding in silence for a while....

Chris_in_Miami

+1, I have a Hadley hub on my tandem that's ear-splitting. I prefer the quiet ones...

mkeller234

No kidding! I couldn't believe that was how they were supposed to sound.

MPC Biker

silence is golden, unless of course that silence is caused by thrity years of solidified grease keeping the mechanics of your freewheel from functioning properly (long story).

as long as you can spin that baby by hand, i say ride it. who knows what you could do as the silent bike avenger!

Jeff Wills

Pretty normal for a broken-in but not broken Shimano cassette hub. I've removed Shimano cassette bodies and run Phil Tenacious Oil into them- they run really quietly after that.

frantik

good to know it's supposed to be like that.. i have very sensitive ears so the silence is really golden

WNG

If the Sante hub sat around for a long time and subjected to warm temps, the grease likely has softened and leaked into the pawls. Had this happen to a nearly new Exage freehub hanging from the rafters for almost 20 years. The mechanism is nearly silent.
I managed to reproduce this silent freehub trick after overhauling the mtb wheelset. After soaking the body in mineral spirits, it was flushed then lubed with Kalgard moly chain lube for motorcycles. The solvent keeps it flowing like WD40, but once the solvent evaporates, the moly lube gets viscous. It was tacky like grease. It's perfect for the very hot climate where I am. Won't bleed out due to the heat.

frantik

^ hmm interesting.. he did say it was in his garage so it could very well have been subjected to high temps over many years

PDXaero

My sante hub is quieter than most but there is certainly audible clicking. I think you need to clean out the freehub, I had the same issue with an exage hub, completely silent but it still engaged. After cleaning it made noise again.

JohnDThompson 

Or a Sturmey-Archer SW hub.