Originally Posted by
Retro Grouch
How tightly do you tighten your cassette lock ring?
The torque spec for cassettes is around 30 ft/lbs. That's quite a bit, way more than I would use if left to my own judgement. Using lots of torque snugs the cogs together so they spread the force acting against the freehub body rather than each cog individually.
Good idea in practice, but in my experience it doesn't stop notching in cheap aluminum freehubs.
As for replacing freehub parts, it's a crap shoot of compatibility issues. I doubt you can just stick a Shimano freehub on whatever Vuelta uses for hubs, even though as 105 hubs have steel freehubs, that would fix the notching issue (this is what fietsbob meant by "steel").
BTW the photo's I've seen on those hubs don't look like Novatech hubs, as Novatech hubs have gold freehubs.