Rear hub on it's way out????

[ECOdork]

I'm worried that my rear hub is starting to fail!

It doesn't do it all the time, but sometimes, if I backpedal (with bike on the stand) the cassette doesn't freely spin. Similarly, while tuning the rear derailer I noticed that the pedals would occassionally engage and start spinning just because the rear wheel was spinning.

On the trail, I notice that the chain sometimes feels like it is slack and when I pedal it jerks back into motion as oppose to smoothly transitioning from coasting to pedaling with no sharp feeling. Imagine a rope with slack that is popped back into tension.

My understanding of things leads me to think that the freewheel and/or hub is sticking. Why? I don't know? I don't have a cassette tool, but I took off the skewer and tried to lube/clean some of the grim from the bearing.

It seems that changing the cassette wouldn't fix this since the cassette is independent of the freewheel. If this is the case, I have the feeling that it would cost almost as much to buy a new wheelset (SHIMANO XT® DISC/M223 WHEELSET $165 from jenson) then it would to buy a new hub and get the wheel re-built. Plus I wouldn't have to wait eons for someone to rebuild my wheel.

Anyone have any ideas?

[EndoMaster]

Sounds similar to what happened to my XT rear hub. I first noticed that my cassette wobbled so I thought it was the cassette that was bad but after switching it out the new one did the same thing. In my case the wobble would cause the chain to get stuck in the derailleur when I back pedaled.

I ended up having a new wheel built instead of having the 223 relaced because I wanted something a little burlier due to my weight. I went with a Hope XC rear hub and have no regrets; in over a year I have had zero problems with it and it spins so smooth. It is a little louder than the XT hub but not so much like a King or Hadley.

[Schecky]

I was just going to recommend the Hope too.
I'm a Clyde, and I've been on a rear one for a year and half with zero issues.

[TURNERob]

I've got 2 sets of Hope bulb hubs and love them. Also have a set of Chris Kings.....but honestly those aren't worth all the extra coin that they are charging for them now.

[pshloss]

I've had bad luck with a couple of recent XT hubs. Although they are cheap when you buy a wheelset like you are considering. So that's the route I keep going at least until I have a spare set of wheels.

[Pho'dUp]

Is it possible that you just need a new Shimano Cassette body?

That's a 20 buck fix.

I've fried a Deore cassette body on the trail once. Not fun, it turned the bike into a fixed gear. After that, I've decided fixed gear mtn. bikers are insane.

[ECOdork]

Thanks for all the advice!

I suppose it could be the cassette body. Boy, wouldn't that be nice! Especially since I was planning on overhauling/replacing a few things (at least the cassette, chain, shifter cables, brake pads, etc) anyways.

A buddy of mine said he had the same problem that you speak of Pho while he was on a highly techy downhill, no fun at all!

At the end of the week I've got one more out of town stint , but at least it will be a good excuse to save some cash to repair whatever the problem is when I get back!