The other day I noticed something during one of my rides. For reference, I'm running the spyder hubs with an XTR casette. It seemed that after coasting, when I went to pedal again, the cranks would sorta free-spin for a split sec before engaging the drive train. Kinda felt like when you're missing a BB in your bearing set. But, it wasn't skipping while actually pedaling. Maybe I'm a simp, and this has been like that forever, but it's something that I just noticed. I flipped the bike over and held the rear wheel. I would back pedal a link or two and pedal forward. There is definately some extra forward movement there, and it isn't consistent. It travels longer or shorter each time. And really, it's not even travelling that far. It just doesn't make sense to me for it to do that at all. When I start to pedal, I want it to go, not catch like it is. Does any of this make any sense? Is there a fix for this? I have the tools, but really don't know where to start on this one. How often should I get inside those hubs and re-pack the bearings. Now that I think about it, I think they're sealed. OK then, what could I do about that? Thanks for reading this whole thing. Any help?

Rear Hub
 

It could be the pawls inside the hub body have become worn. They could cause this intermitent skipping. The other thing might be worn chain and/or cogs. If you find a solution, I hope you'll post it.

Been There Done That
 

The last posting was almost correct. The pawls that engage your freehub are either worn out (replace w/new) or very dirty.

There is a tool call the "Freehub Buddy" and what it is, is a fitting you press onto the hub and take a grease gun and inject new grease into the freehub until all the old grease is pushed out the sides and back.(i.e. purging the old grease). The tool cost about 40 bucks but I know it has paid for itself over numerous times already. I don't know where you can get one. I got mine from my Local Bike Shop.

Good luck.
Big Vic

Boomer & LJ,

Thanks fellas. Sounds like you can get me to the right place. Doesn't it bother you when you can FEEL something is wrong with your bike, but can't diagnos it? So, how much of the cassette to I have to remove to put this buddy in? I'm gonna get my shop to buy this tool. hehe.

Real Easy
 

The only thing you remove is the quick release and the cassette, you press the tool on, and squirt grease into it. That's it. Good Luck

Big Vic

Right on!
 

Can you reccomend a certain type of grease? I have some high heat bearing Grease left over from the Hub rebuild I did on my boat trailer. Would that work? I'm also looking for a decent source for instructions on rebuilding my Maitou Fork. I'm also wondering if the SX-R will take the Ti springs if I wanna upgrade. Any thoughts, boomer?