Shimano freehubs
 

I have bee riding for 21 years now and is it me or does Shimano have a manufactoring problem with their freehubs. I had a wheel built last fall, only a Deore hub, wanted a steel axle. Broke three freehubs in the first several rides. Complained to Shimano and they sent me a XT hub. Had it laced up and low and behold I had to walk wy bike out of the woods, you guessed it a broken freehub. Now I am not sure which direction to go, Chris King? Lets here it if you are having the same problem.

I haven't heard of a lot of people breaking freehubs. What part exactly is failing? Is the freehub cracking? Are the pawls no longer engaging? Do the bearings wear out?

Also, is it possible there is something specific to your bike or your riding style that could be contributing?

how much do you weigh?
what kind of bike/ riding are you doing?

Here we go, I weigh 265 lbs and the hubs are either locking up or frewheeling. I have never had this many problems. In fact I put a wheel on that I installed an old XT parellax freehub that has been in service for 10 years or more. I believe Shimano has some manufactering problems. I have a Cannondale Caffine running a 2X9. I ordered a Mavic Crossline today. Not sure what I am going to do with my wheel I have now. Lets see how the Mavic does. I had a set of Mavic mountain wheels before and they worked. Iwill keep everyone posted. I typically ride a couple of mountain rides on weekdays and road ride on the weekends.

I have heard of the shimano freehubs failing, but never had one personally fail. I have probably 5k miles on ultegra hubs (road), 1.5k on XT hubs on my commuter, and only a few rides on deore hubs on my 29er. I have heard that they do need more attention/servicing than the boutique brands, as their seals aren't great, but I don't ride when its really nasty.

As far as hubs that will hold up under you- check out white industries, hope, king, and DT swiss. sky is the limit as far as cost goes, but be careful- a lot of the high end hubs use an alloy freehub body- that gets grooved by individual cogs. solution- use a cassette on a carrier. my dream hubs are DT swiss 240s, but they are pricey.

I have heard that the hope freehub does not play well with an XT cassette (friends experience).

What exactly broke on the three freehubs?

This one that just broke, it locked up. The hub really does not have much time on it because of the lousy winter we had here in WV.

Now I have a disassembeled Deore hub, and a 36 spoke XT hub laced to a Mavic en 321 rim with double butted spokes, it is a nice wheel.

Well, i've never had one lock up... i can understand if you bent the axle or chipped some of the pawls. I have had that happen... but never a lock-up.

Good luck with the mavic freehub.

I've seen and heard of a lot of shimano freehub failures.. its not uncommon. In fact the only weaker freehub is a mavic.

Thanks, we'll see. All I know is that I have never seen freehubs break this easy.

I have had a lot of problems with freehubs by shimano...I use hadley...both for dh and xc...

I am so far out of the mountain biking loop I am not sure if hadley still produces quality hubs (or if they produce hubs at all) but I bought it both for its engagements and its quality freehub...5 years...maybe 4...no breaking

I have had a lot of problems with freehubs by shimano...I use hadley...both for dh and xc...

I am so far out of the mountain biking loop I am not sure if hadley still produces quality hubs (or if they produce hubs at all) but I bought it both for its engagements and its quality freehub...5 years...maybe 4...no breaking

oh and I am 6'5 and range between 250 and 280....:)...shimano freehubs aren't built for abuse or size.

I don't get it... yeah you put a lot of force but the pawl shouldn't be snapping... though they're small they're strong for the application.

Have you taken apart a broken one to see what happened?

DT swiss hubs are nice... the star-ratchet system seems to work.

Its been a while, but in my case it either totally stripped and completely seized...seizing was by far the most dangerous thing I have ever had happen. Imagine going 40km down the back end of a giant mountain and your bike suddenly becoming a fixed gear....that sucked!!!

I've had both problems, seizing and locking. I still ride Shimano hubs on my road bikes and no problem. I know I put serious torque while climbing but I am still puzzled. I will take them apart but in the meantime bye bye shimano hubs. I will give a report on how the Mavics treat me.
By the way I should start a How many bike parts can yoou break thread.
I have too many to list but I remember getting Race Face crank years ago when they first came out. I was standing and hammering away and heard a snap and hit the ground. The crank arm snapped right off.

You can break them all, but you're not supposed to!

I believe the bike industry sold everyone on "how light it is" and comprimised durability and safety.

I also have had problems with my XT hub. I had one freehub lock up on me about six months ago and another two weeks back. This time when I open it up the bearing race on the drive side had broken apart causing the damage. I ordered a new axle and race and will overhaul it, but only because I still have a spare freehub that I may as well use. I'm also looking for suggestions for more durable hub, the owner of my lbs has never seen an XT hub fail like this one, which is why he recommended it to me to begin with.

Well, we sold ourselves to it also. In general it goes to show how bad people are at thinking long term when you dangle something shiny and new in front of them.

It is disappointing to spend good money, have a nice wheel laced up then to have failures. I went for a ride after work and the old freehub, probably 10 years, is still going. Hopefully my Mavic wheel will arive at theLBS tomorrow. It is a Crossline. Iwill keep everyone posted.

I'm afraid the freehub on my pre-built Shimano wheel (WH-MT75, UST) has started slipping. It's supposed to be XT level with XT internals.

It's sad because it's less three weeks old and it rides pretty nice. It seems to slip as soon as I climb a certain grade on my granny. I've torqued up the cassette lock ring and tuned up the derailleurs. Fingers crossed.

If you've followed the saga, this wheelset replaces a XT hub/Mavic TN719 rim wheelset that had axle/cup/cone failure after just a couple of weeks. One day, the axle just seized and something smelled burnt. I think a seal or cage may have been the problem.

Performance is in the process of warrantying this by replacing the freehub when that freehub is perfectly fine. They'll probably loosen up the axle assembly to install the freehub and say there you go, it spins. To add to that, they lost the tire that was mounted to the wheel.

So I haven't had much luck with Shimano...

Edit: I'm a timid roadie at 145 lbs

My spare wheel has the old freehub, as I stated before, it is Iknow at least 10 years old. The wheel is a sun Black Eye which had cheap Saynomo hubs. The freewheel finally started to fail but did not break. So when I got a new wheel I disasswmbeled the hub and used an old freehub from a Parralex XT hub. It required me to put the axle in it. It worked although the wheel is a little off center. The spokes are now creaking but the freehub is still going.
I believe Saynomo has manufactering problems now.