Recently did my annual maintenance. This time around, I had to change all my suspension bearings, which on a Trek ABP frame requires disassembling the entire rear triangle, due to 3 notchy pivots. On the first ride after re-assembly, I got an annoying ghost shifting situation. Being that I just took out the drlr hanger as part of the bearing replacement, and put in a new cable, my gut told me it was a shifting issue. Three rides in, no improvement. The bike is rideable, but between gears 3-6, I still had intermittent ghost shifting. It's been bugging me since. Went on my fourth ride since the rebuild, and BOOM! It hit me. I noticed my freehub being quite a bit noisier than usual, freewheeling. On a steep climb, I looked directly at my cassette while it ghost shifted. It wasn't shifting, the freehub was slipping. And each time it slipped, it made a banging noise that sounded like a bad shift. EUREKA! Got home, opened the freehub, degreased it and the pawls, applied my preferred freehub lube (slick honey), and went to the closest hill. Problem sol-ved. The funny thing about this fix is that I've done this for other people so many times. Almost every time, it's a ghost shifting or spoke twang complaint. The fact that it happened right after an annual tune up threw me for a loop. Sometimes, you really have to step back from problems to find a solution.
Sooooo.....you figured out that you put too heavy of a grease in your freehub????? I like this for lubin up my freehubs.
No. I didnt do my freehub in the annual maintenance. The hub required service after two years, right after the annual maintenance, which threw me for a loop. I use Slick Honey. It's last's more than anything else I've tried I've tried that, and Shimano's grease. Slick Honey works on a lot of hubs and last longer per my experience.
Slick honey is a super light grease, similar inconsistency to the DT multi purpose grease which is used on their pawl/ratchet systems. I'm sure it's fine.
HAHA!! I know it's "fine" I've used it with success. I've also used the Tenacious Oil, used a Lucus Oil air tool lubricant and in a pinch I've used 10wt synthetic motor oil. They all seemed to work. BTW I was just bustin bing's balls. He know's what he's doing.
funny thing is, as much as I've diagnosed this issue for other people, it still took me three rides to figure out my own issues. I'll probably need to buy some of that oil. Some hubs just take oil. Haven't seen one in a while.
Syntace recommends oil. I use float fluid in mine. So loud compared to the DT star ratchet special grease, but it works as well as a bell to get hikers out of the way. Industry 9 recommends DumondeTech Freehub oil in their hubs.
Genius! To a certain extent, oil is oil. With the right viscosity, any oil should work. I think fork lubes are made to resist attracting dust and dirt, which is why Slick Honey works so well. Ima gonna try Fox Fluid as well. Thanks for the tip!
