Bike Forums - Freehub Madness

This might be borderline C&V.

I am very late to the freehub party. I spent decades using freewheels, although the quality of more modern offerings have been disappointing.

In 2013, in my early 60's, I was gifted on old GT mountain bike. Learning to ride trails at that age was quite eye opening. But that is when I had my first experience with freehubs and messing with cogs and cog spacing. It was almost like the old cog boards.

About a year ago the pawls on my 7 speed M650 freehub body stopped engaging. I decided to buy an XT732 7 speed freehub and swap it out. I thought, no problem both are from the same era. Didn't fit. Flange too thick. But in 2015 I had picked up a 700c wheelset with 7700 hubs and and TB14 rims. It was a back burner project to one day get them to 126mm and on my Cannondale. On a flyer, I decided to see if the XT freehub body would work. It fit like a glove and now I was in business with the hew wheelset.

As some in the country were going down conspiracy rabbit holes, I was just beginning to go down a 90's Shimano freehub body rabbit hole. I was just fascinated by the mix-n-match possibilities and what would and wouldn't work. Flange to first cog distances, flange to overall freehub body length, cones, seal diameters, etc. I scoured Shimano pdf diagrams and compatibility charts. Eventually I fitted an 8 speed 6402 Ultegra freehub body to my M650 hub and I'm running it as a 2x8 after adding an enormous low cog.

I wish I had M900 hubs, but their cost is so prohibitive, but my next project is to build a wheelset with NOS 26" Module 3 CD rims to NOS XT 732/730 hubs with the titanium freehub body off the 7700 hub.

John