Or that you are going so fast that they have to shift down to keep up.

Anyone know how many engagment points record freewheel/hubs have?

Care to help me grasp the point?

I have a set of those fulcrum 7 wheels and they are particularly noisy.

I think it depends a little on what sort of bike you have. The noise probably resonates more with a steel, al or ti bike, and is deadened a little with carbon.

Or that's the theory from a friend with a carbon bike and more quietly ticking wheels.

I've never noticed a difference on my AL and steel bikes or my buddies Carbon. I always tell people it's Italian Morse code to start pedalling.

I recently replaced a new chain/cassette and used the 'opportunity' to break own the Chorus hubs and re-lube. Obviously, lubing the bearings, but glopped grease on the pawls. Very quiet, so much so that I could hear others clicking - and they mostly had Shimano based wheels. After several hundred miles the click is becoming more noticable, but no where near the previous noise. Previously, just walking the bike would get stares from the clicking.

I bet that new Asian employee blended right in with the hairy, Italian Campy workers.

The noise is a psychological weapon, much like the siren on Stuka dive-bombers.

All Campagnolo / Fulcrum freehubs have 3 pawls so, 3 engagement points.

The noise is because Campagnolo uses a super high end German grease that has the consistency of melting butter. If you use too thick a grease on your pawls, it can cause them to stick to the freehub body and not engage. This is true of any freehub.

If you don't like the sound of a Campagnolo freehub, here's what you can do. Remove the freehub and place a bit of FinishLine Premium grease behind each of the pawls (in the cavity behind the pawl). This ensures you don't use too much grease but just enough to make the freehub run very quietly.

Thanks for the mental imagery!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0gzkWcmz4s

You get used to it... Or, maybe you just go a little bit deaf.


Oh, and that loud "clunk" sound you hear when the Campy guy is shifting is him dumping three or four gears as he stand to accelerate past you like a rocket ship. All the other guys are going, "click, click, click, click" as they yell "Wait up! I'm coming!!"

I ride Vento wheels on my bike and they are also noisy when coasting, but I also have a pair of Velomax/Shimano wheels that I'll put on occasionally. I'm always amazed at how quiet the Velomax are, even with the Campy shifters. The only problem is that the cog spacing is different and I lose one cog. With 10speed I shouldn't care.

Yeah, and DT Swiss 240s' are virtually silent. By your logic, they must be crap!

Campys have always been loud. Just a design thing....

Like they said, why you coastin' anyways?

Bollucks. You've seen too many Bond films. What did he do? Stick some chewing gum on the door latch while a couple of the Italians went out for a smoke break?

You try walking into the R&D department of ANY company and see how far you get. Not to mention a company that is as secretive about product development as Campagnolo is. Geeze.

To my knowledge, all Fulcrums are very loud. I love it.

Zipp freehubs are very loud as well.

It's a marketing tool to get everyone to look at the wheels.

my 2007 record hubs are crazy loud, doesnt bother me. i kind of like it.

I have a Easton R4 freehub on my bike and I find it to be quite loud compared to the Shimano it replaced. There's been times coming back into my development on Saturday mornings where I felt like a nuisance as they were so loud. I think after a few hundred miles they may have quieted down or my I might be getting hearing damage from the stupid thing.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nice. I get mine next week!

I can't wait

Heh, when I first took out my bike from the apartment, I started wondering if I was going to wake up the neighbours.....

+1

My main bike has Shimano, and I used to love the "stealth" aspect of it: I could sneak up on other riders and scare the living crap out of them trivially.

But the fun in scaring the living crap out of someone is short-lived; it's way more useful to announce your presence effortlessly and elegantly. My beater/commuter bike doesn't have Campy, but it has 22-year-old SunTour that buzzes like the proverbial herd of angry locusts when I'm freewheeling. It's so much easier just to coast up behind someone and have them alerted to your arrival without needing to ring a bell, blow a whistle, or holler "on your left!"

for Shimano owners, you can get the sound of campy with playing cards and clothespins.

I think there has been confusion on this thread regarding engagement points and pawls. Campy has 3 pawls. I think most everyone does.

I don't know how many engagement points (ratchet teeth) Campy hubs have, though I know Chris King has some ridiculous 90 or so teeth. Comparing them both side by side, it seems the Chris King hub has between two and three clicks for every one of Campy's.

I wish I could use Chris King on my bikes.

There is a 6-pawl aluminum hub made by someone.
CK likes a lot of teeth, but why? Enough teeth to do the job is all you need.

the sound difference comes from the pawl design, the material, even the grease used -but says nothing about the quality.