Shimano free hub

[Richard Sandham]

Mine is a cube stereo 120 2019 , the free hub bearings have collapsed after only 420miles , not impressed,sign of things to come? Probably. Back wheel has gone to Shimano on warranty,10 days turnover,still not impressed ?lets see what happens

 

[steve_sordy]

Keep complete records to help your next claim. If it has happened once, it may happen again!

I had an e13 wheelset (they are not cheap) and it failed three times, each time after about 700 miles. The first time, the springs in the freehub rusted and snapped. The springs and pawls were replaced and new seals fitted. The second time, it was again the seals that had failed so the same parts were replaced as well as the bearings. The warranty technician was astonished as he'd never had one back twice before. Then it failed a third time! The same astonished guy replaced the whole hub this time. It had the latest design seals, so probably better. But I never found out what happened after that as I sold the bike (with a brand new hub!) By the time of the third failure the bike was out of warranty, but the wheelset wasn't (five years), but the fact I had chapter and verse about when, how many miles, what was done etc helped my case.

 

[Kernow]

It’s not so much miles as time and use and luck occasionally a drop of water can stay in the freehub and the bearing will go rusty , next time it’s used the bearing can collapse or run rough Just had it happen to my roadie after winter layup , the last time I rode it the roads were salty and. I washed it and put it away fit 3 months .
Bearing is only a couple of quid and fitted quite quickly , I keep spares . Iam surprised the bike shop didn’t just renew the bearing or the freehub , pointless sending the wheel away they must be numpties

 

[Gary]

Shimano freehubs are disposible non serviceable items (they're really cheap and easily replaced though). Shimano barely fill them with grease from new and tolerances aren't brilliant so their lifespan varies massively.
Personally I avoid shimano rear hubs on all bikes. Riding 20 miles home on a balance bike isn't much fun
Your freehub wearing prematurely has very little to do with you using it on an Ebike.
Ironically Shimano axle bearings are serviceable and if looked after will last a lifetime.

 

[ggx]

Had/have several bikes with shimano hubs (front and rear) . No issues until now but I´m a "soft" rider .

 

[Gary]

I rarely ever got 18mths out of any shimano freehub body back when I did use them. (the internal design hasn't changed much at all in that time) That'd include at least one Scottish winter, a lot of repeated riding/washing and probably somewhere between 2000-3000miles (but some lasted less than 1000miles)
I personally felt that was a pathetic lifespan for a freehub to be binned. (But I'd have serviced a sealed bearing serviceable freehub body design during that time).

 

[Richard Sandham]

It’s not so much miles as time and use and luck occasionally a drop of water can stay in the freehub and the bearing will go rusty , next time it’s used the bearing can collapse or run rough Just had it happen to my roadie after winter layup , the last time I rode it the roads were salty and. I washed it and put it away fit 3 months .
Bearing is only a couple of quid and fitted quite quickly , I keep spares . Iam surprised the bike shop didn’t just renew the bearing or the freehub , pointless sending the wheel away they must be numpties

It does seem daft,such an easy fix

 

[Richard Sandham]

Shimano freehubs are disposible non serviceable items (they're really cheap and easily replaced though). Shimano barely fill them with grease from new and tolerances aren't brilliant so their lifespan varies massively.
Personally I avoid shimano rear hubs on all bikes. Riding 20 miles home on a balance bike isn't much fun
Your freehub wearing prematurely has very little to do with you using it on an Ebike.
Ironically Shimano axle bearings are serviceable and if looked after will last a lifetime.

Can the free hub be replaced with something better, different make?

 

[Gary]

Not really.
there are cheaper and more expensive shimano freehub bodies though.
They're not all compatible with each other and you're meant to pair like for like.
BITD you could switch say a Deore with an XT or vice versa
it's not really worth doing though.

I haven't even looked at a shimano freehub in a while and am in no way upto date on info anymore.

 

[Richard Sandham]

Not really.
there are cheaper and more expensive shimano freehub bodies though.
They're not all compatible with each other and you're meant to pair like for like.
BITD you could switch say a Deore with an XT or vice versa
it's not really worth doing though.

I haven't even looked at a shimano freehub in a while and am in no way upto date on info anymore.

Ok, cheers for that

 

[Kernow]

Shimano Freehub Bodies | Hub Spares | Wheels | SJS Cycles
Shimano make more different freehubs than you can shake a stick at , all the ones I’ve seen will come apart and can be re packed with new loose bearings . I found this out in desperation trying to find the correct one to replace , It’s fiddly but easy enough once you find out how they come apart , the biggest mistake is using an imperial bearing instead of a metric bearing , the sizes are very close and you need to measure the old bearing with a vernier or micrometer .
They can appear to be part of the hub if you’ve never seen how to remove one and many need an 11mm Allen key not a 10 as shown here . Only plus side is they are cheap to buy .

 

[Richard Sandham]

Shimano Freehub Bodies | Hub Spares | Wheels | SJS Cycles
Shimano make more different freehubs than you can shake a stick at , all the ones I’ve seen will come apart and can be re packed with new loose bearings . I found this out in desperation trying to find the correct one to replace , It’s fiddly but easy enough once you find out how they come apart , the biggest mistake is using an imperial bearing instead of a metric bearing , the sizes are very close and you need to measure the old bearing with a vernier or micrometer .
They can appear to be part of the hub if you’ve never seen how to remove one and many need an 11mm Allen key not a 10 as shown here . Only plus side is they are cheap to buy .

Cheers for that the last two bikes I've bought I asked what I could do service wise and was told apart from cleaning and oiling the chainset nothing else to do, obviously this is not the case so have started collecting all tools required to do the Jobs I was led to believe I wouldn't have to do ??