High-end road bikes : very noisy freewheeling - why?

[a.twiddler]

Perhaps the psychology behind it is to make riders pedal more to improve their times while enjoying the silence. No good for a chap like me who likes to freewheel a lot on a silent bike.

 

[derrick]

I swapped out an 18 DT Swiss ratchet for a 36 mainly fir the faster pedal pick up at 10° instead of the clunky pick up at 20° of the 18
How can you measure that?

 

[derrick]

My other half has some Hunt wheels, i don't ride behind her as gives me a headache, i keep packing them with thicker grease to quiet them down, it last a few weeks then the noise comes back.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

My Giant TCX is very quiet and my Trek Domane is fairly loud.

I prefer quiet tbh but can live with fairly loud.

 

[Bollo]

I have some DT Swiss hubs and they ain't quiet, but I've never thought of the noise as some sort of status symbol. I had a pair of Hunt wheels (discussed a few times on here) and they were crazy loud.

 

[fossyant]

Perhaps the psychology behind it is to make riders pedal more to improve their times while enjoying the silence. No good for a chap like me who likes to freewheel a lot on a silent bike.

I was going to say, you shouldn't be freewheeling anyway.

 

[a.twiddler]

I was going to say, you shouldn't be freewheeling anyway.

Obviously, I'm a very naughty boy!

 

[mustang1]

It's like those boy racers and their farting/popping car engine sounds. You get boy racer cyclists too ya know!

 

[vickster]

It's like those boy racers and their farting/popping car engine sounds. You get boy racer cyclists too ya know!

Yep, plastic aero bike, deep section wheels, Rapha clothing, with a brown stripe up their back in wet weather

I quite like my classy clickety Hope, Novatech and Fulcrum hubs, good for alerting peds. I didn’t like the Superstar ones though, a rather loud cheap, classless, clickety sound

 

[Andy in Germany]

Noisy freehubs have become something of a status symbol, with owners regaling others in the volume of their hubs. My understanding of the technicalities of it are that higher-end hubs have more pawls and engagement points, which supposedly improves drive take-up and torque throughput. One of my MTBs is a bit loud but my gravel bike and road bike are near-silent.

Sort of like a mobile phone ringing in your pocket back in the 1990's?

 

[Lookrider]

There's 36 ratchets do every " tooth" engaged at 10° as there 360 in complete turn
If your pedal is at 12 then you have to turn 10° before the ratchet engages and your pedal turns the wheel ....if that makes sense

 

[a.twiddler]

There's 36 ratchets do every " tooth" engaged at 10° as there 360 in complete turn
If your pedal is at 12 then you have to turn 10° before the ratchet engages and your pedal turns the wheel ....if that makes sense

Is that even detectable? When you start to pedal, the infinitesimal space taken up by oil, wax or grease between each of the pins and rollers in the top run of the chain, let alone the slight sag, is taken up before anything happens at the freewheel end.

 

[Lookrider]

Is that even detectable? When you start to pedal, the infinitesimal space taken up by oil, wax or grease between each of the pins and rollers in the top run of the chain, let alone the slight sag, is taken up before anything happens at the freewheel end.

I noticed very much
The pedals were very Clunky with 18 ratchet 20° ...they move twice as far before they engage ..and engaged with a clunk
I don't think it's to do with the chain
Put you bike in a stand and qwicky move the pedal by hand ...you will see how much it moved before it engaged the rear wheel ...the chain and chain set will move but not the wheel until the ratchet engages

 

[DaveReading]

It's like those boy racers and their farting/popping car engine sounds. You get boy racer cyclists too ya know!

Exactly - a misguided and somewhat pathetic status symbol.

 

[a.twiddler]

I noticed very much
The pedals were very Clunky with 18 ratchet 20° ...they move twice as far before they engage ..and engaged with a clunk
I don't think it's to do with the chain
Put you bike in a stand and qwicky move the pedal by hand ...you will see how much it moved before it engaged the rear wheel ...the chain and chain set will move but not the wheel until the ratchet engages

Fortunately, the nearest I've got to modern tech is Shimano 9 speed which is virtually silent and doesn't clunk!
So it won't worry me until it trickles down to me in maybe ten years.