I hope so! I got the new freehub body, it works fine so far. I had a closer look at the old one. It turns out the inner part if it has cracked, see the lower part of the photo. It cracked along the "hinge" of one of the pawls, where the material is less than 1 mm thick, according to my calipers. That looks like a weakness indeed. Granted, the hub is intended for small wheel bikes with large chainrings, meaning low torque. Still... while it may be good for a 50 kg Taiwanese, it seems a heavyweight such as myself has reason to worry, and to avoid standing and pedaling as much as possible. Not at all sure it's safe to go on a bike tour with this thing.



https://imgur.com/eNhS7rW

So... I can make an SRAM Xd wheel with a 10-42 cassette, though the 52-42 1st gear will make the chain rub trouble even worse. Or I can cash out for an Alfine 11. I hear some people have cranked the life out of those too, but that's mostly MTB riders with small chainweels. On the Birdy it should have good conditions for a long life. (The Rohloff seems overkill, both in range and in cost.) Choices, choices...