Check the freehub for wear to see if it needs replacing or just cleaning and relubing. To do this, firmly grab the splined body and give it a wiggle. If it moves more than a couple of millimetres side to side, replace it. Otherwise, a good clean and oil will do ?ne.
That clicking sound is the pawls as they run across each ratchet tooth, sort of like a tiny Wheel of Fortune wheel. The pawls thread onto the hub body and spin whenever the bike is moving.
Hubs that are "louder" usually have more engagement points. This means your drivetrain picks up faster, so less energy is lost. Hubs that have sealed cartridge bearings or needle bearings usually never need to be replaced, they're far stronger and stay cleaner.
Mechanics. The simplest freewheel device consists of two saw-toothed, spring-loaded discs pressing against each other with the toothed sides together, somewhat like a ratchet. Rotating in one direction, the saw teeth of the drive disc lock with the teeth of the driven disc, making it rotate at the same speed.
If it's wobbling side to side, there are two problems that are possible; Your cup-and-cone bearings could be loose or your wheel could be out of true (slightly buckled.) Take your wheel off and hold the axle. Wobble it up and down a few times. Worst case scenario, you could be looking at missing spokes or a bent axle.
The balance between these two sides is what keeps your wheel true and prevents wobble. So, if your wheel wobbles to the left, that means the spokes on the right side are too loose to keep things balanced, or the spokes on the left are too tight.
Remove A Bike Wheel's Freehub Body
- Access the freehub body. Remove the wheel from the bike.
- Dismantle The Bearing. Dismantle the hub bearing and remove the axle.
- Unscrew freehub body. Slide a 10mm hexagonal key into the hub from the right-hand side. Turn the key anti-clockwise to release the freehub mechanism from the rest of the hub.
Simple answer: yes, but it's not worth doing. Cost of hub, spokes, nipples and having wheel rebuilt will exceed the cost of a new wheel. Even if you re-use the spokes a new wheel will still be cheaper. Wheel building requires special equipment, expertise and time to do correctly.
For a decent front wheel you could expect to pay $100 for hub, $50-90 for rim, $1 per spoke, then maybe $80 labor to build the wheel (ballparking decent parts, can go up or down depending on what you get). So $250-300 for a front wheel (it would be a pretty nice wheel at that).
Worn out or dry bearings will feel rough, metallic and dry. Sometimes they're so dry that if you pull your finger fast across the axle you can make the axle keep spinning because there's no grease inside the bearings to slow it down.
Hub Assembly
Place ball bearings in both cups and cover with more grease. Make sure balls are seated flat in cup. For rear hubs, the common number is 9 balls of 1/4-inch diameter per side. For front hubs, the common number is 10 balls of 3/16-inch diameter per side.Bike hubs at a glance:
Rear hub width varies widely, but the most common sizes are 130mm for road and 135mm for MTB. There are two main hub types, front and rear.The spacing of a frame/fork is measured from the inside surfaces of the dropouts, where they come into contact with the locknuts of the wheel's axle. Halo Dropout spacing. The hub spacing is measured from the outside face of the lock nuts (or equivalent), this is commonly called the “O.L.D.” (Over-Lock-nut Dimension)
Install the bolt in the axle notch of the forks. slowly move the nuts outward gradually spreading the fork. I did it slowly over several hours although I don't know if it is really necessary. You will want to go 3mm-4mm wider than needed as the fork will spring back a little when the bolt is removed.
Novatec hubs feature on a heck of a lot of new bikes, you just don't know about it. They are one of the biggest hub manufacturers in the world. Bottom line is they are what you'd expect, not the best hubs in the world but not junk either. You can find parts but from odd sources like eBay and direct from China.
Most cassette hubs are compatible with Shimano cassette cogs. SRAM cassettes and most Miche, IRD and SunRace cassettes use the same inter-sprocket spacing as Shimano, but at least some SRAM 10-speed cassettes do not fit aluminum-body Dura-Ace hubs.
In mechanical or automotive engineering, a freewheel or overrunning clutch is a device in a transmission that disengages the driveshaft from the driven shaft when the driven shaft rotates faster than the driveshaft. In a fixed-gear bicycle, without a freewheel, the rear wheel drives the pedals around.
Flip-flop hubs, also called double-sided hubs, are rear bicycle hubs that are threaded to accept fixed cogs and/or freewheels on both sides. They are traditionally found on track bicycles, but can also be found on other single speed bicycles.
When you're simply cruising along i.e. not pedalling, or going backwards, it spins freely. A cassette is the more modern option and has quickly overtaken the freewheel. It comprises a collection of independent cogs set on layered rings that come apart and slot onto the body of the (also more modern) freehub component.
A bicycle cassette is the cluster of sprockets located on the rear hub of your bike, slotting onto a freehub body and held firmly in place with a threaded cassette lockring. A typical cassette can have anything between five and 13 sprockets, although most modern bicycle drivetrains use either 9, 10 or 11.
SRAM, SunRace, IRD: mostly compatible
Most cassette hubs are compatible with Shimano cassette cogs. SRAM cassettes and most Miche, IRD and SunRace cassettes use the same inter-sprocket spacing as Shimano, but at least some SRAM 10-speed cassettes do not fit aluminum-body Dura-Ace hubs.To the OP, the simple answer is no, a freewheel hub cannot be converted to accept a cassette of any type. At a minimum you need a new hub.
