A morning tinkering around with the bike

[johnnyb47]

Hi.
As the weather is dry i thought I would give the bike a looking over today and give it a general checking over. Time flies when you're having fun and a couple of hours seemed to go nowhere. Today it was new brake blocks, a new Sram chain and and clean up and re grease. I also took the rear cassette and free hub off to inspect it. I've noticed the free hub and cassette has a a little play in it (as in the cassette) wobbles slightly. Is this normal?
After taking it apart the bearings in the free hub seem to be nice and smooth, so a meticulous clean and a dab of grease soon got it back together again.
I'm just not sure if it's normal for it to have any play? 🤔
Once back together i went on about replacing the chain. The old one was barely a year old, but at had stretched by over half a link over its entire length compared to the new one (107 links)
Splitting the chain was nice and easy and a new quick link soon had it up and running again. This afternoon promises decent weather so its a bike ride out for me for sure.
All the best,
Johnny 👍

 

[CanucksTraveller]

a new Shram chain

Sounds kosher. 😄

Nice morning's work Johnny, will you be off out for a ride on it now in this glorious weather?

 

[johnnyb47]

Yes it certainly is a ride out this afternoon.
I've got a tooth abscess at the moment which is driving me mad with pain but with a few pain killers and soom extra strength Orajel pain relief i should be fighting fit for a few miles on the bike 😉

 

[johnnyb47]

A typo I've noticed lol. I've just edited my original post to "Sram" 🤣🤣

 

[Big John]

If you took the freehub apart and 'soon' got it back together then top marks for that. I've done a few and found it to be a lesson in patience having to put back close on 70 miniscule ball bearings without losing half of them on the garage floor. You'll have to give me your secret 👍

 

[johnnyb47]

I must of been lucky this time round with the freehub lol, as it came apart and went back together quite smoothly . I went out on that promised bike ride today and did around 35 miles.
Is it me and just a placebo affect, but i absolutely flew around my route today. The last few months I have noticed a noticeable drop in my cycling speeds. I've been putting it down to just getting older as my averages have dropped off to around just over 16mph on clear traffic free longish rides. Today however the bike felt really good with quick snappy gear changes (thanks to the new chain). The bike on the whole felt so much smoother too, after re greasing everything up.
I ended up averaging 17.6 mph over the 30 odd miles, I haven't seen these kind of averages for a good few months now whilst out on my adventures.
Is this the bike being more efficient, or is it the old placebo effect.
Either way it was great to get out into the deserted countryside and enjoy the fantastic views and weather 😊

 

[rogerzilla]

Freehubs and freewheels usually have a bit of wobble, yes. The bearings are adjusted using shims, and the manufacturers generally* don't get them exactly right, as they only work under no-load conditions.

*there's no play in a White Industries freewheel with a cartridge bearing but, for the price, you'd not expect any!

 

[johnnyb47]

Thinking about it, i suppose a rear cassette with a little play/wobble in it, would help when cross chaining. The cassette would naturally deflect slightly to ease the increased angle of the chain when it's on the big chain ring and the largest cassette cog🤔

 

[rogerzilla]

Certainly on a fixed/free hub, you rarely get the same chainline both sides, so you optimise for the fixed cog. Freewheels don't chatter if the chain is > 1mm out of line, but fixed cogs do.