Old CK hub VS New CK hub loudness ???

[SoCalSteve]

Hi all,

I have an older set of wheels laced to CK hubs (circa 2001). They sound just like you would expect a CK hub to sound. Loud and bee hive-ish (<---is that a word)?

OK, I also have a new set of wheels laced with CK hubs (circa a month ago) and they are much more muted and not as bee hive-ish sounding (<---there's that word again).

Has anyone noticed a change in the sound and loudness of older versus newer CK hubs? Is there something wrong (or right) with the new set? They came from Colorado Cyclist (insurance settlement from my brush with the 82 y/o driver).

Any opinions, experiences or flames appreciated.

As always, thank you all in advance,

Steve

[Marburg]

Though this is true for most all hubs, the Kings get noticably noisier as they get to needing a re-lube. My hubs have tended towards a three-stage life, actually. Pretty quiet right after lube. Present and buzzing for a long time, then loud and slightly clacky -- so I relube them!

[SoCalSteve]

Well, if thats the case, how easy (or difficult) is it to relube them? Special tools? Special grease?

Please enlighten me.

Thanks,

Steve

PS: I'll look on the CK website as well. Thanks!

[coylifut]

I have a new set of wheels in garage with the latest CK hubs. Quite quiet. They've likely responded to prior noise complaints.

[Grant McLean]

Pretty much any freehub will be less noisy with more lube.

My new Eurus wheels were really loud, and a few drops of oil
and the freehub is now virtually silent.

g

[11.4]

I have a fair collection of Chris King hubs of various vintages to the present. They don't vary significantly in noise level. When the freehub is cleaned and lubricated, it's noticeably quieter. You can't use a very viscous grease in the freehub or it won't engage properly; the RingLube that they supply and recommend represents a very narrow range of acceptable lubricants. Nothing thicker is safe to use. You supplement it with TriFlow (if you follow their care instructions), but in all the lubricant will quickly get thrown off the engaging surfaces until there's only a film to protect them (which is all that's needed anyway). At that point the rear hub gets noisy (assume you aren't getting noise from the front, of course). It's not a sign of a problem -- just a byproduct of the design. If you look inside the freehub at the engagement system and the number and depth of teeth that the pawls can engage with, it's not surprising that it makes more noise. It's much more secure than most other freehub engagement systems. You don't need to clean the freehub when it starts making more noise -- it's better sealed than that. Flooding the system with their RingLube will make the freehub quieter for a little bit longer, but you'll see dribbles of RingLube escaping over time from the freehub as the excess gets dispersed. The noise is just a part of the hub design. Having had superb reliability and serviceability with these hubs, I put up with the noise.

As for servicing, two allen keys in the ends of the axles will take the axle apart and allow you to get to the bearings front and rear. With the axle out of the rear, the freehub just pulls off the hub shell. You can look inside, clean it out (spraying it out with lots of TriFlow usually works as long as you haven't really neglected it), and reassemble without any tools but the two 5 mm allen keys. You can open up each bearing set in every Chris King product by flipping up the stainless steel ring with an exacto knife and lifting out the rubber shield underneath. There are complete instructions including videos on the Chris King web site. You shouldn't have to actually press out a bearing or parts of the drive shell in normal practice so you shouldn't need their fancy tool kit -- I have one and have only used it twice in about five years.

[Too Tall]

What a pleasure to hear 11.4 clear comments as always :)
I'll add that you can spray contamination out of the splined drive ring by holding the bearings facing straight down and spray into the gaps.

Clever use of rags prevents contamination of the bearings with spray lube.

;) if you ride fast enough they are silent.