Am I a Power-God or did I do something wrong???

[ColinJ]

Being about 2.4 metres tall and weighing 150 kgs probably doesn't help either Steve!

Actually, the worst example of that kind of damage happened to colly on our forum ride on the mini Northwest Passage audax ride a few years back. He actually forced a sprocket right through the splines so it was spinning without driving the wheel!

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

i'm not surprised on that sort of spline

 

[lulubel]

yep....fools learn by their mistakes....genius' learn off other peoples mistakes....

i'm no genius...

Sadly, neither am I, as you'll know if you've read any of my posts about the mistakes I made when building my Surly.

It was a very educational experience, though, and I'm still learning from it.

 

[Steve H]

Being about 2.4 metres tall and weighing 150 kgs probably doesn't help either Steve!

How very dare you! I'm a mere 1.96m and 106kg! ;-)

 

[ColinJ]

Looks like the lock ring wasn't tightened enough, allowing the sprockets to move about individually. When the lock ring is tightened, the whole block acts as one and spreads the load across the soft alloy free hub. When not tightend enough, the load is transmitted thru the individual sprockets allowing the pressure to dig in. Think of a stiletto heel digging into a soft floor where wide shoes wouldn't.

I converted a bike into a singlespeed using one sprocket and lots of spacers. I was aware that I'd be putting a lot of force through one part of the splines so I did the lock ring up really tight so some of the twisting force was being resisted by the spacers themselves (they were tight enough to not slip relative to each other).

 

[potsy]

How very dare you! I'm a mere 1.96m and 106kg! ;-)

Short-ar$e

 

[RecordAceFromNew]

Thanks - sounds like a sensible explanation. The lock ring did seem to come loose much easier than when I've changed cassettes before. It says 40Nm on it, which is pretty tight, so if the sprockets can move individually when the torque isn't tight enough, that would explain the result.

So is the general consensus that I can still use this freehub if I tighten my next cassette sufficiently? Or am I safer replacing it? I don't want a situation where the middle gears suddenly cut through the freehub.

I would say evidence shows that apart from him being a Power God the OP's sprockets which have dug in the notches are unconnected for one reason or another (which is somewhat unusual for stock modern cassettes where sprockets beyond the first two are usually pinned or riveted or on a spider). If I were the OP I would not use loose sprockets on this (or indeed any) alloy freehub - tightening the lockring might help, but at the end of the day the spacers are plastic and will have give and will let loose sprockets rotate.

 

[accountantpete]

The freehub is toast - new one required.

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

The freehub is toast - new one required.

Nah, I've fettled worse that have served me for years.

 

[BimblingBee]

Pretty common for that to happen. It's more so with certain freehub/cassette combos. If you decide to go down a new freehub route then all you need tool wise is a fat Allen key!