Yesterday's commute was a little odd. About halfway home I was stopped at a traffic light, then stood on the pedals to get going, and heard some sort of pop or "twang" sound from my rear wheel. I knew the spokes were all fine, but I couldn't tell otherwise what it was. For the next couple of miles it sounded like the freehub clicking every so often even though I was turning the pedals. I stopped to have a look, and when turning the pedals backwards I noticed the cassette would sometimes stick and cause the top chain run to go slack for a second, then snap back and continue moving backwards.

At home I removed the wheel and found the axle turning to feel very gritty and stiff. Great. This is a Vuelta Corsa Lite wheelset from Nashbar, which has re-branded Novatec hubs, which apparently all use cartridge sealed bearings. So I can't just take it apart and regrease bearings unfortunately. In the meantime I threw my bike's original Mavic CXP-22 rear wheel back on, which itself could probably use a bearing service, as it has a tiny amount of play in the axle. I just need to acquire a couple of cone wrenches, or maybe grind an adjustable wrench down to fit onto bearing cones.

These Vuelta wheels have over 9,000 miles of mostly commuting on them, and I've never serviced the bearings at all before.

So commuting in this morning with my other rear wheel was tough, with a stiff headwind. Had a couple of impatient motorists, too. Oh well.